I am just back from my work in Paraiba, a state in the Northeast of Brazil. I spoke with 800 public school educators, besides teachers, also managers, directors and even some politicians from small towns, along with three other well-known lecturers
Coming from a recent visit to FInland, an European developed country and a reference in education and after some days going to an underdeveloped region of the Brazilian Northeast countryside, it is evident that Futures Thinking is not one size fits all futures thinking. When we make statements like "the future belongs to everyone", or "you can create your own future", let’s first ask whose futures we are referring to. We cannot ignore the different social realities. A country like Brazil, for instance, among the countries at the top of the inequality index, where perhaps the desired future for a mother who lives in a favela in Rio is not exactly to go to the Moon with Elon Musk or to take a flying car to go to the beach. For that person perhaps what is important is having to eat, getting a roof over their heads to sleep.
To speak to such a large audience was quite significant for me and for the movement Teach the Future. There is room for all realities in the same direction: to help youth people be prepared to live in uncertain times and to take ownership of their preferred futures.