Alex Battison, Senior Deputy Head at Lord Wandsworth College talks about how we are living in an immensely challenging world.

We are living in challenging times, described by the American military term ‘VUCA’, Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous.  Aside from the recent pandemic, issues include widespread and radical social inequalities, the exponential growth in computational processing capacity, energy, mineral resource and climate change. This is set against a backdrop of increased artificial intelligence, an ageing global population, the rise of globalisation and migration, multiculturalism and weakening civic engagement.

Over the course of my career, I have focussed on how we can re-imagine education for the future so that our young people can thrive in meeting these challenges head on; I am not convinced that our educational system is sufficient for the times in which we live.

The origins of the way schools are designed and have been sustained are well documented, the narrative within schools that I would like to focus on, is the current status quo of preparation.  Schools the world over talk of preparing young people for their futures, a future that is going to happen to them, as if they should batten down the hatches, wait for the storm to hit, and then see if they can navigate through it.  However, I passionately believe that a revolution in schools should be driven by a mindset of creation; of enabling young people to view their futures as something that they can directly affect, influence and lead.  It is this mindset that we need to change and our educational system will follow.

Students must approach their futures with hope, that they face their lives with a purpose underpinned by their ABCs of ‘ambition, belief and courage’.  In spite of the world being VUCA (and who doesn’t like a challenge anyway!), it is also an amazing place full of opportunity, joy and vibrancy that needs inspirational young people to exert their influence on with schools enabling them to do so.

Motivated by this mindset, this series of articles will be about trying to re-imagine education as a site for realising the relentless potential of our young people as active agents of change.  It is about challenging the status quo, creating the spaces and structures for our young people to act with influence, to have a voice and to meaningfully participate in schools and communities.  It will address how we can better enable purposeful, passionate changemakers of the present who are empowered to create their futures.

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