One thing that struck me, right from the very beginning of my Mindlab postgrad journey, delivered WAYYY back in week one, was a re-evaluation and exploration of what the purpose of education was. Gert Biesta, in particular, made me stop and think about how I viewed education. See post one and post two if interested 😊.
In Being at Home in the World- Gert Biesta describes a view on the purpose of education and I wrote: From what I understand, of what he is saying, is that current education system is very 'ego-logical' putting individuals and their wishes and desires at the heart of education- which looking at the bigger picture of society, fuels consumerism, selfishness, domination and difference over others. He went on to say when we focus on individuality and difference in education it can have the undesired effect of isolating and forcing comparison on to our students. This builds up walls and that sometimes, this focus on individuals and identity, and can, in fact, build barriers to learning and lessen our connectedness with each other.
The purpose of education, Biesta proposes is to: Fuel the desire for students to want to live in the world in a grown up way. Grown up, meaning a sustaining, connected member of our world. Where the person isn't the center of the universe but the world is. World Centered education... He poses a serious question: Is what I desire, desirable? This disruptive and powerful question has far-reaching consequences for education and society. 'Education stretches above learning.'
So.. what does this have to do with Global Trends in Education? Well, I think everything- but an interesting paradox emerges. If the goal is for people to live in the world in a grown-up way as described above, does there need to be a shift away from the more individualistic and 'self''centered education system that we currently have or are moving towards? As our world population expands exponentially in the coming years, Pearson (2013) described increased demands on education to meet a wider range of needs, to be easy accessed, highly effective, personable and scaleable. So this would require education en masse yet adaptable and individualistic. To meet this demand technology will have to play a huge role but how does this affect how learning occurs, what learning occurs and what role do teachers play in this? Again the paradox arises.
So what? How does this impact students in the classroom we teach in today?
We may believe that we are far removed from the wider world here in New Zealand but as our students grow into adults they are going to be living in this world with a complexity that we have never had to experience. "In this globalisation and interconnected era, hardly any country can be immuned from the impact of trends..." (National Intelligence Council, 2017; KPMG International, 2014). Population growth, the increased consumerism from an increased middle class, resource scarcity, climate change and the broadening of the gap between rich and poor all need a future force of citizens willing to face these problems and put what Biesta says is 'ego-logical' education and aims aside for the global good. We need to give our students opportunities and learning experiences that will help equip them for this future. 21st century skills of collaboration, communication, innovation, problem solving and flexible thinking and so on, need to be explicitly taught so our students can work with these issues and help meet the demands these issues bring up.
Now what?
The 'what' and 'how' things are learned is no longer solely up to schools. As I have gone through my Mindlab journey, I think 'connection' is at the heart of what our students need and I need to reinforce this a lot more in our learning environment. Connection to people, to our local area, to whanau, culture, to our country, to each other, to the land, across culture, socio-economic status, to the future and to the past. If students are able to act locally and make a difference in the communities they are living in they are also acting globally. I want to make sure I bring that into the classroom.
If we are able to teach in a way that is connected and sustaining, as Gert Biesta describes, then maybe we will prepare our students for this future of great challenge but also of great opportunity. The barriers that stand in our way are ourselves. We need to be more open and risk taking in our teaching, open our classes up to the communities around us and get involved. Get connected. We need to allow our students to have more say and take more direction over the trajectory of their learning- partnerships; prepare students to be able to meet the demands the educational trends will have on their futures.
References:
Abup talks - Gert Biesta - "Being at home in the world". (2015, October 18). Retrieved April 01, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUXSxGD8WmE
Adams Becker, S., Cummins, M., Davis, A., Freeman, A., Hall Giesinger, C., and Ananthanarayanan, V. (2017). NMC Horizon Report: 2017 Higher Education Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
OECD. (2016) Trends Shaping Education 2016, OECD Publishing, Paris. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/trends_edu-2016-en
Pearson. (2013, April 26). Global trends: The world is changing faster than at any time in human history. [Video].Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdZiTQy3g1g
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