Situating in time

The study of the past should include that of the present and future to prepare children and young people to actively participate in the construction of their personal and social future through the development of historical thinking (Pagès, 2019). In this regard, taking into account the challenges posed by current societies, Guldi and Armitage (2016) point out that it is necessary to establish a relationship between the past, present, and future as a guide to project those future paths that best suit students. In this sense, the first dimension we propose is based on the first pillar of future studies, proposed by Inayatullah (2008). This dimension seeks to understand our human temporality and establish relationships between past, present, and future to guide the construction and reconstruction of the images of the future. In future education it is essential to establish relationships between the three categories of human temporality, understanding the past as memory and remembrance, the present as the instant and the near history, and the future as the prospective (Santisteban, 2007). This dialectical relationship between the past, present, and future is fundamental to understand that the knowledge of the past allows us to live a personal and social reality that responds to who we are and what we want to be (Escribano, 2021).

Anticipating

Future education raises the need to solve the problems of the future through anticipatory actions that connect the future in an explicit way with the resolution of problems of the present. The moment we question the future and analyze emerging problems and scenarios, we can anticipate and imagine possible new futures (Wildman & Inayatullah, 1996). The second dimension is anticipation and it is based on the second pillar of future studies proposed by Inayatullah (2008). This dimension includes all the elements that allow problems to be identified before they are too big or difficult to solve. It also allows us to go beyond the immediate consequences of present problems, trying to anticipate their evolution in the medium and long term, in what Inayatullah calls the wheel of futures (Inayatullah, 2008). This dimension is also consistent with the idea of probable future originally proposed by Galtung (1982) and adapted by Gidley (2004). According to this author, the probable future is studied from the analysis of global and ecological trends, it is predictive and aims at making generalizations and extrapolations. Hutchinson (1992) suggests that isolated work based on the probable future often leads to reductionist ideas that pose a future in crisis and without alternatives.

Imagining alternative futures

Imagining alternative futures involves deductively predicting possible futures (Gidley, 2004). While in everyday discourse we usually talk about the future, imagining alternative futures is about imagining a plurality of futures and understanding the worldviews and myths that underlie them (Inayatullah, 2008; Gidley, 2004; Milojevic & Inayatullah, 2018). Franceschelli and Keating (2018) show how, while young people may be optimistic about their abilities to shape their future, their creative potential to think about it is limited by the molds of the neoliberal society in which they live. From this perspective, imagining alternative futures requires leaving aside our certainties about the present and what the future will be like. Inayatullah (2020) argues that it is necessary that the approach of future education focuses on engaging citizens to create anticipatory democratic systems, thinking about the future to rethink and act on the present. In this sense, students must be prepared to be citizens in a society where the future is uncertain and not predetermined. By posing the challenge of facing a future full of uncertainties rather than certainties, thinking about alternative futures expands the creative potential to act on the present. By rethinking the present, we act on the alternative futures that are to come (Inayatullah, 2018). Hicks (2004) stresses the need for individuals and groups to be able to envision more hopeful and positive futures. In this sense, peace education can contribute to the development of empowering images of more hopeful futures.

Acting socially

The future is built from the decisions and actions we take. This necessarily implies thinking and acting on the present and assuming responsibilities to introduce transformation processes (Wildman & Inayatullah, 1996). These visions of anticipation are fundamental and give individuals and social groups optimism about the possibilities of change (Inayatullah, 2008; Santisteban & Anguera, 2014).

As a component of transformation in the study of futures, the social action dimension is conceived as an active process in which the future is constantly created through practice. From this perspective, understanding the future is a step after anticipation as, in addition to the will to act, there is the need to become aware and develop creative and metacognitive thinking skills to define and project the future in the direction of the desired objectives. In this phase of action, the future is directed towards the desirable, which makes the future different from the past or the present (Masini, 1994).

Situating in time

For the Australian national curriculum, we identified elements that denote a study of the past and the present with a critical perspective and with a projection toward the future. An example of this is found in the very preamble to the Humanities and Social Sciences learning area: "[t]he humanities and social sciences have a historical and contemporary focus, from personal to global contexts, and consider challenges for the future" (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], n.d.: 17). The teachers interviewed suggest that in primary and secondary education the analysis of historical time is developed from a critical perspective depending on the socio-cultural context of the school. While in schools where most students are white and middle class, a sense of conformity to the current state of the world predominates, in multicultural schools, with indigenous students and students from other countries, there is a greater interest in analyzing the past and imagining a new future, although they claim that "the analysis is occurring too slowly for schools to meet the demands [of society]." (Australian primary school teacher).

