Close encounters that foster change: What Alice Sheldon and PPE 2020 can tell us about educational futures

• Published in: Policy Futures in Education 2023-06, Vol.21 (5), p.565-575
• Main Author: Fowler, Shelli B
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Culturally Relevant Education; Diversity; Educational Change; Educational Innovation; Educational Policy; Educational Technology; Equal Education; Futures (of Society); Higher Education; Imagination; Inclusion; Interdisciplinary Approach; Praxis; Problem Solving; Sustainability
• ISSN: 1478-2103; 1478-2103
• DOI: 10.1177/14782103211052711

In the preferable educational future imagined here, the year 2030 has seen massive conceptual and structural change throughout systems of education. In the higher educational landscape envisioned only 10 years in the future, institutions of higher education have moved beyond the goals of valuing diversity, equity, and inclusion and beyond recognizing the importance of interdisciplinary curricula focused on sustainable problem-solving. It has embraced those as central tenets as it evolved into the nimble, culturally responsive, and innovative site of learning it aspired to be since the late 20th century. Our institutions of higher education are now designed to educate the adaptive creatives that all professions and future professions require (Aoun, 2017). The catalyst for this transformative change is examined, though not in predictive ways meant to determine new educational policy. It draws from the pandemic, protests, and elections (PPE) that came to define 2020, and it explores a potentially powerful metaphor from a science fiction short story by Alice Sheldon to encourage a reframing of current education praxis. The focus here is on a brief, creative exploration of a future educational scenario that need not be that far out of our aspirational reach.