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What is Strategic Foresight?

Published by Sally Mudiamu on July 24, 2020

Strategic Foresight or Futures Thinking is a way of preparing for the future, building on strategic planning, but with a more holistic lens. It is not about predicting one future but imagining many possible futures. Why do this? It increases our cognitive flexibility and our agency in our professional work. It helps us pivot and adapt more quickly to change, as COVID-19 has required us to do. It habituates us to thinking about multiple futures: We can work today towards a future that we want. In this sense, we are helping to make the future rather than having it unfold in front of us. In the field of international education, strategic foresight means we think about the future needs of students, faculty and institutions as we build structures and paradigms to deliver global learning and engagement. This blog wants to challenge current structures and ask us to reimagine “how” we “do” international education at universities around the world. Here are some other sites that explore this topic: Futures of Education, Global Education Futures Initiative, and Education Futures Post-COVID.

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3 Comments

  1. Becky Sanchez Becky Sanchez

    This is such an important topic and incredibly relevant in today and tomorrow‘s world. Thank you for bringing futures thinking to international education Dr. Mudiamu!

    # July 30, 2020
  2. Jill Childress Jill Childress

    Dr. Mudiamu, thank you for sharing this! At my work right now, we are reading Emergent Strategy by adrienne marie brown and the adaptability piece is a strong theme. Have you read it? I highly recommend – I think it fits well with what you’ve described in your post! Thanks for giving me additional resources to think about in our work.

    # July 30, 2020

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