This paper looks at the growing interest in exploring alternative futures and in particular at the need for a futures perspective in education. It looks at the ways in which educators are responding to this and at the concerns expressed by young people themselves about the future. The value of a futures perspective in work exploring issues of…

Explores two issues related to teaching toward an ecologically sustainable future: (1) recognition that teaching about global issues can lead to feelings of despair; and (2) the need to know how young people conceptualize the future in the first place. A recent study of pupils' views of the future is described. (LZ)

Reports on a pilot research project in the United Kingdom that monitored student responses to learning about global futures and found much more going on beneath the surface than meets the eye. (Contains 16 references.) (YDS)