We’ve created tools and resources for educators, administrators, and learners so we can all approach the future with grounded hope, principled resilience, and embodied confidence.
The Stanford d.school is in the midst of an initiative that explores the intersection of futures, design, and equity. For the K12 group, that has meant prototyping with immersive experiences to help educators imagine and design futures of learning with their own communities. We want to push the boundaries of not just what we learn, but how we learn and when we learn.
Teaching from, with, and for the future requires a shift in mindset. Instead of teaching what is known, a futures approach to teaching is grounded in discovery, experimenting, interrogating, and wondering about potential futures. Problem solving is a thing of the past. Instead, practices such as problem sensing, problem exploring, and problem framing ask students to think about the future and helps them to develop comfort with integrative, creative, and critical thinking. These tools can help reshape education at every level. Whether you are a classroom teacher or advisor working directly with students, a school leader or administrator responsible for overseeing a program or institution, or a systems leader or policy maker contributing to a larger network of impact and change, we hope that you see this as a useful resource, a source of inspiration or provocation, and a complementary addition to your current practice.
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Each of these approaches offer new ways to engage with, learn from, and develop comfort with integrating a futures posture into our work supporting the next generation. Choose from the resources below to get started.
This toolkit is intentionally designed to be an introduction and an ongoing resource for how to incorporate futures approaches into your work. Here are at least three ways these resources can be used:
This may be your first time learning about futures approaches and mindsets. This is designed to help introduce you to some conceptual vocabulary and tangible ideas that support futures mindsets, applied practices, and learning experiences.
Throughout this Futures resource you’ll find specific ideas to help bring futures into your classrooms or strategic conversations about the future. From mini futures — sparks of “Try This” to more detailed “Featured Resources,” this site offers concrete ways to bring futures learning experiences into your classroom or strategic conversations.
The field of futures and strategic foresight has been around for decades, and is also expanding quickly. This online toolkit offers additional resources, organizations, and networks related to futures to help deepen and expand your practice.
