Communicate Conference 2012:The next ten years for people and nature

Keri Facer

The next ten years? Living with environmental change

BUT ALSO…Technological change that changes ideas of agency –Augmentation, large scale systems, data

Demographic shifts – aging and mobility

Low economic growth and increased positional competition – esp middle classes

We need to Act now to mitigate environmental impacts and prepare for adaptation

Learn how to harness and live wisely with our technologies

Build intergenerational and social solidarity

Develop new models of economic resilience beyond the ‘formal’ economy

Why do schools matter in all this? • One of the last public (just about)

services left in every community

• An institution that large numbers of people have a stake in

• A critical resource in developing the powerful knowledge to help us understand these problems

• Significant resources – young people, staff, buildings, land, expertise, infrastructure

• Track record in changing expectations of what counts as ‘good’ in the world – e.g. human rights & mass education

What are schools starting to do? • Recognise their own powers and

unleash them– Resources, Students, Staff , Spaces/Land

• Beyond schizophrenia towards ‘educated hope’ (Giroux) & ‘non-stupid optimism’ (McWilliam)– Learning that Matters, Learning Futures,

Critical Mathematics, Todmorden, Apps for Good, Landless Workers Movement, Intergenerational learning (Comp Clubs/Reading Mentors)

• Build robust relationships and partnerships with other people working in the same direction– e.g Co-operative Education Movement;

Whole Education, SEED, Transition

How might the community help?

• Remember schools are important – not just in terms of young people ‘learning about the environment’ but as resources for communities and for social change – and that they are changing

• Challenge the trend towards for-profit schools and universities

• Challenge the trend to disconnect school leadership from place

• Recognise that schools can’t do everything and mobilise the city’s own resources in support of them– 80 x 18 project – starting Bristol 2012

Thank you for listening

@kerileefKeri.Facer@bristol.ac.uk

For more elaborated discussion of these issues see:

Facer (2011) ‘Learning Futures: Education, technology and social change’ (Routledge)

Sources & Inspirations:

Wrigley, Thomson & Lingard (2012) ‘Changing Schools: Alternative Ways to Make a World of Difference’ (Routledge)

Fielding & Moss (2010) ‘Radical Education and the Common School: A democratic alternative’ (Routledge)

Anyon (2005) ‘Radical Possibilities’ (Routledge)