Emerging Trends and Pandemic Effects: The Future of Education

Sponsored by Springer Nature

Recorded on 07/29/2020
Posted in The Authority File

Episode 145

When COVID-19 entered our lives, one of the underlying anxieties from the looming illness was the uncertainty—when will life go back to normal? But as July comes to a close and the race for a vaccine continues, we face the reality of sitting with this pandemic long-term, and what that means for our education and economy.

Dr. Rupert Maclean of RMIT University looks at both the short and long-term effects of the pandemic on education and the job market, and predicts a transformation in the 21st-century skills that employers will demand. “Intelligence isn’t just to do with one’s analytical skills and mathematical skills and scientific skills; there are many other areas of intelligence such as empathy, such as social intelligence.”

In this final episode, Dr. Maclean considers the major elements of social disruption in this past year, and how our education systems need to adjust to alleviate our social, economic, and educational inequities. “What we have to do is diagnose the situation, and then look at what we can do to address the sort of tensions that are occurring to enable there to be a betterment of the human condition, rather than something which actually detracts for many people from the quality of their lives.”

About the guest:

Dr. Rupert Maclean
Adjunct Professor in the School of Education
RMIT University

Professor Rupert Maclean AO is currently based in Melbourne, where he is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Education, RMIT University, and also in Hobart from where, as CEO, he oversees and participates in assignments of his HK consultancy company Education Innovation for Development Consultancy. His 28 books and numerous journal articles, research reports, chapters in books, UNESCO publications and keynote addresses, nationally but mainly internationally, report on his research about skills development for employability, lifelong learning, educational innovation for development, educational disadvantage, the reform of secondary education, teacher education, sociology of teachers as an occupational group, and the economics of education.


Dr. Rupert Maclean’s publications including the International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of WorkHandbook of Technical and Vocational Education and Training Research and book series’ Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and ProspectsTechnical and Vocational Education and Training: Issues, Concerns and Prospects; and Education for Sustainability are all published as part of Springer Nature’s Education eBook Collection. For more information and access to the collection you can contact Springer Nature directly at libraryrelations@springer.com.