CONTEMPORARY TRENDS
A little preamble
When I was growing
up in small town New Zealand, a Trend was like the latest hairstyle of the
newest clothing items. In school trends between age groups depends on TV or
Movies, they can be anything from cards to small toys. As globalisation has
been shrinking, trends have become a global such as house prices, fashion and
even ideologies.
The definition of a trend - According to Visser
and Gagnon (2005), the term “trend” refers to the statistically observable
change or general orientation of a general movement (Visser & Gagnon, 2005;
Karataş et al, 2016).Its trajectory is likely to continue in the near or medium
immediate future. Wilson (2012) notes on “trend” is that the changes it bring
would have impacts within the field or wider environment (Wilson, 2012).
From our studies,
we see that our small slice of paradise in the south Pacific is undergoing a
continual change, population, financial, weather and government policies. We
see that no one or country is immune for the effects of change and as the National
Intelligence Council says,” hardly any country can be immuned from the impact
of trends such as climate change or digital technology ubiquity.”
National
Intelligence Council, 2017; KPMG International, 2014
Life is a lot
faster now and by the time children of today are as old as I am now, the world will
look a lot different
In the teaching
profession change is a constant part of the job, sometimes it’s good and other
times it’s something you have to make a conscious effort. The best thing as a
teacher for me is that I have the power to help (with a lot of others) the outcomes
for that child at that time. I do my best to assist and encourage my class and
school to be their best and to reach their full potential.
The Future - Why do you need to know about this?
There are trends
taking place worldwide that would have tremendous effects on every aspects of
the society and its citizens. In this globalisation and interconnected era,
hardly any country can be immuned from the impact of trends such as climate
change or digital technology ubiquity (National Intelligence Council, 2017;
KPMG International, 2014).
After reading the
document put out by the National Intelligence
Council, it reads and looks like a
return of the Terminator.
Teaching has to more
than just AI’s (Acritical Intelligence) taking over the world of the middle class,
while the others become slaves to the machines. We have opportunities to use
technology for what it was designed to do – make our life easy and to have more
time e.g a washing rock was replaced by a washing machine, petrol cars will be
replaced by electric cars. We can spend quality teacher time with our students
designing the future NZ, making it better for all. We need to preach hope into
these lives we have in our classrooms not doom and gloom. Reality is that some
of the things described in the Nat Intelligence paper might happen but I haven’t
got the time to wait for it.
We are Kiwi’s - Kia Kaha !
Quite a bit in there to think about Paul.
ReplyDeleteI think a point you raise is that even though the world is changing and that what today's children will see when they are our age, we can't loose site of teachers doing the best they can to equip the students for the life they may lead. Nothing will out weigh the importance of good quality teachers.
Its our role as teachers not to change the quality of our interactions or our professionalism, but to stay up with the latest trends and help ease future transitions.
We can't help our students if we are too scared to step into the unknown, but at the same time we are no good either if we rush blindly after every trendy trend that may or may not fizzle out.
Thanks Paul for your challenging thoughts.
Amanda
Hi Amanda - After reading the National Intelligence Councils report it's seems to be a negative picture of the future but that's their job- like you said nothing will out weigh the importance of good quality teachers and that's the key to the future.
ReplyDeleteI think with our societies number eight wire mentality we will just do and move on to the next challenge.
Nga mihi
Paul