Pedagogies of the futures: Shifting the educational paradigms
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Pedagogies of the futures: Shifting the educational paradigms Jelena Cingel Bodinet 1
Received: 31 August 2016 / Accepted: 24 November 2016 # The Author(s) 2016. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Abstract Focusing on an educational paradigm rooted in critical pedagogy, the socratic method, futures studies, and peace education, this essay takes the position that classrooms of the future should be transformed into safe harbors where students are afforded the opportunity to explore, deconstruct and share knowledge of themselves, their experiences, and the world in which they live. Drawing upon experience as a professor of futures studies, peace studies, and international relations, the author argues that, regardless of the subject being taught, students should be active participants in a classroom environment where the professor guides understanding primarily as an individual contributor. The essay embodies Einstein’s assertion that Bwe can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them^, by arguing that in such ‘incubatorial’ classrooms, students and teachers strive, together, to evolve their mutual understanding of the world, which, as knowledge, forms a basis for their collective reality.
Keywords Futures studies . Peace studies . Critical pedagogy . Active learning . Student-centered learning . Socratic method . Engaged pedagogy
* Jelena Cingel Bodinet [email protected] 1
Behavioral Sciences Department, San Diego City College, 1313 Park Blvd, San Diego, CA 92101, USA
Education as the key
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. —Nelson Mandela The present-day educational system was created during the industrial age [1: 13] (1760–1860) and is largely geared toward the knowledge, values, and norms of the 18th and 19th centuries. Both society and the world in which we live have changed drastically since the industrial era and continue to change exponentially. Yet, changes within our educational system are proceeding at a much slower rate. Sir Ken Robins, an internationally celebrated leader in education and author of several books, argues that the current educational system runs on outdated needs and assumptions, producing an output of students ready to tackle the challenges of a former world [1]. To achieve this end, the present system first divides students into batches, and separates knowledge into segments [2]. It then becomes the instructor’s primary role to ‘transfer’ knowledge to the student, with the expectation that the student will memorize the information and reassemble it on cue. While at times valuable, this Bbanking^ concept of education tends to create an atmosphere in which, according to Paulo Freire, Bthe people themselves (…) are filed away through the lack of creativity, transformation, and knowledge in this (at best) misguided system^ [3: 72]. Building on poststructuralism and social constructivism, as well as on Freire’s argument that Bknowledge emerges only through invention and r
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