The Various Worldwide Futures for School Psychology

Abstract

'From the gloomy streets of London after World War II came a warning of a gloomy world of the future, a future of technical marvels that in the hands of ruthless dictators had turned the people into soul-less robots.'

So begins George Orwell's novel, 1984, a date which has come to be a shorthand term for the future. But the future is now, in that 1984 has arrived. This issue of School Psychology International is composed of commentaries by school psychologists from 10 countries who have accepted invitations to speculate on the various futures for their respective nations. In that the future develops from the present, the authors have charted the current contexts for school psychology and their anticipations for the dawn of the twenty-first century. This topic, which involves so much forward speculation, is prompted by Orwell's fateful predictions. Thus it seems appropriate to place the writer, his anticipations and the famous novel into perspective.