プロジェクト代表者：
BAARS, Roger（Kyoto University, GSGES Senior Lecturer）

プロジェクト紹介

Project Rationale:

Global threats posed by climate change, armed conflict, and pandemics, are exacerbating a sense of uncertainty in how young people live their lives and prepare for the future. Crises and risks are likely to become major disasters if we do not prepare adequately for them. This project argues that university education should foster students’ ability to flourish in rapidly changing times. Good education should prepare students to be adaptive to rapid social, economic, and environmental changes generated from unprecedented global crises, such as climate change. In other words, an important mission of education today is to support students’ acquisition of knowledge, skills, and values in preparation for uncertain futures.

Global challenges require holistic perspectives and solutions. Disciplinary silos at universities often prevent such an approach. The example of teaching about climate change (CC) illustrates that CC is often taught in isolation – missing crucial links across disciplines. However, in order for university education to prepare students for an uncertain future, these links are crucial. Undoubtedly, holistic critical thinking and evaluation skills are essential to deal with global change. How can we educate students about non-factual knowledge and adaptive skills? This exploratory project evaluated how the challenging aspect of uncertainty is taught across various disciplines at university. Most research so far has a limited focus on one specific discipline, but cross-disciplinary work is largely missing. Using the example of climate change, this project identified current approaches and concepts in teaching about uncertainty. CC is an ideal context for “learning about an uncertain future”. Climate models, mitigation and adaptation policies, environmental economics, all include some level of uncertainty. How is this uncertainty communicated across university teaching?

Research Outline:

The research was organized into three discreet sections: (1) A critical scoping review on “teaching uncertainty” was conducted to investigate how concepts of uncertainty and climate change feature in educational research and expertise. (2) A questionnaire was distributed in university classes across various disciplines. The goal of this data generation was to critically evaluate student understandings of uncertainty as a concept and how it has been discussed or problematized (in relation to climate change) in different courses. (3) Semi-structured interviews were then conducted with university students (both from undergraduate and graduate programs) across various disciplines to investigate, in much more detail, how, from a student perspective, the issue of uncertainty has featured in course content, theory, and pedagogy. This qualitative evaluation allowed for a more in-depth analysis of challenges and solutions in climate change education (in relation to uncertainty) across disciplines. 

Outcomes:

Results from Phase 1 (scoping review) indicate that the challenges of teaching about/for an uncertain future have not been fully addressed in the literature yet. Most research outputs can be categorized into four segments: research about an uncertain future, which discusses challenges, benefits and the complexity of an uncertain future; uncertainty in relation to future career perspectives of students, with a focus on changes in working environments, future skill developments, and negative effects of automatization on labor markets; the uncertainty of science itself in relation to models, data, expert knowledge and more; and, lastly, a general discussion of pedagogical practices and challenges in educating for requirements of future workplaces. Engaging debates around “how” to teach these interconnected aspects, however, are largely missing and need further development.

Findings from Phase 2 and 3 are currently under investigation and final results cannot be shared at this moment. However, data seems to suggest that students show a very limited understanding of the complexity and challenges imbedded in the concept of uncertainty. There seems to be a strong focus on “inaction” and “acceptance” of an uncertain future, rather than expertise, skills or motivation to actively shape such future. It appears that current higher education does not successfully empower students to pro-actively shape, or intend to influence, the future beyond the immediate workplace. Another common trend in the data seems to be a general unawareness of uncertainty in both information and knowledge. Students seem to have somewhat underdeveloped skills to critically evaluate the value, origin, limitations, and political power inherent in most teaching approaches and contents/materials utilized in classrooms. 

• The first article, based on results from Phase 1 (scoping review), is currently under review and expected to be published in an international academic journal of high quality/impact.

• Preliminary results were presented at the 9th International Asian Conference on Education & International Development in Tokyo, Japan, from 27-30 March 2023.

• A second article is currently under development, based on the overall findings of Phase 2 (questionnaire) and Phase 3 (semi-structured interviews). At present, main findings have been identified and will be transformed into a manuscript for upcoming publication. An additional conference presentation of the final results is planned for later this year.

Next Steps:

It is crucial to further investigate the complex nexus between teaching pedagogies, course contents, and critical skill development in students to better understand why students are facing these current obstacles and somewhat fail to overcome resulting challenges. A practical evaluation of various scenarios for “teaching uncertainty” is necessary to develop an effective and truly transformative approach to resilient and future-proof education.