Working with Uncertainty for Educational Change explores the liberating possibilities for those who seek to embrace existing research into uncertainty and complexity at diverse levels in the world of education. The lives of education professionals are built upon a multitude of decision-making events that frame each working day. With a range of expert contributors, this insightful book brings together varied perspectives on the nature of complexity within educational contexts, focusing particularly on the emotional work involved in change. Organised into two major parts, its first part focuses on the intellectual challenge of thinking about uncertainty by exploring the dominant discourses of certainty in the field of education. The second part, on the other hand, considers how we can embrace uncertainty within practice by exploring conditions that support reflection, agency and acceptance of ambiguity. Presenting themes on a wide range of educational issues including curriculum, pedagogy, equity, leadership and professional learning, this book will appeal to teachers, educational leaders, practitioners and researchers as well as students on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes with an education focus.

Learning for Uncertainty explores technology’s role in education, specifically unpacking the question: How should educators prepare today’s children for a world that has yet to be made? As technology evolves faster than our capacity to fully understand the social, cultural, economic, and moral implications of many innovations, today’s educators are tasked with the unique role of preparing students to capitalize on technology’s opportunities and also mitigate its dangers to their society, to democratic processes, and to institutions. Veteran educators McDiarmid and Zhao explore the implications of emerging technologies for future jobs, organizations, students, and learning, covering topics such as • The future of work and workers as technology eliminates some industries while creating new ones. • Potential futures, both bright and dark, awaiting students. • The qualities, dispositions, social behaviors, and skills that are likely to advantage students in the future. • The possibility of technology to revolutionize education in ways that will better position students for an uncertain future. • How technology can free teachers from time and effort devoted to routine matters to instead assuming roles that are potentially more satisfying and supportive of their students’ learning. • Learning opportunities and educator roles that have the potential to bring about needed changes. • Capitalizing on these uncertain times to rethink curriculum, pedagogy, opportunities to learn, and the organization of school as well as the roles of students, educators, parents, and policymakers. This latest book in the Routledge Leading Change series is ideal reading for educators and policymakers in both P–12 and higher education interested in ensuring our education systems provide the experiences and learning opportunities necessary to cultivate the innovative, iconoclastic, and generative thinkers and creators needed for a future that nourishes the minds, bodies, and spirits of all.

This edited volume brings together a group of international researchers and theorists from various intellectual and analytic traditions to explore the role uncertainty plays in creativity, learning, and development. Contributors to this volume draw on existing programs of research as well as introduce new and even speculative directions for research, theory and practice. Learning and life are filled with uncertainty. Although the experience of uncertainty can cause emotional discomfort or cognitive rigidity, uncertainty serves as a catalyst and condition for change. In this way, uncertainty represents a core facet in the interrelationship among creativity, learning, and development. Considerations for both the benefits and potential costs of uncertainty will be addressed in this volume with an aim of understanding how uncertainty can be better understood in light of creativity, learning, and development. Taken together this volume stands to contribute to our collective understanding of the role that uncertainty plays in learning and life and highlights how conceptualizing and studying uncertainty in new ways can promote positive and lasting change.

The expectations on teachers are constantly changing in a world of fast-evolving alternative learning environments aimed at meeting the learning needs of students. One challenge teachers face is to manage this change successfully, working with perceived risks, such as uncertainty and emotions along the way. Teachers who show hesitation to engage in change are often labelled as resistant. Resistance to change is not an unfamiliar concept and a significant body of research exists surrounding management of resistance. This research seeks to challenge the traditional concept of resistance and instead explore the role of teacher uncertainty as a form of perceived risk. A risk perception lens was used to understand teachers’ uncertainty and the influence on teachers’ actions. This qualitative case study used data from semi-structured interviews with five teachers at a high decile, public, primary school. It aimed to capture the experiences of teachers who had recently transitioned into an Innovative Learning Environment. Interview data were analysed through a thematic analysis to establish salient themes that illustrate the experiences of those teachers at this point in time. Findings suggest that relationships, knowledge and the effect on students were the main causes of teachers’ uncertainty. There was an inverse relationship between teachers’ level of knowledge and the level of perceived risks they associated with change. This was also the case between the quality of their relationships and the perceived risks associated with change. Uncertainty was specific to each individual and was presented as a dynamic perception of risk. This thesis contends that perceived risk may be due to the uncertainty of teachers regarding the associated educational change. Understanding this can help leaders to reduce uncertainty and thus increase teacher engagement in change.

