Inspiring the
next generation of
leaders, thinkers, and
problem solvers
next generation of
leaders, thinkers, and
problem solvers
Story
He pai te tirohanga ki nga mahara mo nga raa pahemo engari ka puta te maaramatanga i runga i te titiro whakamua.
It’s fine to have recollections of the past, but wisdom comes from being able to prepare opportunities for the future.
FutureMakers was established to encourage educators, educational organisations and communities to become more future focused.
We need to embrace the understanding that the complex issues confronting our world will likely be solved not by us, but by those we are educating, and to prepare them for this will require a transformation of our current practices, policies and the ideologies that drive these.
The work of FutureMakers begins with three key questions:
- What can we learn from the past that will help us understand how we have come to where we are?
- What might life and learning be like in the future?
- What do we need to be doing now in our schools and communities to prepare for the future?
We work with educators, educational organisations, businesses and government agencies to explore the answers to these questions and to design transformational ways of working to ensure our young people are well equipped to thrive into the future.
We do this through working with educators and community leaders to…
- Design transformational learning programmes
- Implement future focused projects
- Develop strategy and policy to support this
Vision
A sustainable future for people and the planet.
We live in a world of uncertainty and change. The planet we share is increasingly stressed as a direct result of the impact of human activity. As a consequence, the generation of young people in our educational organisations today will face far greater challenges than their parents and grandparents. These challenges will require us to find solutions and live in ways we haven’t yet imagined.
We believe that educators, and indeed, anyone who is involved in helping with the development of young minds and lives, have a primary responsibility to consider the investment they make in young people as an investment in the future of society and of the planet. As such they are more than simply teachers, facilitators or guides to learning – they are future makers! The future will literally be shaped by the decisions made by the young people we are working with.
He kaihanga ki muri.
(I am a builder of the future.)
Learn
from the past
Understanding our histories, and the things that have shaped our lives helps us see how past events have relevance in our life now. It can tell us what decisions worked in particular situations in the past and what didn’t. We can learn about the influence of key thinkers and theorists that have informed our practice as educators and it can help us understand the “why” behind the things we take for granted in our daily practice, for example…
- why do schools exist?
- why do we operate the way we do – with classes, age-based structures, timetables etc.?
- why do we have the curriculum we do?
Look
to the future
While it is impossible to accurately predict the future, we can seek to understand the trends that are impacting our lives at every level. Consider…
- environmental sustainability?
- economic influences?
- breakthroughs in health, transportation, food production etc?
- cultural diversity?
- future of work and employment?
We can then ask, “what might life and learning be like in the future?” and then consider what this means for the future of learning, of schools, of teachers and teaching.
This is important so that as educators, we are preparing our young learners for their future – not our past.
Live
in the present
It is the decisions we make and the actions we take in the present that will ultimately determine what our future looks like.
Understanding that the complex issues we face are the result of the impact of human activity can also help us understand that the solutions can be found as a result of human choices and action.
Thus we should be asking “what do we need to be doing now to prepare for the future?” as we consider…
- the design of our curriculum?
- the way(s) we assess learning?
- who owns the learning?
- the design of learning programmes and the spaces we use for learning?