PRESENTING A FRAMEWORK FOR FORESIGHT IN EDUCATION

Nahid Naderi Beni
Dr., Faculty of Management and Accounting, Farabi Campus, University of Tehran, Qom, Iran, Email: n.naderi.b@ut.ac.ir

Abstract

Now, education systems, especially in developing countries, do not respond appropriately through educational programs to challenge future issues and problems. This gap stems from the education practitioners’ lack of awareness of the philosophical approaches to foresight and futures studies. While any deficiencies in education programs caused by a lack of approach to the future will have a lasting negative effect on the students’ and learners’ minds about the future and the society in which they live. The present study aims to present a framework for forecasting in education. This framework provides policy makers, strategic planners, and education stakeholders with the opportunity to help them map out possible and preferred futures for education. This framework shows that the process of Foresight in education is evident. The process includes Pre-foresight phase that preparatory activities are carried out for performing the original foresight. The main foresight phase: At this stage, the methods of operationalizing foresight process are carried out. Post-foresight Phase: At this stage, activities related to the dissemination of results among future policymakers will occur in a variety of time frameworks.   Three important people's capabilities for Foresight include: conceptual understanding, calculation ability, forecasting spirit and methodology. Also, the Essential Components in order to study the future in the field of education are a)philosophy (based on emphasizing the needs of society and sustainable development), b) goals (include measurement of the degree of adaptation of scheduled programs and their implementation in the future; accountability of academic units on how to use human resources, material, financial and information resources and so), c)theoretical foundations (consist of theory of the meta-system transformation, tri-component model of attitudes of the future knowledge system, model of knowledge, information and knowledge-information, d)executive processes(involves the following steps: Establishment of a bureau for futures studies in the organization; Establishment of the human resources forum on futures studies in the organization; Design of the futures studies workshop; Design and future modelling research with regard to the identified components; Analysis and completion of the model of futures studies and presentation of the report ; Evaluation, and finally reengineering systems (it should be implemented with regard to developments in education at the national and international levels).

Keywords: Education, Futures studies, Foresight, Conceptual Understanding.