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This book is designed to give policy makers, researchers, educational leaders, administrators and teachers a robust, non-specialist source of international comparative trends that have the potential to shape the future of education. Its aim is to inform strategic thinking and stimulate reflection on the challenges facing education, whether in schools, universities or in programmes for older adults. It will also be of interest to students and the wider public, including parents.
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What does it mean for education that our societies are becoming more diverse? What does it mean that information and communication technology (ICT) is playing an ever larger role in our lives? Does it matter for higher education providers that the share of national wealth spent on research and development is increasing? This book is about major developments that are affecting the future of education and setting challenges for policy makers and education providers alike. It does not give conclusive answers: it is not an analytical report, nor is it a statistical compendium, and it is certainly not a statement of OECD policy on these different developments. It is instead a stimulus for thinking about major trends with the potential to influence education. While the trends are robust, the questions raised for education in this book are illustrative and suggestive. We invite users to ask the question: “What might this trend mean for my education system and my work?”
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Migration and mobility: brings together trends on migration to and from OECD countries and the resulting growing share of those born in a foreign country. Pushing the boundaries: discusses the exponential rise in populations’ air travel mobility and air freight practices, as well as their road and rails alternatives. Undeniably global: the globalisation of economies, as shown through growing trade and levels of foreign investment. A changing balance: the emerging economic powers and the changing global landscape. Is our natural world at risk?: focuses on biodiversity loss as measured through deforestation and the incidence of natural disasters to illustrate human impact on the environment. Think green: a population effort in the preservation of the natural environment and nations’ long-term commitment to renewable energies. International divides of affluence and poverty: the widening divide between the richer and the poorer regions in the world, as well as the world regional differences in declining child mortality.
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Urban life and the rise of the megacity: trends and forecasts of continuing growth in urbanisation and the resulting rise of megacities. Well-being in an urban landscape: presents data on changing household structures and improved air quality in large residential areas. Towards safer communities: examines incarceration rates and road accidents in OECD countries. War and peace: illustrates the military’s activity through the lenses of expenditure and proportion of the workers in the armed forces. Body and society: The weight of nations: tackles health and nutrition as obesity becomes an epidemic in the developed world. Investing in health: considers health expenditure data in conjunction with premature death through the indicator called Potential Years of Life Lost. The ballot box: looks at civic engagement as measured through voter turnout and voter registration, basic pillars of a healthy democracy.
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Women in the workplace: explores trends in female employment and the persisting wage difference between genders. The best of both worlds: examines the trade-off between family and career in women’s lives. Skills: A local matter: looks at local levels of skills mismatch and equilibrium and skill loss or decline throughout life. Knowledge economies: the transition towards more knowledge intensive economies through the growing importance of R and D activities and a composite index of indicators. New ideas: Patents and people: illustrates the increasing numbers of people employed as researchers and their output through patents filed around the world. Flexible work?: examines flexibility in the labour market through two trends: the numbers of full-time workers and the numbers of salaried workers compared to those self-employed. Mind the gap: highlights the income divide between the haves and have-nots, and also examines the changing shares of national income devoted to social expenditures.
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Ageing societies: trends and forecast about the growing number of older people in OECD countries, and a rise in old-age dependency ratios. Love then marriage?: questions what is normal in family life through decreasing marriage rates and increasing numbers of unmarried parents. Smaller families: looks at the long-term trend of declining birth rates, recently (at least temporarily) reversed, as well as shrinking households. Balancing the budget: observes that households with children are better off, but also spending more over time. Infant and adolescent health: teenage and child health examined through pregnancy levels and low birth weight, respectively. Great expectations: looks at child poverty figures and trends in children’s expectations of success from PISA 2003 and 2009. A late journey to parenthood: considers the postponement of family through the average age of women’s first birth, and looks at enrolment in early childhood educational programmes.
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Universal access?: looks at patterns in access to computers in schools and at work. Exponential use of the Internet: the rapidly-expanding worldwide network and exponential rise in Internet use. The world in your pocket: focuses on the expansion of mobile phones and their increasing use as broadband devices. A digital society: examines the outbreak of social networks with the example of Facebook and its number of active users, as well as the online advertising opportunity it has created. Local diversity: the use of English language is progressively losing its prevalence on the Internet as online interactions among communities emphasise the diversity of cultures. Transforming our Internet: looks at the rise in the numbers of Apps available for download to portable devices and Internet traffic for cloud computing. New connections, emerging risks: takes a walk on the wild side of cyber bullying and internet fraud.