Taking the 21st century seriously: young people, education and socio-technical futures

Abstract

Rhetoric about young people’s ‘ownership’ of future socio-technical change is a familiar part of much educational and political discourse. This does not, however, translate in practice into a meaningful dialogue with young people about the sorts of futures they might wish to see emerge. This paper argues that a number of social and technological developments currently being envisaged by researchers, developers, industry and politicians bring with them a responsibility to rethink the relationship between young people, education and socio-technical futures. It focuses specifically on trends in the areas of personal augmentation, digital working practices and intergenerational spaces and discusses the implications of projected developments in these areas for young people’s educational, economic and democratic futures. It argues that schools need to be cognisant of these future possibilities and need to create spaces and practices that enable young people together to understand and explore these issues. The school also is not immune to socio-technical change. The potential growth of online learning communities, the emergence of a body of adults able to participate as informal educators and the development of networked publics, in particular, have the potential to change the relationship between school, young people and society. These changes have the potential either to erode or to radically reinvigorate the capacity of schools to act as public spaces within which young people can be supported to negotiate and explore future socio-technical change.

Keywords:

• futures
• technology
• intergenerational
• public
• democracy

Acknowledgements

The Beyond Current Horizons Programme was a Futurelab project funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families and directed by the author. Steve Sayers and Richard Sandford at Futurelab were instrumental in the design and conduct of the programme. Mary Ulicsak and Dan Sutch played important roles in running the public engagement elements of the programme. Professors Sarah Harper, Rob Wilson, Helen Haste and Carey Jewitt led the commissioning of research within the four challenges and the production of synoptic reports within each challenge. A much larger number of people from both the DCSF and Futurelab contributed to the programme over the two years from 2007 to 2009. Details of everyone involved can be found at http://www.beyondcurrenthorizons.org.uk/background/people/. Any errors or omissions in this paper and the interpretation of the implications of the programme for youth voice and agency, however, are my own.

Notes

1. I use the term ‘socio-technical’ in order to foreground the social construction of technology both in its design and its use. ‘New technologies’ do not have social agency independently of social actors. In so doing, I draw upon the field of Social Studies of Science and Technology (e.g. Woolgar, 2002).

2. See the video of Obama’s speech at http://www.educationfutures.com/2010/01/07/obama-education-is-national-security-issue/ viewed 2 December 2010.

3. There is not space here to discuss the potentially radical implications of the emerging biosciences for intervention in the body. Such developments are expected in the 20 year horizon of this piece to have a major impact on treatment of specific conditions and to play a role in developing targeted pharmaceuticals. For a longer discussion of the potential impact of the biosciences in education, see Turney (2009) review for the BCH programme.

4. See, for example, the Kahn Academy, one man’s passionate project offering 10,000 online resources in maths and science, http://www.khanacademy.org/ viewed 2 December 2010.

5. See the Australian Government ‘Golden Gurus’ programme, http://www.deewr.gov.au/Employment/Programs/GoldenGurus/Pages/default.aspx viewed 2 December 2010.

6. There are some, of course, who would see this as the emergence of a new democratic learning landscape modelled after the ideas of John Holt, Ivan Illich and Paulo Freire.

7. In the USA, by 2005, 24 states had statewide virtual schools, with estimates of between 328,000 and 700,000 students enrolled in programmes. Some states have made participation in online courses a prerequisite for graduation (see Barbour & Reeves, 2009).