Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College launches Learning Futures Collaboratives

Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College launches Learning Futures Collaboratives
September 13, 2022

The Learning Futures Collaboratives initiative at Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College has formally launched with five inaugural teams whose work centers on advancing the role of education to address some of society’s biggest challenges.

The initiative, funded through seed grants from MLFTC, encourages collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches that bring together experts from many disciplines to identify these challenges and their solutions. ASU faculty and doctoral students have formed five distinct teams focused on the following issues:  

  • Imagination and Futures Thinking for K–12 
  • Futures of Artificial Intelligence in Education and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
  • Designing the New American High School
  • Education, Sustainability and Global Futures
  • Learning and Educating Across Refugee/(Im)migrant Networks (LEARN)

The five inaugural collaboratives have outlined key objectives, plans and milestones to pursue scholarship, including creating a series of webinars, podcasts and in-person events with leading scholars and practitioners. All of the Learning Futures Collaboratives welcome new collaborators.  Those interested in joining the teams may explore the five themes on the updated Learning Futures Collaboratives website, and contact the designated team leads to learn more about various ways to participate.

“Our world faces significant challenges, and education has a leading role in being part of the solution through interdisciplinary collaboration, inquiry and research that has a future focus,”  said Punya Mishra, associate dean of Scholarship and Innovation at MLFTC. “The Learning Futures Collaboratives bring together ASU faculty and doctoral students, as well as those from outside the university, to prepare educators and learners to be global stewards as we address accelerating changes in technology, demography and our physical and social environments.”

The initiative is aligned with MLFTC’s core value of Principled Innovation ™, a university-wide framework defined as the ability to imagine new concepts, catalyze ideas, and form new solutions, guided by principles that create positive change for humanity.

“The Learning Futures Collaboratives initiative is very much at the heart of what we do as a college,” says MLFTC Dean Carole Basile. “We hope these collaboratives catalyze work that spans disciplines as we pursue research and generate knowledge that can illuminate ways to address current and future challenges in education.” 

New ideas for future collaboratives will continue to be considered. Those interested can contact Punya Mishra for more information. 

About the projects 

  • Imagination and Futures Thinking for K–12: This project involves a review of current literature for future research on the topic of futures thinking and learning. A possible outcome is to create a central clearinghouse for projects and concepts that address the need to prepare youth to think critically about and take agency for their futures.
  • Futures of Artificial Intelligence in Education and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: This project explores how artificial intelligence in education communities ensure that future technologies are human-centered and humanist in their design, implementation and interpretation.
  • Designing the New American High School. This project aims to create a national research and development center that can curate and review evidence on innovations, best practices and policies to support further research and development of the high schools of the future.
  • Education, Sustainability and Global Futures: With a focus on addressing current and future ecological and environmental issues, this project involves identifying education policies, practices, research and pedagogies with an intent to rebuild resilient and sustainable futures through K–12 education.
  • Learning and Educating Across Refugee/(Im)migrant Networks (LEARN): As global events impact the movement of people across borders, this project will explore how to create effective learning and education networks to support refugees and immigrant populations affected by economics, violence and other societal forces.