ABSTRACT
The previous discussion has underlined the importance to the curriculum of a wide range of socially and personally oriented futures concerns. It has established the appropriateness of the early childhood curriculum for the exploration of these issues. Applying these concerns in the early childhood curriculum need not involve the early childhood professional in any radically new philosophical and educational frameworks. Rather, it provides a means of extending and re-articulating existing developmental objectives from the vantage point of new perspectives. The discussion of four-and five-year-old children’s views on the future also demonstrated their readiness to engage with some of the key concepts of futures studies. The young children of the interviews were seen already to possess many of the positive attitudes towards time and the future which futures studies researchers seek to reinstil in adults and older children. But while it has been established that the outlook of young children and the nature of the early childhood curriculum share much in common with the emphases of futures studies, the question remains as to how the objectives of a futures-focused curriculum should be defined and then translated into practical learning experiences.
