Stories from the future of lifelong learning: fiction, technology and speculative pedagogies

Abstract

Speculative fiction approaches have been growing in importance in educational futures research over the past decade, but the speculative work of students themselves has been relatively neglected, and pedagogical approaches for fostering divergent thinking in this work has been under-explored. This article makes the case that attention to university students’ creative and critical engagements with speculative fiction writing has much to reveal about possible futures for educational technology, and the nature of speculative pedagogies. Focusing on a case study of an assessment design that engaged speculatively with the future of lifelong learning and the practice of heritage thinking, it examines the nature of technology in students’ fictions about lifelong learning. It argues that bringing heritage thinking together with speculative fiction-writing can help unsettle the landscape of digital futures by counteracting the closures and static visions of technology futures that dominate educational discourses.