This book discusses the use of futures methodologies to examine and critique teacher education and investigate drivers of change in teacher education contexts, providing readers with futures tools that they can use to explore curricula and pedagogies. It explains futures methods, including scenario development and backcasting, and illustrates them with examples of research in science, technology and mathematics education contexts. By allowing the long-term influence of current trends to be considered and providing an opportunity to reflect on the present and imagine the future, scenarios provoke discussion on the directions that teacher education might take now. The book offers insights into the possibilities that might exist for teacher education futures and into how scenario building and planning can be used to inform debates about the present. Further, it suggests ways in which readers can influence the future of teacher education through understanding the drivers of change.

Monograph comprising essays on education and educational planning - discusses the change in attitude towards its institutional framework, its failure to combat unemployment, the uncertainty of the future of higher education, etc., mentions technical education and vocational guidance, suggests a future educational policy and reviews education in Tanzania. Flow chart, references and statistical tables.

The title of the book is Critique as Uncertainty. Thus Ole Skovsmose sees uncertainty as an important feature of any critical approach. He does not assume the existence of any blue prints for social and political improvements, nor that certain theoretical structures can provide solid foundations for a critical activities. For him critique is an open and uncertain activity. This also applies to critical mathematics education. Critique as Uncertainty includes papers Ole Skovsmose already has published as well as some newly written chapters. The book addresses issues about: landscapes of investigations, students’ foregrounds, mathematics education and democracy, mathematics and power. Finally it expresses concerns of a critical mathematics education.

Examining how youths in fourteen industrialized societies make the transition to adulthood in an era of globalization and rising uncertainty, this collection of essays investigates the impact that institutions working with social groups of youths have upon those youths' abilities to make adult decisions determining their life courses. Covering both Europe and North America, the book includes case studies, and contains country-specific contributions on conservative, social-democratic, post-socialist, liberal and familistic welfare regimes, as well as data from the GLOBALIFE project. Filling the gap in the market on the micro effects of globalization on individuals, and taking an empirical approach to the topic, this impressive volume brings the individual and nation-specific institutions back into the discussion on globalization.

A guide to understanding and responding to business uncertainty in the twenty-first century Managing uncertainty has become a new business imperative. Technological discontinuities, regulatory upheavals, geopolitical shocks, abrupt shifts in consumer tastes or behavior, and many other factors have emerged or intensified in recent years and together conspire to undermine even the most carefully constructed business strategies. Managing Uncertainty: Strategies for Surviving and Thriving in Turbulent Times addresses these new challenges, assessing the sources of business turbulence, how to classify uncertainty, and the different ways in which uncertainty can be embraced to allow greater innovation and growth. Drawing on examples from around the world, the book presents the most recent ideas on what it means to manage uncertainty, from practitioners, academics, and consultants. Addresses the challenges of managing uncertainty in business Presents a step-by-step guide to managing business uncertainty Draws examples from major international companies, including Intel, Procter & Gamble, Siemens, Boeing, Philips, Ford, Apple, and many more Written for business leaders and managers looking for new ways to ensure that their businesses continue to thrive in a world of increasing complexity, Managing Uncertainty presents new and innovative ideas about reducing risk by understanding difficult-to-predict shifts.

Controlling Uncertainty: Decision Making and Learning in Complex Worlds reviews and discusses the most current research relating to the ways we can control the uncertain world around us. Features reviews and discussions of the most current research in a number of fields relevant to controlling uncertainty, such as psychology, neuroscience, computer science and engineering Presents a new framework that is designed to integrate a variety of disparate fields of research Represents the first book of its kind to provide a general overview of work related to understanding control