The future as an educational instrument: FutLabs in the classroom

Future Studies is a multifold discipline and it applies to different contexts. It certainly applies to public and private organisations but schools, often not considered as a valuable ecosystem in which to apply Future Studies, are an important context. The adoption of Future Studies in the context of school offers, on a pedagogical level, an important step forward in the structuring of a more articulate critical thinking and, at the same time, reveals opportunities and risks that possible futures could bring. This chapter brings together what has been done, at an international level, in the context of schools, with particular reference to the US (Teach the Future), Israel (MdCM) and Italian (FutLabs in the classroom) experiences. The challenge is to succeed in increasingly developing these paths not only in individual national contexts, but globally, always taking into account the cultural peculiarities that distinguish each country and each school structure/organisation.