We are living in an exciting, chaotic, fast-moving era with more information circulating than ever before, but what is the source and truth of that information? How do we discern fact from confirmation bias? You can google anything and have it confirmed these days – from pyramids on Mars to the American president being a member of the illuminati.
These are some of the challenges raised by Dr Conrad Hughes, the Director of La Grande Boissière: the International School of Geneva in Switzerland, the world’s first international school, established in 1924. Dr Hughes is a South African Wits University PhD graduate who has lived in Geneva since 2005.
“People worldwide are creating their own truths, and information is being used to wield power more effectively and manipulatively than ever before. Anything Trump doesn’t like, he condemns as fake news,” Hughes explains. “This is dangerous as it opens the door to conspiracy theories, which makes it difficult for educators who need to instil the notion that while there is certainly a vast, subjective continuum of knowledge and information, there is still truth and falsehood.”
On 16 October, Hughes launched his book titled Educating for the 21st Century: 7 Global Challenges. It was published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) International Bureau of Education.
“For over a decade I have been researching the theme of what types of knowledge we should be learning in the world today, which is characterised by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. I finally felt ready to answer the question through this book which investigates seven major challenges facing humanity and how educational strategies can respond to them.”
The seven challenges are: mindfulness, singularity, terrorism, sustainability, post-truth politics, character, knowledge. He summarises a few of them here:
Challenge: Mindfulness
In many so-called developed countries and in most schools, human beings are complaining about high levels of stress as they carry out hyperactive lifestyles that can become unhealthy and compulsive. There are a number of responses to this, centred on developing mindfulness, including sports and the arts as disciplines that can help the mind gain focus and decrease stress levels.
Hughes has firsthand experience of this. In addition to educating, he is in a band called Pososhok with his Cameroonian wife, Estelle. He sings and plays the guitar and Estelle sings. Their other band members include a drummer from Senegal, percussionist from Burkina Faso, guitarist from Mexico and bassist from France. Accordingly, their music is a blend of South African folk pop, Cameroonian music with accents of rock, West African influences and Mexican and European influences.
“Diversity is the essence of our band and the essence of the International School of Geneva which has learners from over 130 different cultures. Diversity opens and expands the mind and develops our humanity, which is essential to addressing contemporary challenges.”
Challenge: Singularity
Hughes says that human beings, including young people, appear increasingly attached to devices and dependent on them. What are the implications for education? “To understand this we need to grapple with definitions of intelligence, both human and artificial, and explores how human beings are operating socially and cognitively alongside algorithms and how this might happen in the future. The implications of artificial intelligence are that some areas of human activity can be outsourced by machines, giving us more time to develop facets of humanity that are uniquely human and cannot be taken over by artificial intelligence.”
One example of a uniquely human facet that requires greater focus is the need to continuously be opening, expanding and transforming our minds, prejudices and sense of being through knowledge, education and experience.
“Our school believes in an international curriculum that exposes all learners and students in the world to the diverse historical and contemporary conditions of all humankind,” Hughes explains. “This includes literature that opens new mental gateways and exposes people to different cultures and systems, including Chinese, Indian and African knowledge systems, world religions and global sustainability issues.”
Challenge: Sustainability
The planets accelerated natural resource depletion, which Hughes describes as a “time bomb”, requires immediate sustainable action rooted in a long-term, lifelong attitude change. He argues that we have to design learning experiences that ensure that young people develop a love and respect for the natural environment whilst further understanding the precious, neglected knowledge of the natural world that we can learn from indigenous cultures.
Challenge: Post-Truth Politics
Political developments in the middle of the first quarter of the 21st Century have led some to argue that truth does not mean what it used to, that we are entering a type of post-truth era where communications strategies supersede the truthfulness of what is being discussed.
Hughes says: “In the 21st Century, understanding and mediating knowledge and truth construction or the lack of it is essential in an age of sound bites and alternative, often false positions broadcast on social media. Critical thinking techniques should be anchored in a 21st Century education.”
Challenge: Character
Hughes explains that at the core of any response to the global challenges that face us “is the age-old question of a person’s character: the moral fibre that will determine the scope and style of their response to any given situation. Today’s world is fast changing and uncertain and therefore requires a particularly developed level of resolve and sturdiness. Character can be determined through three core concepts: discipline, ethics and emotional intelligence.”
As part of character building, he believes that all educators need to teach is what prejudice is, how it works and how to become aware of it. “It is part of a larger idea of metacognition, of knowing about knowing, learning about learning, helping leaners understand the process of learning and meaning-making and that their impulses and assumptions tend to be prejudiced,” he explains. “This is the first step towards reducing prejudice: becoming aware of this blind spot. It is essential in the process of becoming a critical thinker, capable of good judgement and guided by the ground rules of respect for all life and equal value for all human beings.”
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