8–9 June 2021, online and live stream from Turku, Finland
As we move further into the 21st century, we need to renew our understanding of what it means to learn, teach, and develop new knowledge. Education systems and learning processes for people of all ages are needed to navigate uncertainty, address known problems, identify new ones, and be able to detect and make the sense of emergent issues and opportunities. The roles of education and learning are also becoming more essential in solving the pressing global ecological, cultural, societal and economic challenges. One pathway for renewal is the development of futures learning at all levels of education and in wider society.
The ‘Learning Futures’ conference creates a cross-disciplinary platform where participants can meet, share, and discuss new ideas concerning futures and learning. The conference program consists of keynote lectures, parallel sessions, participatory workshops and a chaired poster session. The conference will aim to generate multidisciplinary, stimulating and critical discussions that promote networking between people interested in futures issues from different backgrounds.
In addition to the conference we arranged a pre-event that took place on 11 June 2020 with a title “Futures Skills in a Volatile World”. This online session was open and free to all interested participants. All the materials and the recording is available on the website.
The 21st Futures Conference is organised on a theme ‘Learning Futures – Futures of Learning’ in co-operation with the Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI).
> Conference website
The forthcoming Futures Conference 2021 will focus on questions such as:
- How can the field of Futures Studies contribute to rethinking learning?
- How do we teach and learn about futures?
- What are the images of the future that shape current conceptions of the systems that generate and diffuse knowledge?
- What are the images of the future that inspire a reimagining of the attributes, role and functioning of learning?
- What are the new motivations, means and approaches to learning?
- What kinds of learning settings could there be in the future and what infrastructures and resources will be required?
- In which way are education policies changing within the future?
- What human capacities will be needed to enable sustainable futures within the limited boundaries of our planet?