Teaching for Tomorrow: How Can Futures Studies Contribute to Peace Education?

Overview & Synopsis

There are a number of cross-curricular educational fields today that have as their focus the need to create a better world. These range from peace education and global education to education for sustainability and futures education. This paper is concerned with the first and last of these fields, and in particular the contribution that futures studies can make to the work of peace educators. Firstly, it considers the origins, principles and practice of futures studies, and secondly the application of its key ideas in futures education. Thirdly, it explores the particular importance of envisioning within this tradition and attention is drawn to ways in which the insights from futures studies can be used to underpin various notions of positive peace. (Contains 1 figure and 3 boxes.)