Future scenario building and youths' civic insights
Original version
Ringvold, T. A., & Digranes, I. (2015). Future Scenario Building and Youths’ Civic Insights. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference for Design Education Researchers (p. 800). http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.2904.6880Abstract
This study considers whether future scenario building in designeducation can serve to increase students’ civic insights regarding sustainabledevelopment. A school project, 'Build Your Own Future’, including 7th graders’work and interviews, forms the empirical basis for this study. The research isplaced within the framework of critical realism, and the research strategy isdeveloped and executed through the principles of action research, where theknowledge resources and changes in attitude among students are explored. Thefollowing research question is addressed in this project: Can working with futurescenario building, taken from industrial and product design, contribute tomeeting society’s demand for empowerment and reflective citizenship? In theinterpretation of the empirical material, several types of learning and insightsthat can contribute to this were identified. This paper explores how studentsshowed a willingness and desire to change the future positively, and how theysaw opportunities and possibilities by imagining and shaping the unknown.