Women Education and The Futures Wheel

Introduction

Women and girls in the developing world are often denied opportunities for education. Lack of education limits prospects, decreases family income, reduces health, puts women and girls at risk of trafficking and exploitation, and limits the economic advancement of entire countries. World Education believes that education for girls and women is the single most effective way to improve the lives of individual families as well as to bring economic development to poor communities worldwide.

World Education has a long history of successfully working with local partners to design, manage, and evaluate community-based initiatives to advance the conditions of girls and women. World Education's programs help girls enroll and stay in school and help women gain access to or create new educational, financial, and social resources in their communities.

World Education is also committed to empowering girls and women to improve their own lives, the lives of their families, and the conditions in their communities. For parents—and especially mothers—this means creating conditions that ensure their daughters have equal access to basic education, are able to make informed decisions about their futures, and are able to protect themselves from trafficking, sexual exploitation, and HIV, for example.

The future wheel is a future-oriented technique. Future wheel activities are conducted to help participants analyze and explore effects of a trend, event, circumstance, or issue. As such, this technique can be a useful tool for conducting structured brainstorming, determining needs, planning strategically, and building consensus.

Future wheels are laid out as graphic depictions with the future event in a circle in the center, the first-order effects in the first circle out from the event, the second-order effects in the second circle out from the event, and so on. Future wheel activities can potentially be used to explore effects of many different things (issues, trends, and events), so they can be used in virtually any setting (organization, community meeting, school, and so on). Women Education can also be looked upon by the method of futures wheel to make women prominent in the world.

Literature Review

Technology is no substitute for faculty-student engagement (RANDI WEINGARTEN, AFT President ). Very few people had heard of massive open online courses when the term “MOOC” was coined in 2008 by Canadian educational activist Dave Cormier (Steven D. Krause). Proponents of online education— from Stanford University President John Hennessey to Hoover Institution researcher Terry Moe—speak of it hitting education with the force of a “tsunami.” (Richard D. Kahlenberg) .

In much of the public commentary about technology, innovation and disruption in higher education, online education is touted for its promise to dramatically increase access (Susan Meisenhelder ). Last fall, University System of Maryland Chancellor William Kirwan announced that his system would experiment with MOOC technology in order to lower costs (Mitchell Dunier). Some believe that MOOCs threaten the traditional University structure (Garg King and Maya Sen). Some believe that use of this new learning tool will likely increase because of mounting costs for higher – education students (Steve Kolowich).

The wheel can help the individuals for thinking about various issues for unfolding the consequences of the event or the strategy in a continuous improvement process (Judith ). The Futures wheel can help to combat the challenges with MOOC in future (Glenn Jerome). Futures wheel combined with MOOC can be a strategic thinking exercise (Synder, David Pearce).

The futures wheel is a method used for exploring the implications of social – ecological change (D.N. Bengston ). FT encompasses many of the traditional goals of liberal education, enhancing those goals and inspiring them to a broadened and more energetic mandate when set within a future oriented framework (Elon University President Leo Lambert, Charge to the 2011 graduates, 6/20/2011). Humans are becoming super humans and the science of bio enhancement will change the future (Michel Bess , 2016).The future is not that far and it is near to approach (Henry Mason, David Mattin, Delia Dumitrescu , 2015)

We can best intervene in the future trajectories (Keri Facer, 2011). The future is rarely a simple extrapolation from the present. Many efforts have made to anticipate , visualize and elaborate the future by ( John Urry , 2016)… Automation is not only the machine but is the whole set of relationships between human beings , utensils and fields of knowledge (Mariella, 2016 ) . Humans are technological as well as cultural beings and automation will make convert livings as cyborgs in the coming age of cyberspace ( David Hakken , 2002).

Ways of relating to the various converging crisis and opportunities faced by humanity at a local, regional and global scale is to have quick-fix solutions by automation and from the lenses of transformative innovation, whole systems thinking, ecological formulations, and transformative resilience, the culture will totally change. (Daniel Wahl , 2016) . Automation will bring many changes such as green technologies and climate proofing , new democratic movements , transition towns and bio fuels .( Philip McMichael , 2012)

Women Education and the Futures Wheel

Education systems vary in administration, curriculum and personnel, but all have an influence on the students that they serve. As women have gained rights, formal education has become a symbol of progress and a step toward gender equity. In order for true gender equity to exist, a holistic approach needs to be taken.

The discussion of girl power and women’s education as solutions for eliminating violence against women and economic dependence on men can sometimes take dominance and result in the suppression of understanding how context, history and other factors affect women (Khoja-Moolji, 2015).

