Sue Grieshaber (PhD)Chair Professor and Head, Department of Early

Childhood EducationHong Kong Institute of Education

My backgroundEarly childhood and primary classroom

teacher for 13 yearsTeacher educator and academic since 1990Now Chair Professor and Head, Department

of Early Childhood Education, Hong Kong Institute of Education

Overview Human capital theoryPostdevelopmentalismFutures education4 questions about futures education and

ECEDConclusion

Human capital theoryHuman capital

theorists support investing in the early years because of the perceived benefits to society later e.g.:better educated

people; which means higher rates of employment and fewer families living in poverty

However, human capital theorists are not concerned with social justice and equity: “poverty is only a problem when it generates additional costs that could be avoided” (Penn, 2010, p. 53)

Post-developmentalism Western child

development theories have colonized ECE in many countries in the world

Western ways are not necessarily the best for all children everywhere

Post-developmentalism: ideas and practices that question and challenge child development discourses in ECE (Blaise, 2010)

Futures: thinking about the past and present…

• Close your eyes for a moment: imagine that the future does not exist; only the past and present

• Was this easy or hard? Why?

• We anticipate future events and talk about them because it is a way of ordering the “present and giving meanings to the past” (McHale, 1978, p. 5)

•

Thinking about the future… When we imagine the

future, we think about what we would like and what we would not like to happen

Think about your preferred possibilities for ECE in your local area: what would you really like to happen?

Is introducing the “future” to ECE justifiable?

Yes, because we cannot have more of the same…

Capitalism, industrialization, imperialism, colonization have brought ‘progress’ but also done much damage to the planet and produced human suffering

Aim: ecological sustainability and peaceful coexistence

Futures education Aims to help

students “think more critically and creatively about the future”

Increases understanding of economic, social, political and cultural influences which shape people’s ideas about personal, local and global futures

Develops skills, attitudes and values which encourage foresight and enable pupils to identify probable and preferable futures

Works towards a more just and sustainable future where welfare of people and planet are of equal importance. (Hicks, 2014)

Futures education

Enables pupils to understand links between their own lives in the present and those of others in the past and future (Hicks, 2014)

Where have we been; where are we going; where do we want to go in ECE?

3 important thinking points for futures education• What could

be? (possible)• What is likely

to be? (probable)

• What ought to be?(preferable) (Bell, 2012, p. 73)

2 questions What futures contents are appropriate for ECE?What approach is appropriate to teach and raise young children about the future?

For the world they have inherited, children need “relational and collective dispositions, not individualistic ones” (Taylor, 2013, p. 117) (not developmental psychology)

Emphasize children’s relations with others in their worlds: human and more-than-human

Relational and collective inquiry…

educators and children investigating their inherited worlds (human and more-than-human), including “where they are, who and what is there with them, how they all got to be there, the different kinds of lives that are lived and stories that are told there, and where they and others fit within these interconnected lives and stories” (Taylor, 2013, p. 123)

Ethically, collective pedagogical inquiry involves

Educators exploring with children the everyday and longer term “challenges of inheritance and coexistence” (Taylor, 2013, pp. 123-4)

Children and educators “acting together with the others with whom they share these worlds, to… collectively create the best possible enmeshed future” (Taylor, 2013, p. 124)

What is needed for ECED; for academics, researchers, educators, teachers and parents to be responsive to the future – which/whose future should be responded to?

Curriculum decisions are proactive and identify possible, probable and preferable futures

Plan curriculum according to identified preferable futures

Indonesian ECE curriculum: a centre approach “…based on national education objectives, the vision and mission of an ECE/ECD institution, the parents’ expectations, and the children’s needs. The curriculum is prepared by educators as a reference for the learning process” (SEAMEO INNOTECH, n.d., p. 64).

Flexible: “changes are possible in accordance with current conditions (i.e., emergent curriculum)” (p. 64).

Adaptable: The curriculum can be adapted to “local cultures and conditions” (p. 64).

Links to children’s lives: “learning must be meaningful and must support the children’s lives” (p. 64).

Content and learning areas

Content/learning areas for Indonesian ECED are socio-emotional, cognitive, language, soft and gross motor, and religious/moral values

Aesthetic/creative and technological areas are not named: these are important aspects of learning (Kalantzis & Cope, 2012)

However, early childhood centres Paud Istiqlal (Jakarta) and Paud Alam Pelopor (Bandung, West Java), have arts and creativity centres and both use educational toys made from natural and recyclable materials (SEAMEO INNOPTECH, n.d., pp. 65-66)

Conclusion Futures education is important because

Children can learn about how to live peacefully in a world that is troubled and characterized by difference; and about how to preserve and restore a damaged planet

In this context, what is Possible for ECE in your local areaProbable for ECE in your local areaPreferable for ECE in your local areaAnd what is the best way to proceed?

References Bell, W. (2010). Foundations of futures studies: History, purposes, knowledge.

Human science for a new era (Vol. 1). New Brunswick NJ: Transaction Publishers. Blaise, M. (2010). New maps for old terrain: Creating a postdevelopmental logic

of gender and sexuality in the early years. In L. Brooker & S. Edwards (Eds.), Engaging play (pp. 80-95). Maidenhead, England: Open University Press.

Hicks, D. W. (2014). Teaching for a better world: Learning for sustainability. Accessed 12 April 2014 from http://www.teaching4abetterworld.co.uk/futures.html

Kalantzis, M. & Cope, B. (2012). New learning: Elements of a science of education (2nd ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press.

McHale, J. (1976). The emergence of futures research. In J. Fowles (Ed.), Handbok of futures research. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Penn, H. (2010). Shaping the future: How human capital arguments about investment in early childhood are being mis(used) in poor countries. In N. Yelland (Ed.), Contemporary perspectives on early childhood education (pp. 49-65). Maidenhead, England: Open University Press.

SEAMEO INNOTECH. (n.d.). Quality assurance in early childhood care and development (ECCD) in Southeast Asia. SEAMEO INNOTECH Regional Educational Program. Accessed 25 March 2014 from

Taylor, A. (2013). Reconfiguring the natures of childhood. London and New York: Routledge.