engleski

What children are taught about the future?: curricula analysis

This contribution explores how primary school curricula in Croatia, from the 1970s till 2011, construct the future. More specifically, what is their discourse on development? What are the positive and negative trends and visions they identify? What place does the environment have in these? The contribution is conceptually framed by Facer et al.’s (2011) discussion of how one can approach teaching about the future in terms of ‘perception’ and ‘locus of control’. The authors identify four possible scenarios on a grid consisting of ‘uncertain futures’ and ‘certain futures’, referring to ‘perception’, and ‘self’ and ‘other’ relating to ‘locus of control’. The analysis of the 1974, 1991, 1999, 2006 and 2011 curricula show that in the 1970s the future was portrayed as a socialist utopia with people having control over this future. Here the environment is constructed as key to material development with pollution as localised and fixable. In the 1990s curricula the future is portrayed as a market economy and democracy. Explicit environmental threat is central to the 1999 curriculum with fear of irreparable ecosystem collapse. Finally, in the 2000s curricula the future appears to be abandoned, hinted at in phrases such as ‘a changing and unpredictable world’. The environment becomes sidelined in constructions of development. What we see over the observed period is a movement from what Facer et al.’ (2011) label as ‘Route Map’ (a strong degree of confidence in a particular future and subjects perceived as having control over it) to ‘Into the Mist’ (future as undetermined and subjects perceived as not having control over their trajectory). Put differently, we see a movement from a utopian to an anti-utopian discourse. The contribution concludes with the implications of these findings for degrowth.

futures thinking; education; curricula; degrowth

nije evidentirano