When planning curriculum, educators often confront the difficult task of predicting what the future might hold for their students. What new technologies might emerge? What type of job environments might they encounter upon graduation? Will they be prepared for the world of tomorrow? In the September 1989 issue of Educational Leadership, professor Harold Shane looks ahead to the 1990s, wonders what's in store, and brainstorms ways teachers and administrators can meet the challenges ahead.
Read the article: Educated Foresight for the 1990s (PDF)
Shane advocates "educated foresight," a concept he describes as "the ability to understand the variety and nature of rapidly germinating techno-social climates." To address these "global and national developments" of the 20th century—including, by Shane's estimation, the AIDS epidemic, population growth, and the increase of single-parent homes, among other factors—he predicts schools will change in fundamental ways. They will expand to include younger and older students, reconsider traditional scheduling, and refocus attention on language and mathematics.
As a look back at one educator's predictions for the 1990s, Shane's article is a fascinating read. His approach to understanding and predicting what the future might hold is still relevant over two decades later. What sorts of challenges do educators face at the beginning of 21st century? What are we doing to address them? Tell us on the blog.
In "My Back Pages," we look at important issues through the historical lens of the Educational Leadership archives. ASCD members can access to EL issues from 1943 to the present by signing in to ASCD's Web site.
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