Arts-Based Approaches for Futures Literacy in Pre-Service Teacher Education: Their Pedagogical Potential and Challenges

Abstract

Futures Literacy is increasingly recognized as a key sustainability competence within the GreenComp framework, yet limited research has examined how arts-based pedagogies in teacher education can foster it. This study explores arts-based approaches to Futures Literacy within a micro-credential integrated into a first-year course for pre-service primary teachers. Developed within the GreenComp School project, the micro-credential comprised face-to-face and asynchronous components; the face-to-face arts-based activities were fully implemented, while engagement with the asynchronous component was limited. Data were collected through pre- and post-questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, participant artifacts, and the researcher’s reflective journal. The findings indicate increased self-reported understanding of Futures Literacy and identify six interconnected pedagogical processes: emotional engagement, communicating future-oriented messages, embodied learning, envisioning alternative futures, humanitarian values, and collaboration. Emotional engagement was particularly important to meaning-making and highlighted the affective complexity of engaging with uncertain futures. Arts-based speculative futuring supported envisioning alternative possibilities, although critical examination of assumptions, competing values, and perspectives was limited. The limited asynchronous component also highlighted challenges in integrating a non-assessed micro-credential into a compulsory first-year course. The study offers an empirically grounded account of how arts-based approaches can pedagogically enact Futures Literacy in teacher education.