A Contemporary Issue in Education: Future
Abstract
One of the basic aims of education is to help individuals adapt themselves to their society as best as possible. However, currently the changes in social, economic, and political fields have an impact on the social structure of societies, which increases dynamism within the society. The increased dynamism makes it necessary for education both to integrate past, present, and future and to develop prospective perspectives to make individuals perceive issues and phenomena in their environment and to broaden their point of view regarding the world. It cannot be denied that educational activities have a major role on the efforts of individuals to build new perspectives and to develop new projections. These qualifications can be improved through educational programs. Thus, the responsibility should be undertaken by educational experts and teachers. This study draws the frame of future as a concept, examines the current situation of future studies, and underlines the relationship between education and future. Summary Recent scientific and technological innovations, widespread use of mass media, and unbelievably fast transportation contribute not only to the promotion of international affairs but also to rapid social changes (Demirel, 1996). These quick changes taking place in one's environment stipulate to raise individuals who can keep the pace and will not fall behind. In other words, the direction of education, which helps social adaptation of individuals, should point the future. Future: Syntesis of Known and Unknown Being a current issue, future does not necessarily mean the sale of capital and goods in financial terms. It is considered as a context of alternative future for a nation, institution, or an entire society. The concept of future became a current issue at the beginning of 2000 (Stevenson, 2001). Future is a mixture of known, unknown, and obscure matters. The ratio of these ingredients is dependent on the complexity of the field, time, and the hypotheses or predictions of the guesser (Buchen, 1999). Future is not a tabula rasa waiting to be filled out by people; rather it is an active element shaping the present. Future is ongoing in nature, and offers lots of opportunities to make guesses. Future has its own properties and laws. Future is less and more available to forecasting and knowledge than we customarily think. Future abhors excess of any kind. Future is always in high gear. Future is the receptive and knowledgeable and communicative (Buchen, 1999). There are two totally different understandings of future. One is optimistic believing that future holds magnificent opportunities while the other is pessimistic thinking that future will lead to grief and sense of hopelessness (Eckersley, 1999). Several optimists state that now the world is far from the years of cold war. Led by Fukuyama, this view states that following the American model, the world now pursues a structure including universal struggles and commonalities among nations. On the other hand, the other view, represented by Huntington, holds that ideological discrepancies among the civilizations following the cold war will lead to the third world war between the West on one side and the rest of the world on the other (Zaho, 1999). Future Studies The identity and essence of future is different from what we assign to it. Therefore, there is an urge to search for the secrets, principles, laws, and behaviors of future (Buchen, 1999). Nowadays, there is an outburst in future studies. These studies are getting involved in academic and educational programs more and more (Bell, 2000). Although future is a fairly new concept, future studies are not new; these studies date back to 1960s. All in all, future studies are quite ready to get involved into intellectual life. This will require futurists to take part in decision making processes and to gain executive roles at universities and other educational institutions. Since future studies have been growing rapidly and have been providing solutions to problems affecting a lot of disciplines in especially social sciences, now seems to be the right moment to take action (Bell, 2000). Education is a prominent institution in raising new future-oriented generations. People can learn what to do to prevent the present tragedies from resurrection in future (Masini, 2002). Futurism in education is a common focal point for all the personnel in education, and an ample amount of institutions are running commissions to investigate this subject matter. Especially curriculum designers have to be aware of the projects related with events occurring in community life because what they are concerned is a future time when school programs will still be serving students. What the role of education in social life will be in future is the first and most essential question that curriculum designers have to answer. A slight hesitation in considering this critical question would mean to abandon a major responsibility and to sustain indecisiveness (Wiles and Bondi, 2002). Future and Education There is no doubt that future should be the most salient question of education. If children are deprived of this sensitivity and qualifications, everything in education will be less valuable and harder to achieve. Education has a guiding role in forming a better future. It is the educational programs that create the opportunity to improve these qualifications. Therefore, educators and teachers are the ones to fulfill this responsibility (Eckersley, 1999). It is a stark fact that the world of future will be much different from that of present. The world of future will require individuals with much more distinct qualifications, and time will not be long enough to prepare next generations. Thus, it takes great efforts to develop aims/objectives that are appropriate to meet the need. Being among the program models regarding what to teach, futurist model involves techniques and steps such as interdisciplinary seminars, assessment of planned trends, educational acceptance to form the future, and scenario writing (McNeil, 1985). Since each school needs to have a short and a long term plan, they have to conduct future studies that form an important aspect of education. Schools without any plan or attempt on this will surely be in trouble. The world changes fairly and rapidly. Schools have to fulfill the role of a leader to shape a promising and exciting future (Marx, 2001). Necessities Should be Done for Future in Education If one wants to train students to develop a positive point of view about future, s/he has to think seriously about the activities that will accentuate this (Gidley, 1999). Schools can, and really should, exert a lot more efforts to support the young to believe that it is them who can shape the future (Eckersley, 1999). Focusing on students' beliefs and attitudes about future at schools will both contribute to their understanding of the concept of time and future and help them develop strategies to prevent negative and pessimistic attitudes about future. After all, it is stated that students perceiving future as threatening, far, and unstable are difficult to compromise with it (Page, 1998). Conclusion Education is future-oriented in nature, and should be provided accordingly. An individual should learn what s/he will need in future now (Schurr, 1989). Thus, education is a an investment for future because it transmits the values of a society to next generations (Hills, 1988). That is why future should be the main subject matter of education in schools. What schools do should be increased in to support the young to have a positive prospective perspective, to make them believe that they are omnipotent to form the future, and to convince them that they should trust themselves (Eckersley, 1999). If students are expected to develop positive attitudes towards future, then activities that will foster this aim should seriously be taken into account (Gidley, 1999). In conclusion, future studies and research should be commenced, and necessary institutions should be established in Turkey before it is too late. So, the inclusion of “Past, Present, Future” chapter to World Knowledge Teaching Program, “Dreams That Came True” chapter to Social Studies Teaching Program, and “Imagination and Mysteries” chapter to Turkish Language Teaching Program within the new curriculum re-designed and put into practice in 2004 can be considered as a significant step. It is believed that these chapters and themes will help students understand future, develop future projects, be ready for what future holds, and will improve the quality of education.
Keywords
Eğitimde Güncel Bir Kavram: Gelecek
Öz
Eğitimin temel amaçlarından biri, bireyin içinde bulunduğu topluma en iyi biçimde uyum yapmasına yardım etmektir. Ancak, günümüzde sosyal, ekonomik ve politik alanlarda meydana gelen değişmeler, toplumların sosyal dokusuna etki etmekte ve toplumlardaki dinamizmi artırmaktadır. Toplum dinamizminin artmasına paralel olarak bireylerin çevrelerinde olup biten olgu ve olayları algılayabilmeleri ve geniş bir dünya görüşüne ulaşabilmeleri için eğitimde dün, bugün ve yarının bağdaştırılması ve geleceğe yönelik perspektiflerin oluşturulması gerekmektedir. Kuşkusuz bireylerin geleceğe ilişkin farklı bakış açıları geliştirmeleri ve tasarımlar oluşturmaları, eğitimde bu yönde gerçekleştirilecek etkinliklere bağlıdır. Eğitim programları yoluyla bu nitelikleri geliştirmek olanaklıdır. Görev eğitimcilere ve dolayısıyla öğretmenlere düşmektedir. Bu çalışmada, gelecek kavramının temel özellikleri belirtilmiş, gelecek çalışmalarının bugünkü durumu ele alınmış ve eğitimle gelecek arasındaki ilişkilere değinilmiştir.
Anahtar Kelimeler
