Emerging Trends in Education for 2024
I always loved the uniqueness of the school calendar juxtaposed to our commonly used Gregorian version. Indeed, both celebrate the start of 2024, but they engage the new year with a distinctly different tenor. In general, as the population enters January 1st with promises and a renewed energy for the start of the calendar year, many educators are tuning their engine up after an extended break to continue a venture that is about five months old. To summarize, educators simultaneously navigate both a launch and a return as they plan students’ learning experiences for the remaining months of the school calendar.
So, what did I love about all of this? In one word, “opportunity.” In short, the overlapping calendars provides educators the timing to conceptualize, discuss, and field test education trends as they manifest with groups of people (students, teachers, parents, and administrators) who are all in the midst of the school year. The alternative, tackling these topics in August or September at the start of school invites implementation lag and is forced to compete with the complexities of a new year.
The trends educators will start or continue to address in 2024 will vary across the nation. However, the list below identifies five that are in the foreground of work in my district. On their own, they are neither positive nor negative. Rather, they are changes that need to be addressed at some level this school year.Using AI: Guidance, examples, and professional learning are all needed. AI is not going away and, in fact, it is developing at a rate that demands a point of contact at schools to keep pace with the field. One approach is to collaborate with local teacher preparation programs to develop shared communication and expectations.
National Council of Social Studies or your state chapter to be part of that process.
As you think about the impact of these trends on your organization, I encourage you to begin (or continue) discussing how schools you work with are addressing them. And, in turn, how you can support their work. One aspect to understand how educators are dealing with change in 2024 is to understand if any hesitance is driven by peoples’ “Skill” or “Will” level. In other words, it will be important to know if folks need support in action or “doing” (skill) or if someone’s belief or vision (will) about education isn’t jiving with a trend. Of course, you can always invoke Octavia Butler’s wisdom to help put the trends in perspective, “All that you touch you change. All that you change changes you. The only lasting truth is change.” Here’s to a great 2024!
Written by: Craig Perrier
Educational Thought Leader and Practitioner
Craig is the High School Social Studies Curriculum and Instruction Specialist for Fairfax County Public Schools in Fairfax, VA. He also is an online adjunct professor of education for Framingham State University and the teacher certification program, Educate VA. Previously, he taught at American Schools in Brazil for six years and for six years in public schools in Massachusetts.
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