Pedagogical Oracleis the result of educators’ collective reflection on transformative Catalan pedagogies of the pre- and post-Franco periods. It draws from ideas and practices of a number of schools and movements – Escola de Bosc [Forest School] (1914),Escola del Mar [School of the Sea] (1921), Escola Vil·la Joana (1921), Batec [Heartbeat ]teachers’ collective (1930s) and the social movement Escoles en Lluita [Schools in Struggle] (1970s). These reflections were explored according tothree focal points that simultaneously articulate a discourse: the political nature of education, pedagogical innovation, and communities and cares. A total of 73 educators from several disciplines worked together to explore and find inspiration inthe practices of the past, to imagine future scenarios leading to actions for the present. Instead of developing another education tool to implement inthe classroom, the teachers proposed a self-reflexive tool for themselves and their colleagues, focused onthe purposes and implications of teaching.

The Oracle is a meeting place for collective questioning, placing ourselves in distant dystopias to address our common challenges. From these perspectives, we can pause the overwhelming daily routine and reflect on our role as an educational community, identifying – both in fiction and reality –our policy space. Through this tool, the future becomes a condition of possibility, presenting both new and old challenges that we can jointly overcome. Through the nine speculative fictions and their questions, we situate ourselves in a dystopian future, which compels us to ask: What should education be like? We propose to collectively answer this question, sharing ideas that fundamentally shape our current teaching practices.

The Oracle is designed to be useful for teaching staff, educational coordination teams, and colleagues with a general interest in education. The idea is to pause for a moment and reflect playfully on how and why we do what we do, avoiding infinite debates. We hope that critical and collective reflection will help us address professional deficiencies, just as past pedagogical initiatives met the challenges of their time and transformed education forever.

This tool is sold together with the Fora per fer escola: Radical practices from Catalan pedagogies publication.