This inter-faculty initiative at the University of Cologne brings research, teaching and international collaboration together around “Futures Literacy”, and puts students at its centre. Involved with their Master of Education programmes are the Institute for Biology Didactics, the Department of English 2, the Department of German Language and Literature 1, and the inter-faculty Master programme IMES. 

A sustainable link between research and teaching within an innovative participatory format not only strengthens research-based (teacher) education but also fosters a research culture in which the next generation helps shape concepts such as Futures Literacy from the start. Against the backdrop of profound social, ecological and technological change, Futures Literacy is gaining importance as a key competence.

What is Futures Literacy?

Futures Literacy, as UNESCO states, is the skill that allows people to better understand the role of the future in what they see and do. Being futures literate empowers the imagination, enhances our ability to prepare, recover and invent as changes occur. It strengthens imagination, expands our capacity to act, and builds resilience in the face of environmental and health-related uncertainty – helping us to see change as something we can actively shape. It is a competence that deserves to be democratised and carried into every area of life.

About the project

Across four Cologne degree programmes (M.Ed. Biology, M.Ed. English, M.Ed. German, and IMES), students and teaching staff co-develop projects on Futures Literacy in dedicated seminars during the winter semester 2026/27 – from biology-education projects on the future to analyses of how futures are imagined in science communication and literature. Some courses include field trips, and all of them invite students to explore new forms of knowledge, sharpen their awareness of alternative futures, and design transformative pathways.

Results and event

The semester culminates in the international hybrid event “Futures Literacy – Perspectives on Health, Environment, and Education”, held as part of the 20th Winter Meeting Conference. Talks by leading experts meet students’ perspectives and project results in student panels, discussed with international researchers and students from other disciplines and Universities (e.g., the University College London (UK) and the Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University (Pune, India) – online and on site in Cologne.

Why it matters

By linking research, teaching and global exchange, the initiative helps to establish Futures Literacy as a democratically accessible competence in teacher education. It fosters a sustainable, future-ready research culture, genuine dialogue across academic status groups, and a deeper understanding of human–environment relationships.