Key activities and media appearances of the
UNESCO Chair on Learning for Transformation and Planetary Futures
2024
May 15, 2024 – Our UNESCO Chair at University of Turku is renewed for the period of 2020-2024 adding themes of sustainability cultural transformation and heritage futures. Katriina Siivonen joins as co-chairholder and Leena Jokinen joins as co-chair. Markku Wilenius continues as chairholder and Nicolas Balcom Raleigh continues as co-chair.
2021
Our UNESCO Chair at University of Turku is renewed for the period of 2020-2024 under its new name UNESCO Chair in Learning for Transformation and Planetary Futures. The new Chair focuses on planetary futures and futures literacy capabilities in national foresight systems and innovation processes.
2020
December 8-12, 2020 We participated in organizing the Global Futures Literacy Summit with UNESCO, held fully online and inviting 7000+ participants around the world to engage with futures literacy.
March 6, 2020 We organized the third Finnish Futures Day inviting people across Finland to envision desirable futures. Futures day succeeded again to become the most tweeted topic of the day with the hashtag #tulevaisuuspäivä.
January 2020, Our text “Developing futures literacy as a tool to navigate in an uncertain world” is published in Humanist Futures: Perspectives from UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Networks on the futures of education. Paris, UNESCO.
2019
December 16-17, 2019 We participated and organized a workshop “Role of futures literacy in secondary education” at the UNESCO Global Futures Literacy Design Forum at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.
August 16, 2019 Laura Pouru presented our work on futures literacy at the Foresight Friday held with the theme “Futures Literacy and Imagining Africa’s Future” .
August 4, 2019 Markku Wilenius presented our work in an interview by Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE: Tulevaisuustutkija Markku Wilenius tietää, että 10 vuoden päästä elämme täysin erilaisessa maailmassa: “Suuri herääminen on selvästi tapahtumassa”
June 18-20, 2019 We participated and presented our work at the First Annual Symposium of the Global UNESCO Futures Literacy network, held at the University of Trento, Italy.
March 22, 2019 Futures Day was awarded as the National Foresight Act of the year by a panel consisting experts from the Finnish National Foresight Network coordinated by the Prime Minister’s Office.
March 1, 2019 We organized the second national Futures Day in Finland together with the Futures School and Futures Specialists Helsinki. This year there were more than 70 registered events and #tulevaisuuspäivä was the most tweeted topic of the day in Twitter with 650+ tweets.
January 18, 2019 The blended learning program Get That Future Lab: Futures Literacy Program for Youth developed together with Funzi is launched. More information here.
2018
November 26, 2018 Our article Pouru, L. & M. Wilenius (2018) Tulevaisuuslukutaito navigaatiovälineenä kuudennessa aallossa: kuinka integroida tulevaisuus lukio-opetukseen? is published in the Finnish journal of futures reserach Futura, issue 3/2018.
September 18, 2018 We participated Dare to Learn learning festival in Helsinki. Markku gave a keynote on futures literacy and Laura ran a workshop on imagining sustainable futures together with Tulevaisuuskoulu. Read more in the UC Blog post: Dare you reclaim your future?
August 6, 2018 Laura Pouru was interviewed by the leading Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat about the future of the starting class of first-graders: Tällä viikolla aloittavat koulunsa vuonna 2011 syntyneet suomalaislapset – Heitä odottaa entistä monimutkaisempi maailma, sanoo tutkija.
June 21, 2018 Our report Balcom Raleigh, N.A. – Pouru, L. – Leino-Richert, E. – Parkkinen, M. – Wilenus, M. (2018) Futures Literacy Lab for education – Imagining Complex Futures of Human Settlements at Finland Futures Academy Summer School 2017. FFRC eBOOK 3/2018. is published.
June 15, 2018 We organized a post-conference session: “The Future of Futures Literacy in Finland” together with UNESCO and Finnish National Board of Education. Read our summary of the session in the UC-blog post: From schools to peer-to-peer -learning. How to live in Learning Intensive Society?
May 31, 2018 Summary of the first national Futures Literacy Day for Finnish Schools is published in Finland Futures Research Centre’s newsletter Futuuri 2/2018: Koulujen Tulevaisuuspäivä johdatteli oppilaita ja opettajia tulevaisuuslukutaidon äärelle
April 19, 2018 One of our partner schools, the Lauttasaari High school in Helsinki, shares their experiences of futures education in a school’s blog post: Tulevaisuus maistuu taikuudelta
April 19, 2018 We announced our co-operation with mobile learning company Funzi in developing futures literacy course for young people: FFRC & Funzi join forces in futures literacy mobile course for youth
April 18, 2018 Laura Pouru and Otto Tähkäpää, the founder of Tulevaisuuskoulu (School of Future) discuss about the importance of futures literacy for young people: Tutkijat: Nuoria täytyy valmentaa kohtaamaan tulevaisuus – “Moni päätyy työhön, jota ei ole vielä olemassa”
April 18, 2018 We co-organized the first national Futures Literacy Day for Finnish schools with Tulevaisuuskoulu (School of Future), Sitra the Finnish Innovation Fund, The National Board of Education and other partners. More information here: Tulevaisuuspäivä
April 5, 2018 Laura Pouru and Otto Tähkäpää, the founder of Tulevaisuuskoulu (School of Future), explain why we all need futures literacy in the 21st century world in the Univeristy of Turku blog: Koulujen Tulevaisuuspäivästä eväitä tulevaisuuslukutaidon kehittämiseen
March 13, 2018: Laura Pouru and Otto Tähkäpää, the founder of Tulevaisuuskoulu (School of Future), explain why we all need futures literacy in the 21st century world in Sitra’s guest blog: Me kaikki tarvitsemme tulevaisuuslukutaitoa
January 27, 2018: Markku Wilenius introduces futures literacy and futures teaching at Educa fair (the leading event for education and training sector in Finland) Tulevaisuudentutkija: Pahinta on, jos nuoret alkavat pelätä maailman muuttumista – nuoret tarvitsevat taitoa lukea tulevaisuutta
2017
December 11, 2017: Markku Wilenius and Riel Miller, Head of Foresight at UNESCO, present their visions for the next 100 years of Finnish independence at conference Together – Competence and Sustainability for the Next Hundred Years
October 14, 2017: Markku Wilenius discusses about futures education and other current futures topics in a National Geographic TV Finland interview:
