Schooling for Tomorrow Think Scenarios, Rethink Education

by OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

What happens in education today will affect the lives of individuals and the health of whole communities for decades to come. Yet educational decision-making is mostly about dealing with pressing immediate issues or seeking more efficient ways of maintaining established practice, rather than about shaping the long term. How to redress the balance? Scenario methods offer one highly promising answer. This latest volume in the Schooling for Tomorrow series goes beyond the OECD's own set of educational futures already published. It discusses how to develop scenarios and use them to address the challenges confronting policy and practice. Its chapters give both authoritative scholarly overviews and very practical lessons to be applied, including from Jay Ogilvy, a prominent exponent of scenario thinking for the business world, and school change expert Michael Fullan. Educational readers will benefit from the detailed coverage of scenario approaches from other sectors. They will be able to relate to examples of educational "futures thinking in action" initiatives in England, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Ontario, Canada. These initiatives, with OECD active involvement, have brought together leading stakeholders in fresh ways to inject long-term thinking into educational agendas. This book is relevant for the many - policy makers, school leaders and teachers - concerned with the long-term future of education.

204 pages, Paperback

First published April 21, 2006

About the author

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an intergovernmental economic organisation with 35 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. It is a forum of countries describing themselves as committed to democracy and the market economy, providing a platform to compare policy experiences, seeking answers to common problems, identify good practices and coordinate domestic and international policies of its members.

In 1948, the OECD originated as the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC), led by Robert Marjolin of France, to help administer the Marshall Plan (which was rejected by the Soviet Union and its satellite states). This would be achieved by allocating American financial aid and implementing economic programs for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II. (Similar reconstruction aid was sent to the war-torn Republic of China and post-war Korea, but not under the name "Marshall Plan".)

In 1961, the OEEC was reformed into the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development by the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and membership was extended to non-European states. Most OECD members are high-income economies with a very high Human Development Index (HDI) and are regarded as developed countries.

The OECD's headquarters are at the Château de la Muette in Paris, France. The OECD is funded by contributions from member states at varying rates.