The situation in Spain has different nuances. The curriculum focuses on the preparation of students for the exercise of citizenship, so they can participate in the economic, social, and cultural life of the country and adapt to situations of change. As in Australia, it is in Social Sciences, Geography, and History where this preparation is developed, although from an uncritical perspective, promoting "[...] the ability to temporarily order some historical facts and other relevant facts using the basic notions of succession, duration, and simultaneity" (Royal Decree 126/2014: 22). This approach remotely allows for the establishment of relationships between past and present and does not explicitly develop future education. Teachers who were interviewed support the same thesis and point out that it is not usual to reflect on the past in secondary education, in addition, "what is sought is precisely to flee from the present" (secondary school teacher from Spain). On the other hand, in primary education, strategies such as "thinking routines [...] make students have a critical thinking that helps them in their future and analyzes the past" (primary school teacher from Spain).

The Chilean case is similar to the Spanish one. The aspects related to this dimension are worked from an uncritical perspective. An example is found in one of the learning objectives of 1st grade, which promotes teaching to "sequence events and activities of daily, personal, and family life, using relative categories of a temporary location, such as before, after; yesterday, today, tomorrow; day, night; this year, last year, next year" (p. 153). This is also the case for the learning objectives of 5th grade, among which we find "representing and interpreting chronological sequences and events of the past through timelines, distinguishing periods" (Chilean Ministry of Education, 2019: 168). The teachers interviewed show their concern about this situation in primary and secondary education. They affirm that "the labor burden and the pressure of standardized tests leave little and nothing to generate instances of criticism of reality" (primary school teacher from Chile). They agree that if initiatives to study the past, present, and future critically occur, they have their origin in the teaching staff.

Anticipating

The elements that we consider typical of this dimension of analysis have little presence in the curricula analyzed. The national curriculum in which we most identified the presence of this dimension was the Australian curriculum, especially in the areas of Humanities and Social Sciences and Technologies. This curriculum aims at developing the capacity to make informed predictions about the future, for example, in the inquiries and skills to be developed in the seventh year: "discussing the consequences of decisions (for example, economic, business, civic or personal decisions), considering alternative responses and predicting the potential effect of those responses" (ACARA, n.d.: 140). Regarding Technologies, we also found the idea of predicting. For example, in the content descriptors for the years 9 and 10 of the Design and Technologies branch we found the objective of "constructing scenarios of how the future may unfold (forecasting) and what impacts there may be for society and particular groups, and back casting from preferred futures" (ACARA, n.d.: 716). However, the teachers interviewed consider that the opportunities to anticipate future events are limited since the development of other skills and the learning of other contents such as language and mathematics are considered more important. In addition, they limit themselves to making predictions about financial and environmental problems, or even about the academic path and the profession that students will have in the future.

In the case of the Spanish curriculum, the dimension of "anticipation" is not present in any of the areas and subjects. As in the previous dimension, only curricular elements related to the environment and sustainable development are present, both in primary and secondary education, which, to a certain extent, implies prevention and anticipation. However, the purpose of these contents is that students understand the idea of sustainable development and its implications and there is no development of competencies to anticipate or predict problems and make sustainable development effective. The teachers interviewed consider that "this preventive work from my point of view is not yet addressed" (secondary school teacher from Spain) although they affirm that they do carry it out in a personal capacity. In addition, as in the case of Australia, it is limited to "environmental, social education ... and above all [to preparation] for professions that have not yet been invented" (primary school teacher from Spain).

Similarly, the Chilean curriculum does not include objectives or contents that, explicitly, allow this dimension to be developed. We could only find some related ideas. For example, concerning democratic education, it is worth highlighting the learning objective 3 in the 3rd grade which proposes "[r]eflect personally and in groups on risks to democracy in Chile and the world, such as the phenomenon of political disaffection, inequality, corruption, drug trafficking, violence, among others" (Chilean Ministry of Education, 2019: 61). The concept of assessing risk implies anticipating possible threats to Chilean society and democracy. The teachers interviewed agree that "possible future problems related to our future as a society or the problems that directly concern students in their daily reality (gender, migration, environmental, etc.), [...] are not addressed from an institutional point of view" (primary school teacher from Chile). However, they affirm that in the day-to-day school "the problems that are discussed are those relevant to their local and global reality; politics, citizenship, feminism, economy, environment, gender, etc." (high school teacher from Chile). They argue that working from problems "makes students glimpse what of the above is happening in their context or may eventually happen" (high school teacher from Chile).

Imagining alternative futures

The third dimension of futures education is the least present in the national curricula analyzed. However, its presence shows how many educational systems focus on futures education, how they incorporate it tangentially, and how they omit it. The Australian national curriculum explicitly incorporates futures education by translating the idea that there are possible, probable, and preferable futures, especially in the areas of Humanities and Social Sciences and Technologies. In the HyCS, the idea that there are multiple possible futures and that we must act in the present to project ourselves into the future is continually present. One of the most explicit paragraphs is found in the inquiries and skills to be developed for the 4th grade:

forecasting a probable future and a preferred future relating to an environmental, local government or cultural issue (for example, developing a futures scenario of what oceans will be like if humans continue to allow waste plastic to enter waterways, and a preferred scenario of what oceans would be like if plastics were to be replaced by degradable materials) (ACARA, n.d.: 86).

