International Development and Futures - Guest Lecture
This guest lecture was designed to be delivered to a mix of undergraduate and post-graduate political science students at Thammasat University in Thailand. The goal of the lecture was to give students an overview of Futures and Foresight as well as provide opportunities to experience foresight tools as a mechanism to ideate development projects.
The Process
In an effort to reduce 'lecture' time and increase student engagement, the class was structured to have interactive activities and lecture time interwoven. This would allow students to receive information and use it immediately, increasing knowledge retention and interaction.
In the lecture, students reviewed the current state of International Development through activities that activated past lectures and pre-reading. This served as an opportunity for peer-to-peer learning and revision of course content so far.
Students then learnt about foresight and the Futures Triangle before using the triangle to map out reasons for change, desires from change, and fears of change.
We then explored scenarios and created our own scenarios using the Change Progression Scenario Method. These scenarios where then used to ideate developmental projects and policies that would move Thai society towards various scenarios.
The Outcome
During the final debrief discussion, students began to recognize the role of guiding visions in International Development. Students also began to recognize how existing policies and actions in the development space would lead to less desirable outcomes as they where too heavily focused on fears rather than hopes.
