Module: Futures Thinking & Futures Studies

Module Specifications.

Current Academic Year 2024 - 2025

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Date posted: September 2024

Module Title	Futures Thinking & Futures Studies
Module Code	ED9036 (ITS) / EDU1015 (Banner)
Faculty	DCU Institute of Education	School	STEM Ed, Innov, Global Studies
Module Co-ordinator	-
Module Teachers	-
NFQ level	99	Credit Rating	15
Pre-requisite	Not Available
Co-requisite	Not Available
Compatibles	Not Available
Incompatibles	Not Available

Coursework Only

Description

The Education 2030 plan (UN General Assembly 2019) positions Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as pivotal in enabling students to respond to the challenges articulated within the Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs) in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A core competency foregrounded within ESD is the development of anticipatory forms of thinking, referred to as ‘Futures Thinking’, that enables students to investigate, forecast and prepare actions for possible, probable and preferred futures. Through futures thinking approaches implemented within this module, students will be enabled to critically consider and plan for a range of differing futures that respond to global developments and challenges within and beyond those outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The existence of a predictable, singular future for all will be challenged within this module through the adoption of a critical orientation to the past and the present and the generation of a range of alternative visions for ‘the future’.

Learning Outcomes

1. Discuss the origins, core concepts, key theorists, current debates and developments in futures thinking and futures studies.
2. Differentiate between ‘wicked’ and ‘tame’ sustainability-related challenges.
3. Identify and appraise signals, drivers and trends with regard to sustainable and unsustainable ways of being, working and living in the past, and the present.
4. Critically examine assumptions underpinning and trajectories towards possible futures.
5. Create and critique scenarios and forecasts for sustainable futures
6. Interrogate differing visions of ‘the future’ - possible futures, probable futures, and preferred futures, to enable decision-making on the most plausible future/s.
7. Devise and present plan/s of action for the enablement of preferred futures.
8. Critically examine and discuss the conceptual lineages that underpin methods for generating possible, probable and preferred futures.

*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Workload	Full-time hours per semester
Lecture	6	Formal input by module coordinator and lecturers in lecture/ seminar format
Workshop	18	Participant engagement in interactive workshops
Directed learning	35	Focused engagement with core readings
Online activity	36	Participant engagement in synchronous/ asynchronous activity
Independent Study	150	Reading beyond core readings
Assignment Completion	130	Completion of prescribed assignment.
Total Workload: 375

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Historical Context:
Students will be presented with and engage in discussions on the origins, core concepts, schools of thought, historical developments, current debates, key theorists, and agents in the fields of futures thinking and futures studies. Students will furthermore engage in discourse on the application of futures thinking and futures studies across different academic disciplines, and within and beyond the lifespan of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Wicked versus Tame Challenges:
Students will engage with discourses on tame and wicked challenges across a range of contexts and settings. ‘Tame’ challenges have fairly obvious and straight forward solutions, that have been tried and tested across a range of contexts and settings. ‘Wicked’ challenges, such as poverty or climate change, in contrast are perceived as difficult or impossible to solve due to their complexity, ambiguity, interconnectedness with other problems, and grave repercussions (such as a threat to human existence) if left untreated. Students will examine ‘wicked challenges’ such as the current climate emergency through exploration of factors including industrialisation, capitalism, and colonisation.

Mapping, Anticipating and Timing the Future:
Key themes such as concepts of time, alternative futures and human agency are presented and discussed in more detail. Students engage in exercises that enable them to examine historic trends in our ways of being, working and living vis-à-vis sustainability through environmental, socio-cultural, political, and economic lenses. Students further learn how to identify and analyse signals and drivers of change in the present, and critically consider what this may mean for the future.