For the area of technologies, creating preferable futures is one of the central ideas. The preamble states that "[a]s students progress through the Technologies curriculum, they will begin to identify possible and probable futures, and their preferences for the future" (ACARA, n.d.: 625). The teachers interviewed agree that this dimension is taught in schools, since it is part of the Australian curriculum not only in Humanities and Social Sciences but also in Technology and Natural Sciences. They consider that it would be desirable to include in this proposal the development goals of the United Nations as the backbone of this dimension, since it would be "a perfect framework to unite the different parts of the school and try to make children understand sustainable development" (secondary school teacher from Australia). However, they also try not to convey an overly pessimistic view of the future.

In the Spanish curriculum, no elements that allow teachers to educate towards imagining alternative futures were found in any of the areas or subjects. However, interviewed teachers suggest that in primary education " learning through challenges helps to see different paths and different solutions to the same problem" (primary school teacher from Spain) since at this educational stage "the necessary tools are given to be able to face their future through critical thinking, creativity, originality [...]" (primary school teacher from Spain). On the other hand, in secondary education, the teacher interviewed reassured that, generally, this dimension is not addressed.

Finally, for the Chilean case, the presence of this dimension is scarce in the curriculum. We highlight an objective that seeks to develop such work, such as objective 7 of the 3rd grade: "[d]istinguish political, economic and socio-cultural relations that configure the territory at different scales, proposing alternatives to advance in social and environmental justice" (Chilean Ministry of Education, 2019: 61). In such frameworks, in addition to the process of distinction that students are asked to do, they are required to formulate alternative proposals in order to transform spaces of social and environmental justice, all of which should be led by faculty. Similar to other dimensions, the development of this dimension depends on the teaching staff. In the interviews, Chilean teachers consider that developing this type of content "starts from the personal motivation of the teacher" (primary school teacher from Chile). For this task, they have resources beyond the curriculum, for example, "textbooks" and "training instances" (secondary school teacher from Chile) that focus on helping to "redefine and rethink the world in which we live" (secondary school teacher from Chile).

Acting socially

The Australian national curriculum includes concepts linked to this dimension such as acting, participating, and deciding, especially in Humanities and Social Sciences, but also in all other areas, to a lesser extent. The idea of participating is initially linked to the community: "[h]ow can I participate in my community?" (ACARA, n.d.: 75), and as the courses progress it expands to more global dimensions by promoting "the capacities and dispositions to participate in the civic life of their nation at a local, regional and global level and as individuals in a globalised world" (ACARA, n.d.: 341). In the area of Technologies, decision-making is also addressed generally: "[s]tudents are given new opportunities to clarify their thinking, creativity, analysis, problem solving, and decision making" (ACARA, n.d.: 696), although it does not delve into how these objectives are put into practice. In the Australian curriculum, the learning objectives linked to this dimension are shortly described and leave room for deinstitutionalized and critical forms of participation. The teachers interviewed say that schools talk a lot about "the voice of the students" (high school teacher from Australia) although they consider that the student leaders may "not be representative of the body of students" (high school teacher from Australia). There are also students and faculty initiatives of social participation in the form of protests and demands.

In the case of the Spanish curriculum, the learning objectives focus on teaching students to participate in the future in the society of which they are part. A minimalist vision of democracy is proposed, limited to participation through voting. In addition, no content or methods are explicit that allow students to develop skills for action and social transformation. An example of this is found in the primary education curriculum in which the objective is defined as "[p]articipate in group activities adopting a responsible, constructive, and supportive behavior, respecting the basic principles of democratic functioning" (RD 126/2014: 23). In the same vein, the teachers interviewed agree that institutional actions such as the constitution day holiday, or the working women's day, are encouraged in a very global way. In addition, the democratic functioning of the schools is promoted with the election of class delegates, participation in the school board, and, sometimes, meetings of delegates are held with a member of the school management. Finally, social transformation is only conveyed punctually through service learning.

For the Chilean case, we could only find this dimension in some objectives for the 3rd and 4th grades and exclusively in the area of education for citizenship. For example, objective two of 4th grade suggests to "[p]articipate in a co-responsible and ethical way in the search for strategies and solutions to challenges, problems and conflicts in various scales, which involve harmonizing development, democracy, equity, and sustainability" (Chilean Ministry of Education, 2019: 62). Objective eight of the 3rd grade is worth mentioning: "[p]articipate in different school instances of democratic exercise, recognizing the need to socially organize life in community, in order to strengthen a healthy coexistence that protects fundamental freedoms and the common good" (p. 61). The little presence of this dimension in the curriculum is critically analyzed by the teachers interviewed, who consider that: "the decisions of the students are not binding for the structuring of school norms. [...] Starting from this reality, what can be taught about participation, action and social transformation is only an empty discourse that lacks application (primary school teacher from Chile). In the same vein, they consider that the time they have and the curriculum itself are limiting elements to promoting this dimension.