The future is a widely popular topic showcased by education institutions as much as on casual everyday discussions. The reasons why the future is an important discussion topic can differ widely in each situation – for example school curriculum deciding which classes a student should or should not attend, or a person deciding whether or not to travel for the holidays.
The differences are in part related to how the idea of the future ‘feels’ differently in each case. For the examples of a curriculum defining study paths, the future ‘feels like’ a rational deliberation aimed at constructing an abstract, improved tomorrow for students. For the person planning their holidays, the idea of future summer travel might ‘feel’ rather concrete in the present – when one is anxiously looking forward to getting away.
“The future is not only an idea projected on an abstract timeline. It is also a sensation that feels slightly different on every situation,” says Camila da Rosa Ribeiro.
An abstract understanding of time produces particularly problematic conceptions of education
Education is often seen as a way to help people develop – intellectually, morally, and economically – preparing students for a future where they can shape their own lives. Students who already have knowledge, skills, or communication habits seen as valuable in school are often viewed as more prepared to shape their own futures. Da Rosa Ribeiro explains that this belief is based on the idea that education moves forward as a dividing line – where the student’s past must be overcome so that their present leads to a future with more freedom and control. It assumes that learning follows a natural, step-by-step divisive process, where each stage causes the next.
Da Rosa Ribeiro says that this is a problem because the idea that education follows a straight, step-by-step timeline often hides deep inequalities. Students who face social, economic, or political challenges – or who often come from historically racialized families – are often seen as less able to shape their own futures. This is because inheritances charged with depreciative historical images are commonly perceived as enmeshed with students’ present. This suggests that these students are seen as having less promising futures compared to other students, whose past is not viewed as strongly influencing their present.
“The students whose past and/or present is marked by social, economic, or political difficulties are often perceived in ways that naturalize them as having less conditions to handle the future well,” da Rosa Ribeiro affirms.
This brings important ethical consequences in the present. For instance, students often get into more trouble when teachers already assume they’ll act out or do something wrong. Also, beliefs in a natural cause-and-effect timeline must be questioned in today’s environmental, humanitarian, and democratic crises, as more people across broader regions simply cannot determine their own futures.
Futures are not determined by the past, but the two create nuances on each other
Da Rosa Ribeiro’s study introduces the concept of “fractal futures” as another image of time to orient educational theorization. A fractal pattern – like a spiral seen on seashells, plants, or tornados – carries a memory of a familiar shape, repeating in similar ways but always in slightly different way on each body.
“Each part of a fractal mirrors the whole, but without determining what comes next. It helps us imagining the past as not pre-conditioning the future, but rather a whole of time time folding into itself,” da Rosa Ribeiro explains.
The study draws on Black feminist philosophy to show how separating things into neat categories supports unfair systems like racial capitalism and colonialism – that create hidden parameters which are imposed upon everyone through the idea that they are ‘natural’. These systems divide time, space, and life into parts that can be controlled, reproducing unfair or inaccurate portraits of reality.
By looking at the history of racial capitalism and its impact on education, the study highlights the importance of rethinking how we imagine the future. It encourages us to see the future as something that is shaped by our collective actions and ethical practices, rather than a fixed path we assumed before it happens. It offers new tools and ideas for understanding the complexities of time, space, and becoming in a world with deep inequalities and environmental challenges.
Public defence on Friday 13 June
The doctoral dissertation of Master of Arts (Theatre and Drama) Camila da Rosa Ribeiro in education sciences is titled Fractal Futures: Worlds to come in-the-making of educational theory. It will be publicly examined with the permission of the Faculty of Education and Culture at Tampere University, at 15:30 on Friday 13.06.2025 in the auditorium K104 of the Linna building, Kalevantie 5. The Opponent will be Professor Denise Ferreira da Silva, from New York University. The Custos will be Professor Zsuzsa Millei, from the Faculty of Education and Culture, Tampere University.
The doctoral dissertation is available online.
The public defence can be followed via remote connection.