Possible futures of higher education in Latin America: Diverse perspectives, tensions and opportunities

• In Event: Latin America’s pressing education challenges and possible futures: New privatization trends, public education for all, sociolinguistic tensions, and migration crises

Proposal

In the current context of rapid social, political and technological change universities must be protagonists in the construction of desirable futures for education. This collective reimagining stems from external pressures that raise questions around the relevance of higher education in an increasingly uncertain and changing world, its ability to connect with and respond to evolving labor market needs and broader global challenges such as climate change, threats to democracy, and increasing inequality. While contemplating alternative futures of higher education we are keenly aware of pending historical challenges in the sector such as unequal access, uneven quality, exclusion, asymmetries in research production and knowledge circulation, and colonial legacies in curriculum. We ask what these tensions, trends and opportunities portend for the future relevance and sustainability of higher education institutions and systems in Latin America (Unesco IESALC, 2021; Pardo Kuklinski, 2023).



This paper presents an overview of a book project that presents diverse perspectives that reimagine possible futures of higher education in Latin America. The book project includes over 20 individual submissions from diverse authors from Latin America including university leaders, professors, researchers and students. The perspectives presented were collected through an open call for papers and through direct invitation. The presentation will highlight recurring and emerging themes across the chapters such as educating for uncertainty, pedagogy and artificial intelligence, personalization of learning and data analytics, new technologies and the democratization of higher education, and engaging with non-traditional audiences, human-centric design of digital education, the role of research in future universities.

Author

• Jorge G Baxter, Universidad de Los Andes