Educating for Future[s] – A Speculative Design Approach
How could a future school in 30 years from now look like?
This design work centers around the educational concerns in the context of the Planetary Climate and Ecological Emergency. The future we are facing will reveal an altered version of the Earth, one we have not known and are not accustomed to inhabiting. How do we find positive ways to tell our children, to educate them in the face of the unknown and without ignoring our agency in the present?
Which values will be taught?
Which subjects will there be?
What will students need in their schoolbag?
The project invites children and teachers to speculate about the future of schools, listens to their wishes and visions. The concept of S E E D, the School of Ecological Empowered Decisions, builds a common ground to collectively dream of a future way of educating.
Through imaginative explorations children and teachers contributed their ideas which can be seen in the manifestation of the props. Coming along with a written story the artefacts can be used in class to address and explore sustainability issues in a child fair manner. They are designed to make the future tangible, to shed light on problematic system structures and to allow children to critically evaluate the world that surrounds them.
The outcomes of the project offer an immediate possibility to address sustainable dilemmas without extra acquisition of knowledge. The backpack is ready to be taken in class and unpacked by children and teachers.
„Your grandpa made you this school bag?“ Fatmir nods proudly. „Yes, he recycled it from the parts of an old device! A fakuuhm cleana, or something. They used it in the past to get rid off dustbunnies.“ „Bunnies? How cruel!“ Alvas excitement for the new school bag is blown away. Fatmir chuckles: „They‘re not real animals. That‘s what they used to call small clumbs of dust and dirt.“ – The world we create: A day in school thirty years from now
