Transforming Education for a Transition into Human-centered Economy and Post-normal Times

Abstract

Solutions to the major problems of our time require a radical shift in our perceptions, thinking and values. Post-normal times (characterized by complexity, chaos and contradictions), post-normal science (characterized by uncertainties, systems view of thinking, alternative perspectives, unknown unknowns, values) and human-centered economy are conceptions that we need to take into consideration to define a new role for science. Managing the transition from the knowledge economy (mainly dominated by the use of analytical skills) to human-centered economy (mainly dominated by the use of creativity, character, passion) requires visionary leadership and a wide range of partnerships, and developing new and more comprehensive, flexible, innovative models of learning. Education today should prepare current generations for the continuously changing world of the future. The critique on modern education ranges across the political spectrum (from ‘the Right’ to ‘the Left’); across countries (both ‘western’ and ‘non-western’); across genders (within men’s, queer and feminist movements); and across worldviews (e.g. post-modernism, critical theory, neo-Marxism, critical traditionalism). These critiques all imply that ‘modern’ education has now become ‘outdated’ (Milojevic, 2005). Technology and globalization are significantly transforming work. However, education and training systems, having remained mostly static and under-invested in for decades, are largely inadequate to meet the needs of the new labour markets. How the disconnect between education systems and labour markets can be eliminated is a much disputed topic and it may require a paradigm shift in current thinking. Citizens and consumers today are experiencing a growing sense of alienation, loss of values and flexibility (Zajda, 2009). There is no form of education which would meet different needs worldwide. Education is a basic human right and it cannot be purely demand-driven. Diversity of educational models, even within a given country, is something that should be encouraged (Chuan, 2015). The main aim of this paper is to discuss and show the need for new alternative education systems which could eliminate the basic deficiencies of the current systems in the post-normal times. Citing the main reasons behind the necessity for formulating new ways of thinking and using them in the formulation of new education policies is another aim of the paper. The know-how and analytical skills that have made people indispensable in the knowledge economy will no longer give them an advantage over increasingly intelligent machines. Employees in a human-centered economy will need to possess values like creativity, character, passion and collaboration that cannot be programmed into computer traits. Our human qualities will set us apart from machines and make organizations superior (Seidman, 2014). The fundamental gap between the clear success of knowledge acquisition in the natural sciences versus the rather minimal success in understanding the dynamics of the social realm is the inherent non-linearity, instability, and uncertainty of social systems’ behaviour. There could be possible alternative ways of closing this gap. Today we need deep ecological ethics, especially in science. Sometimes what scientists do is not life-furthering and life-preserving, but life-destroying. The systems view of life (the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts) may overcome the Cartesian metaphor. Physics, together with chemistry, is essential to understand the behaviour of the molecules in living cells, but it is not sufficient to describe their self-organizing patterns and processes. Every system, every part of it, is connected to every other system, at least indirectly. Systems and parts of a system interact in ways that can produce surprising and counter-intuitive results. The tendency to produce unexpected results makes predicting the outcome of systems’ interaction difficult, if not impossible. If we think that understanding parts allows us to understand the whole, we may reach wrong conclusions. The whole is bigger than the sum of its parts. In post-normal times we need to teach people how they can be more antifragile and enjoy the complexity of daily life. This is another attempt to show that we need a reconsideration of the relevance of the certainty and stability of the Newtonian paradigm with respect to all natural and social phenomena.