Contributions of futures studies to education: A systematic review

Abstract

Futures studies offer a framework of ideas and guidelines that allow us to develop more productive images of the future and ways of working with it. Despite several efforts to translate this approach to different educational contexts, it is still a field under development. The main objective of this article is to present and discuss the latest international academic developments and contributions of futures studies to education. For this purpose, we conducted a systematic review of the literature using the Web of Science and Scopus databases. We considered articles published between 2012 and 2022. We started with 437 articles and after the application of the exclusion criteria, this number was reduced to 50 articles that were directly related to educational issues. The findings show that the literature included specific educational methodologies, a balance between theoretical and empirical publications, a focus on specialised journals and countries and that multidisciplinarity in education was not common with subjects outside social sciences. Moreover, we found that the predictive approach and negative perspectives were not present. We conclude that futures literacy is a key element to bringing together ideas related to futures studies in education, that futures studies contribute to changing the way of working with and conceptualising the future in education, and that they promote transformative movements. Los estudios de futuros ofrecen un marco de ideas y disposiciones a partir de las cuales desarrollar imágenes más productivas del futuro y formas de trabajar con este. Aunque existen múltiples esfuerzos por trasladar estos planteamientos a diferentes ámbitos educativos, aún sigue siendo un campo por desarrollar. El objetivo central de este artículo es exponer y discutir los últimos avances y contribuciones académicas internacionales de estudios de futuros en educación. Para ello, se ha realizado una revisión sistemática de la literatura usando las bases de datos Web of Science y Scopus considerando artículos publicados entre 2012 y 2022. Se ha contado con una muestra inicial de 437 artículos que, al aplicar criterios de exclusión, se redujo a 50 que vinculaban directamente los estudios de futuros a temas educativos. Los hallazgos muestran que las publicaciones contienen propuestas educativas, que existe un equilibrio entre estudios teóricos y empíricos, que se concentran en revistas especializadas, en determinados países y que la multidisciplinariedad es limitada fuera de las Ciencias sociales. Asimismo, encontramos que el enfoque predictivo y las visiones negativas no tienen presencia. Se concluye que la alfabetización en futuros es un elemento clave para acercar las ideas de estudios de futuros al ámbito educativo, que los estudios de futuros contribuyen a cambiar las formas de trabajar y conceptualizar el futuro en educación y que promueven dinámicas transformadoras.

Philosophy of the Future in the Context of Scientific and Pedagogical Workers Training and Artificial Intelligence Application

“…Multiple efforts have been done to explain the peculiarities of futurefocused education. According to Menéndez-Alvarez-Hevia et al (2022), the studies differentiate four characteristics of education of the future. They are the following: prediction, interpretation, criticality, and anticipatory action.…”

Postgraduate Trends in the Training of Human Talent for Sustainable Development

“…In this sense, declaring oneself a sustainable educational institution is not a simp speech that implies choosing some Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but lookin from within and taking measures to achieve them, and it is from this information that th concept of human talent arises. This does more justice at the level of the human bein However, for sustainable development, it should be noted that this notion has gained a lot of ground in economic, social and even academic discourses, assuming perhaps without much foresight, due to its excessive materialization, the reification of the human [18]. Many organizations have adopted the concept of sustainability as a mechanism to create shared values with their people, in which both the company and the various stakeholders achieve mutual benefit.…”

“…In this sense, declaring oneself a sustainable educational institution is not a simple speech that implies choosing some Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but looking from within and taking measures to achieve them, and it is from this information that the concept of human talent arises. This does more justice at the level of the human being, since it implies human development, in addition to everything related to the productivity and competitiveness of organizations, an aspect that is analyzed below from the perspective of the three dimensions (Economic, Social and Environmental [14][15][16][17][18][19].…”