Futuring, Governing, and Farming Education. 21st century educational imaginations, their construction, and implications

Parreira do Amaral, Marcelo; Isopahkala-Bouret, Ulpukka; Järvinen, Tero

Abstract

Overview of the subject The Volume discusses current developments impacting education in the twentieth-first century. It has become common-sense to post-industrial, knowledge-based societies to emphasize the role and importance of education and knowledge in maintaining welfare and wealth standards, harnessing innovation, and securing economic growth. This emphasis on the functions of education for society, and principally, for the economy has led to substantial transformations in the education sector. The proposed volume looks into how education plays a central role in imagining and shaping the future; it attends to the shifts in the governance of education promoted/introduced in achieving the goals set, and it analyzes the tools, modes and consequences of dominant strategies to farm education, both by states and non-state actors. In terms of coverage, the Volume discusses examples from Finland that have global implications. Finland lends itself as an apt case example since it has long been a ‘reference society’ education policy and reform (Waldow, 2017, 2010; Takayama et al., 2013). The country has also critically discussed how to continue its trajectory as international reference in education quality beyond its topping global league tables such as PISA (Thrupp et al., 2023). For some time now, Finland has introduced several reforms that aim at creating a robust education business ecosystem and at actively exporting education goods and services as one of its key industry sectors (Candido et al., 2023).  The chapters compiled in this book cover a range of topics and contemporary issues with a sound mix of conceptual and empirical chapters authored by established and emerging scholars. All authors confirmed their participation.