Conference Agenda

1. Introduction: Theoretical background, aims, and research question

Contemporary discourse concerning the future of education is increasingly influenced by fundamental changes in society and economy. Within this discourse, New Work has emerged as a pivotal concept, encompassing changes that extend beyond flexible employment arrangements or technological innovation. Rather, New Work is framed as a normative orientation emphasizing self-determination, meaningful work, responsibility, and social participation (Bergmann, 2020, pp. 11–12; Erpenbeck & Sauter, 2021, p. 13). Recent contributions embed these ideas in broader transformation narratives of economic activity, including responsibility-oriented and common-good-based approaches such as the Quality Economy (Thomsen et al., 2025).

These developments are accompanied by changing expectations regarding learning and competence development. In this context, the concept of New Learning is discussed as an educational response to New Work, emphasizing self-directed, reflective, and socially embedded learning processes that extend beyond employability toward judgment and responsibility (Foelsing & Schmitz, 2021, p. 178; Lipp et al., 2025, p. 5). Learning is thus conceptualized as an institutionalized yet participatory process situated between individual agency and pedagogical structuring.

Educational institutions are increasingly confronted with the challenge of translating these transformation narratives into coherent learning environments. Vocational education is a salient field for examining these dynamics due to its close relationship with labor markets and professional practice. Tensions between autonomy and structure, flexibility and stability, as well as individual responsibility and institutional framing are not unique to vocational education but become particularly evident within it. Therefore, the present study aims to empirically explore how future educators in vocational contexts perceive and interpret central principles of New Work and New Learning.

The study addresses the following research question: Which visions do students of the master’s program in Business Education (and Development) have about the future of work and learning, and which implications emerge for the design of future-oriented (vocational) education?

2. Methods

A survey was conducted at the three Austrian universities of Graz, Vienna, and Innsbruck, which offer master’s programs in Business Education (and Development). The data were collected via a predominantly quantitative online questionnaire administered in two waves (summer semester 2024 and winter semester 2025/26). The questionnaire assessed perceptions of central principles of New Work (e.g., digitalization, flexibilization, self-organization, boundary blurring, and meaningfulness) as well as New Learning (e.g., self-directed learning, collaboration, and reflection). The final sample comprises a total of 378 students. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistical methods.

To complement the quantitative findings, approximately 20 qualitative semi-structured interviews with students are planned for the summer semester 2026. These interviews will be analyzed using qualitative content analysis, and will serve to contextualize and deepen the interpretation of the survey results.

3. Results and Discussion

Initial findings indicate a broad endorsement of core principles associated with New Work, particularly flexibilization, self-organization, and meaningfulness. Concurrently, responses concerning boundary blurring evince ambivalent attitudes, thereby suggesting an increased sensitivity toward the dissolution of boundaries between work and private life.

With regard to New Learning, the results reveal a tension between the high relevance attributed to self-directed learning processes and the continued importance of structured, socially embedded learning environments. From the students’ perspective, learning is not primarily perceived as an individualized activity, but rather as an institutionally framed process integrating autonomy with reflection, social exchange, and pedagogical guidance.

The findings point to a multifaceted understanding of New Work and New Learning, emphasizing both their perceived advantages and constraints in the context of vocational education.

4. Educational Significance of the research

Although the study is empirically situated within vocational education, its educational significance extends beyond this field. Vocational education functions here as an analytically dense context in which central challenges of future-oriented education become particularly visible due to its proximity to labor market developments.

The findings indicate that the design of learning environments that are aligned with New Work and New Learning cannot be exclusively based on increased self-direction or flexibility. Instead, they require pedagogical framing that integrates autonomy with social embedding, reflection, and institutional responsibility. While these implications are discussed primarily in relation to vocational education, they also inform broader educational debates on how learning environments can support individual agency while maintaining coherence and guidance under conditions of societal and economic transformation.

In view of the profound and complex challenges societies are facing in the context of the climate crisis, far-reaching transformational processes are required Schneidewind, 2018; Lenton, 2019; Göpel, 2020). Against this backdrop, the question arises of how formal and non-formal educational spaces can be designed to foster futures literacy (UNESCO) among young people and to encourage and enable them to actively engage in transformation processes towards sustainable development. This contribution starts from the assumption that such educational aims require open experimental spaces in which learners can collectively explore, reflect upon and negotiate different visions of the future (Seitz, 2018). In this context, co-creation as well as artistic and creative approaches play a key role (Galafassi et al., 2018; Bentz & O’Brien, 2019).

The paper addresses two central research questions. First, how can co-creative processes be concretely designed in formal and non-formal educational contexts? Who collaborates with whom in these processes, in which constellations, and what kinds of challenges emerge? Second, what specific potentials do artistic and creative practices hold within co-creative processes, particularly with regard to the promotion of futures literacy?

The empirical basis of the study is twofold. On the one hand, the transdisciplinary project Co-CreART. Co-Creating Change! (2023–2027) serves as a qualitative case study for the analysis of co-creative educational processes. At the centre of the project is the CreART-Lab, a mobile, flexible and expandable learning laboratory that was developed through co-creative processes together with children and young people. The CreART-Lab integrates participatory formats, methods and materials, including experiments, workshops, games, interactive exhibitions and installations and so on. Artistic-creative and scientific-technical approaches are continuously intertwined. The educational activities focus on topics related to climate protection and sustainability such as circular economy, sustainable building and living, and climate-friendly mobility. Within this paper, the project functions as an analytical starting point for examining different forms and dynamics of co-creation in educational contexts.

