Open AccessLearning to survive: Wicked problem education for the Anthropocene age
Author(s) -
William Keenan
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of global education and research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2577-509X
pISSN - 2577-5081
DOI - 10.5038/2577-509x.4.1.1038
Subject(s) - discipline , curriculum , anthropocene , postmodernism , sociology , environmental ethics , population , global education , engineering ethics , political science , social science , epistemology , pedagogy , engineering , philosophy , demography
This article addresses major lacunae in higher education from the standpoint of Anthropocenic survival. Wicked problems transcend national, cultural and disciplinary boundaries. Eco-survival, international migration, destabilized global markets, shifts in the balance of strategic power, population pressures, cultural imperialism, post-secular quests for meaning-in-life, ambivalence of bio-scientific progress, to name a selection, are global . The case is put that features of a postmodern orientation to the academic curriculum—transdisciplinarity, transnationalism, wicked problem engagement—are better equipped to meet the fuzzy knowledge interests of tomorrow’s world than traditional mono-disciplinary curricula. However, both subject-based and transdisciplinary approaches can coexist with profit in the education of tomorrow’s global citizens. A paradigm shift in how we educate for survival is proposed here.