For example, when past secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, referenced the tragedies of Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan and the girls kidnapping in Chibok, Nigeria as comparable, using girls’ education as the focus, history and context were ignored. What led to the shooting of Malala was reduced to being solely about her educating herself as a girl. United States interference, poverty, and government corruption and instability were not addressed.

Education systems and schools play a central role in determining girls’ interest in various subjects, including STEM subjects, which can contribute to women's empowerment by providing equal opportunities to access and benefit from quality STEM education.

Women's empowerment and international development

Micro- and macro level factors that get attention by international development agencies (IDA) vary. For example, reaching a quota of representatives in political positions (macro level) but ignoring how home life pressures (micro level) do not actually leave women at a position of free self-expression (Stromquist, 2015). IDA’s tend to focus on numbers and on information provided by the national governments. This ignores the possibility that national governments are not the most reliable or trust worthy.

Programs put on by FAWE (Forum for African American Educationalists) called Tuseme clubs in Africa, which are Non Formal Education programs, are explored as they have proven successful and effective but do not get enough support from the government to be replicated. Tuseme means “let’s speak out” in Swahili and in action the programs tailor to each participating school, focusing on communication and life skills, keeping the community in mind. The program is set up as an extracurricular activity that focuses on issues through tools like school newspapers, dance and theater. In this example, education and empowerment are tackled on outside the classroom.

As young girls are given more and more opportunity to get educated, to become literate, and to play an active part in society, their ambitions rise proportionately. They dream big, and they want to put their education to good use and to give back to the community. Institutional biases and lack of employment opportunities for women can lead to large scale frustration and disappointment. In extreme cases, communities have witnessed rising suicide rates that correspond to this frustration.

Literacy lifts individuals out of poverty

Lacking basic reading and writing skills is a tremendous disadvantage. Literacy not only enriches an individual’s life, but it creates opportunities for people to develop skills that will help them provide for themselves and their family.

Literacy improves the development of the wider community

The positive knock-on effect of educating girls can be seen in the wider social and economic benefits yielded for their communities. Increasing the emphasis towards women’s education positively impacts on each generation through raised expectations and increased self-esteem. Improving literacy facilitates employment whereby both males and females can contribute, helping the wider economy and community to thrive.

Literacy reduces infant mortality rates

Illiteracy directly affects an individual’s health and wellbeing, so the importance of education on physical health is vital. Those without education are more likely to be vulnerable to health problems, for example increased schooling reduces the risk of HIV infection.

Steps to be Taken

Girls make half of the human population. To leave the girls uneducated means to leave half of the people behind. Men and women are like two wheels of a cart. If one wheel of the cart is broken, how can the cart go ahead? In the same way, if women remain uneducated and unskilled, how can we develop our society? How can our cart of civilization and progress go ahead?

Education is the light of life. It cultivates us as people. It gives us knowledge, skills and techniques to apply in our jobs and to make a difference in our communities. It gives us ideas to learn what is right and wrong, and how to lead positive social change in our communities. It gives us a sense of responsibility.

In the 20th century standardised tests were institutionalised in almost all domains, especially in fields related to education and employment. A standardised test is an assessment that is rigid, has a pre-determined marking scheme and is administered to a large base of students. Such tests emerged in the post-industrial era when factories and large business units required many labourers but few thinkers.

As a result, a test that told you a little about everyone was preferred to an alternative that told you a lot about one person. This was especially so because the former was more cost effective. In other words, standardised assessments were designed to suit a system instead of an individual.

Today, the economy is markedly shifting in favour of the individual. The gig and contract economy in the West has grown tremendously in the past decade and 9-5 jobs are shrinking. In India too, as automation increases, individual adaptability will become the most salient skill. Therefore, policy measures today must not return to old world assessment approaches—one test to rule them all, one test to find them.

References

1. World Education: Engage, Explore , Inspire https://www.worlded.org/WEIInternet/international/expertise/display.cfm?tid=1004&id=756
2. Article: Futures Wheel https://www.needsassessment.org/guidebook/Future%20wheel.pdf
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9. Farzaneh Roudi-Fahimi; Valentine M. Moghadam. 'Empowering Women, Developing Society: Female Education in the Middle East and North Africa'. Population Reference Bureau. Archived from the original on 2011-10-25. Retrieved October 29, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20111025140101/http://www.prb.org/Publications/PolicyBriefs/EmpoweringWomenDevelopingSocietyFemaleEducationintheMiddleEastandNorthAfrica.aspx
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11. The Seattle Globalist http://www.seattleglobalist.com/2015/07/14/10-ways-to-maximize-global-girls-education-ngo-malala-day/39430
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