Nadine Wagener-Böck
Schools are instrumental in passing on knowledge to future generations deemed relevant by society. Based on a year-long ethnographic study of a Year 9 to Year 10 class in a comprehensive school (Integrierte Gesamtschule) following their daily activities, integrating tablets, smartphones, smart boards, and other digital devices into their school life, this chapter discusses how concepts of the future are enacted by students and teachers and, moreover, what these digital technologies imply for these practices. Leaning on the practice theory approach and the theoretical framework of futural orientations, the chapter delineates how the future is performed – and, by doing so, shaped and negotiated – in class. Through ethnographic vignettes, the chapter presents various forms of everyday future-making in school and reflects on how futural orientations rely on digital technologies in each of the cases. It challenges positions in educational politics, confronting them with more nuanced and ambiguous aspects of digital future-making in daily school life.