The Edinburgh Futures Institute autumn 2024 events season is starting soon: Learning Curves features 20 live events, free and open to all, examining the future of education. The series includes panel discussions, poetry readings, live music and performance, as well as deep intellectual debate and discussion.
Centre colleagues led on the development of several of the events.
The Future of Education: Crisis
21st October 2024, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
In-person and online
Speakers: Yasmine Sherif, Kainat Riaz, Marjorie Lotfi
Chair: Sarah Brown
Centre director Prof Sian Bayne introduces the work of the Iranian poet Marjorie Lotfi.
Link to the event page, with registration information: The Future of Education: Crisis - Edinburgh Futures Institute
Abstract
The intersecting, planetary-scale crises we face bring new urgency to the debate about the purpose of education. Climate catastrophe, widening inequalities, conflict, pathogen spillovers, new diseases, failures of governance and technology acceleration all challenge us to ask again what education might be, and what we need it to do. The first conversation in the series will focus on education through the crises of war, emergency, unrest and exclusion. It brings together a panel of high-profile leaders and campaigners for education in such contexts and will include the opportunity to hear from students who have lived through education in crisis in Pakistan and Gaza. It will also feature the launch of a new commissioned work from the Iranian poet Marjorie Lotfi, based on the words of displaced and excluded women in Scotland.
The Future of Education: Utopia
29th October 2024, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
In-person and online
Speakers: Koumbou Boly Barry, Radhika Gorur, Joelle Taylor
Chair: Prof Sotiria Grek
Centre director Prof Sian Bayne supported the design and coordination of the event.
Link to the event page, with registration information: The Future of Education: Utopia - Edinburgh Futures Institute
Abstract
Visions for fair, inclusive and democratic education futures have long been expanded through the work of UNESCO and others. However global education policy is still powered by visions of economic growth and operates through the day-to-day machinery of measurement and performance management. This panel brings together a group of high-profile academics, activists and creatives to debate what kind of alternative education futures are desirable. What do we need to unlearn in education, as we work toward more just and sustainable futures? How might we re-think measurement and standardisation? What is the role of education for democracy in an increasingly polarized world? Can education become a living utopia, and what waystations are available to us as we build it? The event will also include the launch of a newly commissioned work from the award-winning poet Joelle Taylor.
Future Library and Futures Literacy: Making Futures from Where We Are
22nd November 2024, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
In-person and online
Speakers: Katie Paterson, Anne Beate Hovind
Centre co-director Prof Jen Ross chairs the session.
Link to the event page, with registration information: Future Library and Futures Literacy: Making Futures from Where We Are - Edinburgh Futures Institute
Abstract
To mark the 10-year anniversary of Katie Paterson’s 100-year artwork, Future Library, we gather to discuss what it means to be “futures literate”. We explore relationships between place, knowledge, imagination and time in making meaning from and engaging with different futures.
The Future of Education: AI
26th November 2024, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
In-person and online
Speakers: John Warner, Araba Sey, Ben Williamson, JL Williamson
Centre director Prof Sian Bayne chairs the session. Dr Ben Williamson, Centre Chancellor's Fellow, is a panel member.
Link to the event page, with registration information: The Future of Education: AI - Edinburgh Futures Institute
Abstract
Artificial Intelligence is the latest in a long series of high-profile technology ‘disruptors’ of education. What futures for education does it promise, and are these desirable? Who is driving the discussion about its potential? And what might it mean for the act and profession of teaching? Current debate on AI in education is intense, and often torn between competing visions of education’s social purpose. This panel brings together researchers, writers and thinkers working in the area of AI to discuss what a future of education permeated by AI might look like, what it should look like, and how it might support education for public good.
The Future of AI at School
3rd December 2024, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
In-person and online
Speakers: Louise Hayward, Ollie Bray
Prof Judy Robertson, Chair in Digital Learning, chairs the session.
Link to the event page, with registration information: The Future of AI at School - Edinburgh Futures Institute.
Abstract
How are school leaders, policymakers and teachers planning to work with AI in the classroom? What does AI mean for the way we teach, assess and understand learning and the cultures and practices of schooling? This event will bring together key figures from the Scottish education landscape to talk about AI in schools and our education futures.
The event will be public-facing, and carefully designed to provoke active discussion and debate with the audience. It will build on research taking place over recent years at the University of Edinburgh with the Data Education in Schools and BRAID research programmes and draw on the wide network of schools and sector leads who have cocreated this work . It will provide audiences with engaging insights from colleagues working with AI at the chalk-face of teaching and policy development, opening up debate to a wider public audience.
The event will be relevant to anyone with an interest in schools, schooling and education policy futures.