Education 50 years from now

I was asked to join a small team by the principal to come up with some ideas for a 50 year plan for the UAE ministry of education. They posed the following questions

1. How will education look like in the UAE in the next 50 years?

2. What can we do to achieve this vision?

3. In particular what can we do to achieve this vision in the first 10 years?

As we discussed some marvelous technological advances such as nanobots, plugging your brain into a cloud, we realised that many of the ideas were in fact already being done by some schools or would be within the next 10 years. Evidence already exists of flexible timetables, multiage groups, hybrid schools, artificial technologies, adaptive learning solutions, removal of discipline specific course such as language, maths and science, robotics, 3D printing, buildings and spaces which respond to the natural world such as Al Bahar towers in Abu Dhabi which won the LEED award. Stretching your brain half a century into the future is a lot more tricky than you think because you don't know what you don't know! Sudden unexpected global shifts and crises are inevitable. The only thing we can be sure of is that we don't know how or when the next pandemic may hit or what major political or social movement with a # might kick into action. What stood out to us what that for most of these things to happen the culture of schools and national policies needed review to embrace these changes. Reading Hugh Lauder I was reminded of the Cultural Turn, how politics of difference and identity came to the fore and I wonder what possible cultural turn might come next. Will it be based on sociological theories such as those of Foucault or might it be driven by technological advances and who controls them or if indeed technology will have the power of us? Lauder ponders points to how the boundaries between everyday life and education are collapsing, the current school closures resulting in e-learning is a perfect example. As we face a return to normality I also wonder what elements of this collapse will continue, teachers I have talked to are already saying they will do things differently when they get back to school. Many of them have been dragged into the 21st century but post covid they now have technology skills ready to set the scene for change. It is said if you spend too much time thinking of the future you will feel anxious, for a brief while this morning I was not anxious but incredibly excited at the prospect of what can and will change 50 years from now. What a privilege it will to be able to live through these changes and contribute to the future.