Thoughtful collaborated with artist Ruth Levene on her research-based participatory artwork that investigated the role of schools in a time of climate and ecological collapse.
Government
Reimagining schooling: Philosophical enquiry and policy
Philosophy has a vital role to play in shaping how we think about the future especially now, when that future feels uncertain. Our Co-Director, Dr Grace Lockrobin, had the opportunity to explore this idea in a 2024-25 collaboration with artist Ruth Levene, which incorporated a workshop at the Department for Education in Sheffield, and later inspired a second workshop at the DfE London.
Reimagining Schooling for the end of what we lnow: Thoughtful at the Department for Education
Ruth’s residency with the DfE hosted by Policy Lab, set out to examine the systems, assumptions, and decision-making processes that underpin education policy. Over the course of a year, she explored a pressing and complex question: how – and why – do we educate in a time of climate breakdown and ecological crisis? At the heart of her enquiry were deeply philosophical questions: What kind of world are we educating for? And what will children need to navigate it?
Together, Grace and Ruth co-created a workshop designed to bring these questions to life though conversation between a group of experts. The workshops aimed to draw out insights that might speak to the Department for Education during a crucial period of decision-making as the Curriculum and Assessment Review (published in 2026) was underway.
The workshop invited a diverse group of participants – civil servants, educators, philosophers, psychologists, activists, and researchers – to imagine the future of education for a class of four-year-olds starting school in 2025 as they head into a life that may take them into the next century. This cohort of children includes Ruth’s own son. What might their lives require of them? And how should education policy respond?
From the outset, Ruth and Grace sought to create a space of openness and equality. Participants were asked not to reveal their professional roles until the very end of the session, helping to dissolve hierarchies and encourage more authentic dialogue. Drawing on Thoughtful’s approach to philosophical enquiry and guided by Ruth’s artistic sensitivity, the session combined philosophical discussion with creative and reflective practices, including storytelling, drawing, mapping, and elements inspired by Quaker traditions.
Imagining the future
As the workshop began, each participant received a drawing made by a four-year-old, who had been asked to imagine and describe the future. These images (pictured below) served as both a grounding and a provocation – reminding the group of what is at stake when we discuss educational policy.
"Buildings will be in the sea and people will have rockets" Emilia, aged 5. (With Thanks to Ruth Levene for this material).
Mapping uncertanty
One of the workshop’s central activities invited participants to map their expectations of the future. They were asked to draw a line across a graph representing the trajectory of civilisation from 2025 to 2100, narrating their thinking as they went (see below). As they spoke, key words and ideas were captured, gradually forming a shared picture of the future we are preparing children for.
What emerged was a striking consensus: the future is likely to be precarious and volatile. Rather than certainty, stability, or linear progress, participants described disruption, complexity, and change – education must prepare young people not for a fixed future, but for uncertainty itself.
What we need to know
Building on this, participants worked in groups to explore what children might need in such a world. They mapped ideas across four areas:
- Knowledge and ways of knowing
- Skills and crafts
- Collective qualities and personal characteristics
- Rituals, support, ceremony, and community
This holistic framing encouraged participants to move beyond traditional curriculum thinking, considering not just what children should know, but who they might need to be, and how they might need to live together.
What next
The outcomes of Ruth’s residency, research, and our collaborative workshop were later brought together in an exhibition at Somerset House. Presented as a graphic report, the exhibition distilled the work into a series of provocations that challenged the ambition of the Curriculum and Assessment Review which had stated its aim was ‘evolution not revolution’. In light of the climate and ecological emergency, the workshop found that revolution is exactly what is needed.
Among the pieces on display was a letter addressed to the Secretary of State for Education. The letter challenged the framing of the review inviting deeper reflection on whether incremental adaptation is enough in the face of profound global shifts. You can find the maps, read Ruth’s letter, and read a reply from Stephen Morgan, MP Minister for Early Education, on Ruth’s website.
In the summer of 2025, Ruth and Grace collaborated again to co-convene a workshop on the ‘polycrises’ facing education. The workshop was attended by Stephen Morgan who listened to a range of experts decribe ‘pedagogies of reconnection’ which help children reconnect with nature, others and themselves. In a Q&A with the minister, Grace defended P4C as one such approach.
P4C and policy discussion
For Thoughtful, this collaboration was a powerful reminder of the role philosophical enquiry can play in public life. By creating spaces where people can think together across disciplines, professions and generations we open up new possibilities for how we understand education, and what it is for.
