Their purpose is to prompt thinking about the challenges that teacher educators may face in the future.

Scenario 1 - An extended market for education

Consumers having become increasingly critical of public services and institutions, the market-place now offers effective solutions to questions of educational provision, both at school and in the work-place. Funding and regulation favour a wide diversity of education providers, some commercial, others community-based. Public/private partnerships between schools and private-sector producers abound, jointly creating high-quality learning products. Consumers – parents and businesses as well as the learners themselves – exercise real power in this market-place and so have a direct influence over what is learned and how it is assessed. People tailor-make education to suit their own needs, shopping for learning products on an ever-more sophisticated internet. The private sector can now sell individually-designed learning products to every learner who can afford them. While traditional curriculum structures have declined, the emphasis on ‘learning how to learn’ in preparation for a place in the knowledge economy has strengthened.

Scenario 2 - Learning networks with a diversified workforce

Satisfaction with schools having declined as ever-more sophisticated ICT has made the networked society a reality, learning is now flexible, personalised and informal. Admittedly, some schools remain, but largely for socialising purposes. Much learning occurs at home, using commercially-available software. A prized skill is the ability to take responsibility for identifying one’s own learning requirements and finding appropriate ways of meeting them. Therefore, under the supervision of a ‘learning coach’, learners actively manage a huge resource available over the internet, learning at their own pace, in their own time and in their own environment, all in preparation for the labour market. Demarcations between teacher and student, parent and teacher, education and community, blur. Learning professionals, expert in diagnostic assessment and the planning of learning programmes, work for many clients.

Scenario 3 - Schools as social centres

Schools are the most effective bulwark against the social fragmentation and the crisis of values threatened earlier in the century, having established a clear collective purpose which has tempered the selfish individualism prevalent in the wider society. They provide the opportunity to shape the identity and condition of their community. Adult and continuing education and training is integrated into initial schooling, the community taking an active part in the school’s work, supported by local businesses protective of the social integrity of their future markets. Parents, encouraged by the broader climate of self-reliance and individualism, extend the control they are increasingly taking over the rest of their lives to the education provided for their children in the local community. Many see the neighbourhood school, open day and night, as a social anchor and the fulcrum of community activity. The focus of learning is broad, with explicit attention given to non-cognitive outcomes, values and citizenship. A wide range of adults work in the schools, sharing the education of the young with professional teachers.

You can read fuller re-workings of the scenarios on the JET (Journal of education for teaching) website or by downloading them (see right).