Introduction

pp. 1-13

in: Jennifer M. Gidley, Postformal education, Berlin, Springer, 2016

Abstract

The book I offer you is about radical change. It explains why the current education model, which was developed in the 19th century to meet the needs of industrial expansion, is obsolete. It points to the need for a new approach to education designed to prepare young people for global uncertainty, accelerating change and unprecedented complexity. Readers will become aware of the limitations of formal reasoning in addressing complex, systemic challenges. They will begin to appreciate the more complex, nuanced and paradoxical features of postformal reasoning and how such reasoning will help us to meet future planetary challenges with courage, imagination, wisdom, rather than relying on techno-fixes. A key question: "If higher order, more complex forms of cognition do exist then how can we better educate children and young people so that more mature forms of reasoning appear at the appropriate life stage?"