13. Speculative futures for higher education: weaving perspectives for good

Abstract

Using a speculative future use case, and a three-part multiple author format, this chapter creates a container for a conversation amongst co-authors representing various roles including online students, faculty, and administrators, regarding a change in teaching and learning. In doing so, the chapter attempts to cross theory-practice-policy lines to provide a contextualized, systemic examination of a possible iteration of higher education. The aim of this effort is to grapple with the question of ‘goodness’ given a specific context and situation, rather than with the question of ‘goodness’ in universal terms. Through the response from co-authors, and the analysis and synthesis that follows, this chapter aims to problematize the universality of what it means for futures to be “good,” highlight the messiness of speculative futures, and make visible the ways in which roles, values, identities, ideologies, and systems shape the ways in which learning futures are perceived to be “good.”