On the other hand, the study draws on semi-structured interviews conducted with team members of further co-creation spaces in the field of climate and energy. The aim of these interviews was to capture different understandings, experiences and structural conditions of co-creative practice across contexts. The interviews were conducted digitally and analysed using qualitative content analysis following Mayring (2015). The focus of the analysis was on identifying shared patterns, recurring challenges and enabling conditions of co-creative processes.

The findings show that co-creation is realised in diverse ways across the educational contexts studied, particularly with regard to role distributions, decision-making structures and forms of participation. In the case of Co-CreART, different modes of co-creative collaboration were identified, ranging from open, highly process-oriented approaches to more structured and moderated formats. Co-creation thus emerges less as a clearly defined method and more as a relational process that is continuously negotiated within specific contexts.

Furthermore, the results indicate that co-creative processes at the intersection of art and science open up specific potentials for the development of futures literacy. Artistic approaches in particular foster the ability to imagine alternative futures, to tolerate ambiguity and to engage productively with uncertainty, while scientific perspectives contribute to contextualising, structuring and critically reflecting on these future imaginaries. At the same time, recurring challenges become visible, especially with regard to power relations and decision-making processes, institutional frameworks, and the balance between openness and necessary structure. Based on the analyses, enabling conditions for co-creative work in educational contexts were identified, including transparent role clarification, consciously designed spaces for negotiation, sufficient temporal resources, and the recognition of artistic practices as distinct forms of knowledge production. Overall, the paper contributes empirically grounded insights to current discussions on co-creation as an educational practice for fostering futures literacy in the context of societal transformation.

Introduction

Current measures to mitigate climate change are insufficient to achieve the necessary pace of transformation (IPCC, 2023). Young people are highly aware of this and concerned about their future. A global study with 10 000 participants shows that 59% of adolescents and young adults are very concerned about climate change and 75% perceive the future as frightening (Hickman et al., 2021). Similar results can be found in Austria: among 24,000 respondents aged 14 to 25, 67% demand concrete measures related to the energy transition (Ö3 Youth Study, 2025).

Concerns related to global crises are often accompanied by pessimism, helplessness, and inactivity (Ojala, 2007). However, resignation must not be the result. Instead, young people need learning opportunities that foster active participation in societal transformation; for the energy transition, participation on individual and collective levels is necessary.

Against this background, the research project ‘WattsAhead – Shaping the Future with Energy Competence’ (09/2024–08/2027), conducted by physics education research groups at the Universities of Graz and Innsbruck, addresses this issue. The project focuses on future- and goal-oriented thinking (Levrini et al., 2021; Snyder et al., 2002) and on strengthening students’ intention to act at individual and collective levels.

The central research question is: How does a three-part educational intervention influence Austrian students aged 13 to 15 in their futures thinking and their perceived ability to contribute to the energy transition via individual and collective actions?

Methods

N = 323 students aged 13 to 15 from 14 Austrian school classes participated in a three-part intervention in the 2024/25 school year.

• Student laboratory at the university: Students were supposed to gain a basic understanding of renewable energy sources, energy use, and conservation. They developed a future scenario for a fictional island undergoing an energy transition and identified concrete steps to achieve the scenario.

• Co-creation workshop at school: The students transferred their work from the fictional setting to real life. An interview guide focusing on energy-conscious behaviour, the use of renewable energy sources, and participation in the energy transition was developed. Students interviewed adults from their environment using this guide.

• Evaluation workshop at school: The third workshop involved evaluating the interview data. Students analysed the responses and translated key findings into Instagram posts for public communication.

The intervention included mixed-methods data collection. All participating students answered a quantitative questionnaire and described their desired future energy scenario for Austria in qualitative data. N = 24 follow-up interviews were conducted approximately four weeks after the intervention, focusing on futures thinking and actions for participating in the energy transition. The presentation focuses on these follow-up interviews, analysed using qualitative content analysis (Kuckartz & Rädiker, 2024).

Results & Discussion

The analysis of the 24 follow-up interviews revealed key findings:

• About half of the interviewed students (N = 13) reported gaining knowledge about the energy transition. Students associated this with productive futures thinking. However, the data suggests that designing targeted measures for achieving a desired future scenario must be practiced. Since this was explicitly only done in the laboratory, we conclude that this needs stronger implementation in a redesign.

• Most students (N = 18) reported that the laboratory had a positive influence on personal learning. In contrast, subsequent steps of the intervention led to little further progress. This aligns with further intervention data. We believe there is considerable potential for development in the basic design of the intervention concerning the transfer of the energy transition from fictional to real-world contexts.

• Because most students reported a sense of individual agency (N = 21) ‒ particularly regarding everyday actions ‒ and collective agency (N = 18), the intervention seems to support students in developing such a sense of agency.

• On the other hand, the data suggests that a redesign should focus more on learning opportunities about effective individual, but especially collective action options, which were mentioned even less frequently than individual ones. In retrospect, they were also addressed less effectively during the intervention.

Educational Significance of the research

This research contributes to understanding how students can be supported in actively participating in the energy transition. It gives insights into how futures thinking can align with developing individual and collective actions to improve their perceived ability to contribute to the energy transition.