Kristof Fenyvesi - The Future of Our “Future Classrooms” and Education’s Planetary Responsibility
1.
Kristof Fenyvesi
Finland
I nt e r n a t i o n a l T e a c h m e e t B E T T 2 0 2 6
The Future of “Future Classrooms” and
Education’s Planetary Responsibility in the AI Era
#BETT2026
2.
The Future of“Future Classrooms”:
Education’s Planetary Responsibility in the AI Era
Dr. Kristóf Fenyvesi
Finnish Institute for Educational
Research,
University of Jyväskylä, Finkand
Contact: kristof.fenyvesi@jyu.fi
3.
Kristóf Fenyvesi,
Ph.D
fenyvesi.kristof@gmail.com /
kristof.fenyvesi@jyu.fi
SeniorResearcher of the Finnish Institute for Educational
Research, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Associate Professor of the University of Milano-Bicocca
Associate Professor of Indonesia University of Education
Associate Professor of Korea National University of Education
Visiting Researcher of Hong Kong Metropolitan University
Visiting Researcher of the Educational Innovation
Collaboration Cluster STEAM4EDU, Tallinn University, Estonia
The Slow Erasureof Tomorrow
How Visionary Futures Became Numerical Targets
Since the 1980s, we've witnessed a continual decline in visions of transformative futures. The open-ended horizon of
possibility—once filled with utopian dreams, revolutionary movements, and radical reimaginings of society—has been
replaced by the cold arithmetic of technocratic governance. GDP growth percentages. Emissions reduction targets.
Deportation quotas. The future became quantifiable, manageable, and fundamentally conservative.
1
1980s: The Great Retreat
Neoliberalism ascends. Market logic
colonizes political imagination. The left
abandons its role as laboratory for
alternative futures.
2
1989-1992: The End of History
Fukuyama's declaration. Liberal democracy
and capitalism appear inevitable,
permanent. The future closes down to
mere repetition.
3
2008: Crisis Without Renewal
Financial collapse fails to restore radical
imagination. Austerity replaces
transformation. Recovery means return,
not reinvention.
4
2015-Present: Climate Reality
Targets missed. Promises broken. The
future itself becomes the catastrophe we're
already living through.
6.
Climate Change: TheFuture's Final Foreclosure
1.5°C Target
The aspirational goal of the Paris
Agreement, now virtually
impossible without massive carbon
removal technologies that don't
yet exist at scale.
Tipping Points
Amazon rainforest collapse, Arctic
ice disappearance, ocean current
disruption—cascading systems
approaching irreversible
transformation.
Adaptation vs. Mitigation
The discourse shifts from
preventing disaster to managing
its inevitable consequences. The
future becomes about survival, not
flourishing.
There is no non-catastrophic future left in mainstream climate projections. The question is no longer whether disaster
will arrive, but what forms it will take and who will bear its costs. This is the ultimate foreclosure of futurity—when
tomorrow appears only as varying degrees of loss.
Gayatri Spivak calledfor
the practice of unlearning—
a critical undoing of
inherited frameworks that
block new ways of thinking.
In education today, such
unlearning is the real
challenge.
If we accept the future on
its current terms, we risk
remaining trapped in the
very logics of
unsustainability we claim
to resist.
Can education break this
cycle, or does it merely
reproduce it under new
labels?
19.
Recovering the Future:Education's Radical Responsibility
If we accept that runaway climate disaster has already begun, the question becomes: how do we recover the future under these
conditions? What visions of shared transformative futures remain possible when catastrophe is no longer hypothetical but lived reality?
Honest Reckoning
Education must abandon false optimism and
technological solutionism. Students deserve
to understand the magnitude of what we
face—not to induce despair, but to cultivate
the courage necessary for genuine
transformation.
Pluralizing Futures
Rather than a single trajectory, education
should cultivate multiple futures: indigenous
cosmologies, degrowth economics,
ecological commons, care economies, and
reparative justice frameworks.
Prefigurative Practice
The classroom itself becomes a laboratory
for alternative futures. Collaborative
governance, restorative justice, ecological
literacy—embodying the world we need to
create.
"The future must be recovered not as prediction or destination, but as practice—the daily work of building worlds worth inheriting within
the shell of the collapsing present."
Technology Augmentability, asa Graduate Attribute:
a bold assumption
Current capabilities / skills / competencies
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Augmented capabilities
We define Technology
Augmentability as the ability to
increase one’s capabilities using
technology beyond current limits.
Capabilities refer to a broad set of
academic-, work- and health-related
skills, competencies and
development potentials.
We assume that TA is independent of
current skills. We also assume that
TA can be developed via education.
25.
Graduate attributes inthe age of
disruptive technology: abilities, skills
and mindsets required for Industry
5.0
26.
What is thefuture of
future technology?
As computing technologies increasingly mediate how we imagine, design, and act toward the future,
this question demands both technical and ethical reflection.
27.
Augmented Intelligence: TheKey to Industry 5.0
Augmented intelligence (AuI) is a branch of AI designed to enhance human intelligence rather than function independently or
replace it. Its purpose is to improve human decision-making, which in turn enhances the actions taken based on those
informed decisions.
Human Capabilities
Leadership, creativity, social skills,
ethical reasoning
Collaboration
Humans taking control in partnership
AI Capabilities
Speed, scalability, quantitative analysis
28.
Technology Augmentability
Drawing onongoing projects at the University of Jyväskylä's Innovative Learning Environments Lab, we explore how AI,
extended reality, and generative design tools can cultivate "technology augmentability".
Amplify Creativity
The capacity to amplify human
creativity rather than automate
or constrain it
Critical Reasoning
Enhancing critical thinking and
analytical capabilities in human-
AI collaboration
Ecological Awareness
Cultivating awareness of
planetary systems and
sustainable practices
29.
The Critical Shift
FromDesigning Efficient Futures to
Designing Responsible Ones
By integrating speculative design and sustainability research, we invite HCI practitioners to move from
designing efficient futures to designing responsible ones—where computational systems help learners
and citizens unlearn unsustainable assumptions.
30.
The Updated Graduate
AttributesFramework
The proposed conceptual model illustrates how the abilities and
mindsets of different domains of GAs contribute to conceptual,
technological and human skills, which in turn support employee
ambidexterity.
31.
Conceptual Skills: BigPicture Thinking
Conceptual skills describe the skills needed for big picture thinking, which are crucial for overseeing the entire system function
for responsible decisions. These mainly skills are related to the cognitive domain of GAs emphasizing on critical thinking,
reflexivity and digital literacy for human-centric optimised judgement.
Problem Decomposition
Breaking large or complex problems
into smaller, manageable pieces
Creative Solutions
Developing solutions for the whole
situation, ideas and topics
Systems Thinking
Understanding how components
interact within larger systems
Computational Thinking
Mimicking how computers solve
problems for efficient solutions
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Conclusion: Designing FuturesThat Remain Open
By integrating GAs with Employee Ambidexterity and the Talent Management Pipeline, we can foster a
new generation of graduates equipped to navigate and thrive in this AI era.
Educational institutions and authorities play a crucial role in this transition by developing programmes
that cultivate the necessary capabilities and mindsets in students.
The goal is not just efficient futures, but responsible ones—where computational systems help learners imagine
technologically mediated futures that remain humane, regenerative, and open to surprise.
We need to highlight the need to bridge the gaps between industry expectations and academic preparation to ensure that the
workforce is ready to embrace the opportunities presented by new technologies.
37.
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38.
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