Deepening, Creating Alternatives and Transforming for the Future:
Students engage various forecasting approaches, such as the Foresight-Insight-Action or Futures Triangle, to imagine and generate ‘futures scenarios’ that articulate their visions for the future. Furthermore, students learn how to interrogate these futures scenarios using analytical tools to discuss these critically. Finally, student learn how to back-cast from the future, and plan action roadmaps to the most plausible or preferred future/s.

Assessment Breakdown
Continuous Assessment	100%	Examination Weight	0%

Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Course Work Breakdown
Assignment	In groups typically of 3-4 members, generate three futures scenarios (probable, preferred and alternative futures) relating to any ‘wicked’ challenge, and plan an action roadmap towards the preferred future scenario. The three futures scenarios and action plan will be creatively captured and presented using digital media (such as video clips and graphical maps). These will be accompanied by an essay (up to 3000 words) critiquing the use of futures thinking approach/es in the context of education for sustainability.	80%	n/a
Presentation	Individually, each group member will present on one preferred futures scenario and explain the plan of action for enablement of this preferred future. Furthermore, each group member will explain, discuss and critique the methods and conceptual underpinnings for generation of multiple possibilities/ futures.	20%	n/a

Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories: Resit category 1: A resit is available for both* components of the module. Resit category 2: No resit is available for a 100% continuous assessment module. Resit category 3: No resit is available for the continuous assessment component where there is a continuous assessment and examination element.
* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a Continuous Assessment/Examination split; where the module is 100% continuous assessment, there will also be a resit of the assessment
This module is category 1

Indicative Reading List

Andersson, J., (2018).: 0, The future of the world: futurology, futurists, and the struggle for the post cold war imagination. Oxford University Press, New York, NY.,
Bell, W., (1997).: 0, Foundations of Futures Studies: Human Science for a New Era. Vol. 1, History, Purposes and Knowledge. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, N.J. (chapter 2),
Bell, W. (2009): 0, Foundations of Futures Studies I: History, Purposes, Knowledge. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.,
Boulding, E., and Boulding, K. (1995),: 0, The Future: Images and Processes. London: Sage.,
Conway, M. (2006),: 0, An Overview of Foresight Methodologies, Thinking Futures, Sydney. Available at: http://www.forschungsnetzwerk.at/downloadpub/An-Overview-of- Foresight-Methodologies1.pdf [Accessed July 2019],
Dator, J. (1979).: 0, The Futures of Cultures and Cultures of the Future. In Marsella et al. (eds.), Perspectives on Cross Cultural Psychology. New York: Academic Press.,
Freire, P. (1994).: 0, Pedagogy of hope. New York: Continuum.,
Gidley, J.M., (2017).: 0, The Future: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. (chapters 2 and 3),
Hopkins, R. (2012): 0, The Transition Companion. Dartington: Green Books,
Masini, E., (1993).: 0, Why futures studies? Grey Seal Books, London.,
Molitor, G. (2003),: 0, The Power to Change the World: The Art of Forecasting. Potomoc, MD: Public Policy Forecasting.,
Slaughter, R.A. & Bussey, M. (2006),: 0, Futures Thinking for Social Foresight TamKang University Press.,

Other Resources

59964, Youtube Video, 0, Futures Thinking Session 2 – Mapping (Pillar 1) (2016) YouTube video, added by “Metafuture”. Available at https://youtu.be/31-VxrE0O1M [Accessed June 2019], 59965, Youtube Video, 0, Futures Thinking Session 3 - Anticipation and Timing (2016) YouTube video, added by “Metafuture”. Available at https://youtu.be/VnEERBz73mg [Accessed June 2019], 59966, Youtube Video, 0, Futures Thinking Session 4 - Deepening (2016), YouTube video, added by “Metafuture”. Available at https://youtu.be/rLJ6B6sK3kc [Accessed June 2019], 59967, Youtube Video, 0, Futures Thinking Session 5 – Creating Alternatives (2016), YouTube video, added by “Metafuture”. Available at https://youtu.be/_IhSIqZYp54 [Accessed June 2019],