Thinking about futures literacy and the New Zealand Curriculum

How do you become futures literate? I've been thinking about the range of capabilities that people need in order to think about the future in ways that equip them for change.

This schema is work in progress and is built on the literature in the futures field and my own obervations of, and conversations with, futures learners.


Functional (Empirical)
Awareness of change over time
Capacity for understanding and interrogating data

Cultural (construction)
Understanding of what is “essential” (fixed) and why
Understanding of what is constructed and how

Critical (questioning construction)
Questioning all assumptions and constructions
Self understanding - assumptions

Integral/Multiple
Understanding, valuing and being able to use different types/orders of knowledge simultaneously
Understanding multiple modes of analysis/enquiry
Understanding and applying multiple world views simultaneously
Self understanding - assumptions, mental models, world views, values
Imagining
Capacity for synthesis (without assimilation)

It's interesting to plot these elements against the key competencies, values and principles in the New Zealand Curriculum - there's a substantial, if not complete overlap. The good news is that this means it's easy to integrate futures literacy development into almost any aspect of students' learning.