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Looking globally: the future of education
Looking globally: the future of education

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Week 3: How do environmental drivers affect the possible purposes for education?

Introduction

Figure 1

Welcome to Week 3 of Looking globally: the future of education.

In Week 1 of the course you were invited to consider key global drivers for change in education and in Week 2 you started to think about alternative ways of thinking about education.

In the next three weeks you will be challenged to think about alternative ways that education could respond to the United Nations’ view of the central role of education in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also introduced in Week 1:

The success of these goals is driven by the education goal. The SDGs reflect the important role of education by encapsulating targets in a stand-alone goal (Goal 4).

(Unesco, n.d.)

This SDG talks about how the education needed should be ‘inclusive’, ‘equitable’ and ‘promote lifelong learning opportunities’. This course argues that, in doing so, it will need to prepare the next generation to respond to changes affecting societies. In particular, this course presents three drivers of change which should affect how we think about the purpose for education:

  • environmental
  • demographic
  • technological.

This week you will consider the first of these: how – depending on your view of the purpose of education – should we respond to the environmental issues that are challenging societies both locally and globally? You will draw on your own experiences of educating young people in your reflections.