Reframe a Live Education Challenge with Rachael Smith FRSA, NPQH

This is a practical workshop for people who want to apply futures thinking to a real challenge, not just learn the theory.

Bring one live issue from your school, organisation, programme, partnership or project. It might be about AI, curriculum, youth engagement, leadership, strategy, careers, governance, programme design, staff capacity, social impact or a new offer you are developing.

Using a guided futures literacy process, we will examine the assumptions sitting underneath the challenge, identify the Used Future that may be shaping it, and reframe the issue so that better options become visible.

This is a working session, not a lecture. You will be asked to think, write, reflect and apply the ideas directly to your own context. You will not need to share confidential details, and you can work privately with your own example throughout.

You will leave with:

• a clearer definition of your challenge
• a short assumptions map
• a reframed strategic question
• two or three possible next moves
• a practical experience of futures literacy as a working method

This workshop is for:

• educators, school leaders and curriculum leads
• youth programme leads and NGO teams
• universities, foundations and public-sector teams
• social enterprises and education partners
• EdTech teams and corporates working with education
• founders, advisers, consultants and board members

You do not need prior knowledge of futures literacy. You only need one live challenge that would benefit from being looked at differently.

I’m Rachael Smith, founder of The Education Futurist. My work brings together strategic foresight, futures literacy, AI literacy, curriculum design and institutional change. I have worked at group level in international education as Group Head of Future Ready Learning for Charterhouse Asia, and I am part of the Metafuture network connected to the UNESCO Chair in Futures Studies. I am also writing on futures thinking in education and will be teaching on the MASc Education Futures at the London Interdisciplinary School.

Every young person with the agency to shape their future, and those around them equipped to help them get there.