Declaration of future education from the perspective of posthumanism：Interpretation of the “Learning to become with the world: Education for future survival”

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Proposal

In the face of a future society full of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, UNESCO will publish a new global education on education every 25 years or so. Sexuality report.In November 2021, UNESCO will release the report " The Futures of Education: Learning to Become", which will follow " Learning to be:The World of Education Today and Tomorrow"(1972) and " Learning:The treasure within" (1996).Another milestone that has had a major impact on global education reform. " Learning to become with the world: Education for future survival "is a background report written by scholars in response to this report and its corresponding UNESCO "Futures of Education" initiative.This article is an analysis and response to the report.
This article starts from the background of the report. In September 2019,UNESCO launched an initiative with the theme of "The Futures of Education", which aims to respond to future challenges, stimulate change, and make education policy recommendations. As part of the "Futures of Education" project," Learning to become with the world " was submitted to the committee before the first meeting of the International Committee on the "Futures of Education" in August 2020. The "Futures of Education" initiative is based on UNESCO's "education equality", "lifelong education" and "Humanistic Education", and then proposes to integrate the three themes of "diversified future", "potential inspired by open thinking" and "sustainable development" into future education. The reason why UNESCO expands the theme of education is mainly based on the following three reasons. Firstly，the word "future" in the proposal is presented in the plural in English,aiming to emphasize the uncertainty and diversity of the future.The future is not a single and fixed vision. Different cultural backgrounds, economic conditions and lifestyles will lead us to different futures. Second, the initiative points out that "learning" is a continuous, evolving and lifelong process.For many people living in an environment of poverty, exclusion, displacement and violence, the future is more like a series of shrinking possibilities than a world full of hope. Third, education is the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development The key part. We still have to continue to ask questions on the road of sustainable development: in the far future, what may education become, and what kind of people education may make us become?
Next, this article analyzes the ideological basis of the report, which insists on examining education from a post-humanist perspective. This part of the discussion is based on a universal question in the academic world: can humans continue to hold that "humans are the smartest creatures in the world" and selfishly distinguish themselves from other living creatures? The posthumanism school pointed out that by removing the barriers to self-centered individualism, we can have a more complex understanding of the question of "what does humanity mean". In other words, this is an ecological philosophy with important values, namely, self and others. The sense of interconnection must include non-human others. These thoughts will lead to the loss of human's unique values and identity, which is a huge challenge for the education field, and we need to rethink the problems of education theory and practice.
After that, this article analyzes the basic essence of the report. From the perspective of text content, the report "Learning to become with the world" is mainly composed of three parts: "Education for Future Survival", " Visionary declarations for education by 2050" and "Learning to become with the world". A kind of post-humanist connotation of the times comes out. The report first pointed out the multiple existential threats facing mankind, called for the reconstruction of education around future survival, and then proposed seven educational declarations after 2050, and finally pointed out its educational practice strategies.
From an ideological point of view, the report is based on the ontological perspective of world politics and the axiological standpoint of ecological justice and restoration ethics. It re-examines the school’s teaching, curriculum and educational goals, and regards human beings and other parts of the earth as sustainable development. Overall, it is called for education to play its key role in helping human beings learn to integrate into the world from understanding the world to taking action.
This article analyzes the characteristics of the report, one is from "global" or "worldwide" thinking mode to "cosmological thinking mode", and the other is from "humanist value orientation" to "post-humanist value orientation". Finally, based on the viewpoints of the report, this article puts forward the enlightenment for China’s future education. The first is to change the thinking mode of future education research deeply. China’s future education research should be connected with the roots of China’s nature and culture; the second is to deal with To improve the relationship between education, technology and nature, use cultural philosophy to reflect on educational concepts; to use governance systems and governance capabilities in the education system; to solve the value integration between people and things at the educational technology level. The third is to build an education model based on ecological consciousness, so that ecology can be integrated with people's concepts, teaching, curriculum and other levels.

Author

• Yifan Dai, 3663 Zhongshan North Road, Putuo District