Welcome to the latest episode of this EnT! In this outing, we’re taking a look at some downright a priori assumptions which underpin and/or undermine industrial and I dare say capitalistic approaches to education vis-à-vis linear progression narratives! Who does the current paradigm most benefit? And why? These are just some of the questions we get into hereabouts!

Lots of linearity and sequential production made this video possible, no doubt! #ednontech

If you can hear it, you can believe it! This #ednontech, that is!*

*Individual results may vary!

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About the old legal indentures of 1840:

…All parties then agreed as to the evils of the situation.

Education by apprenticeship and education by schools have gone on for many generations side by side as two entirely distinct and unrelated forms of education. The newer movements are concerned with bringing these two kinds of education together and making of them a new kind of education which shall train equally for skill and for intelligence.

The propagandism that is being carried to all parts of the country…

Wright, C. D. (1908). The apprenticeship system in its relation to industrial education (No. 6). US Government Printing Office.

The perceived failures of education are particularly difficult for political and educational leaders to understand given the massive influx of resources invested in educational systems in recent years. This is a result of a linear expectation wherein output is proportional to the input.

Reilly, D. H. (1999). Non‐linear systems and educational development in Europe. Journal of Educational Administration, 37(5), 424-440.

In an era that everything around us is changing at incredibly fast rates, the contemporary human being as well as the social structures that he has built during the ages, are trying to cope with the new demands that are being created.

… this training process is subject to a “tayloristic” linear model of production that takes the student at childhood and gives him back to society and the dynamics of the market with the hope that he will be able to respond creatively to the constantly increasing demands. 

Anastasiades, P., & Retalis, S. (2001). The educational process in the emerging information society: Conditions for the reversal of the linear model of education and the development of an open type hybrid learning environment. In EdMedia (pp. 43-48). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).

Within an ordered school environment and curriculum built to serve the stated needs of industrialism and capitalism, the freedom for students to explore and express is tempered by initiatives intended to ensure that curricular practices are standardized and measurable in Nova Scotia’s Action Plan for Education 2015.

Syme, P. (2017). Assembly lines or assemblages: What the human equation can teach us about creativity and a modern education system in the digital age. Knowledge Cultures, 5 (02), 123-143.

One vision, the one I and others embrace, values certificates, degrees, and transfer but sees learning as valuable in and of itself. The other vision sees learning as a means to an end—students learn the material in order to pass classes that lead to certificates, degrees, and transfer. 

Fox, R., & Guagnini, A. (2024). What is Education for?. FACCTS (Spring).

Narrative

How does the linear narrative in education shape students’ lives?

This is exactly what we are trying to get at here

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Adding quality to your existence

Have you ever been ashamed
And felt society try to keep you down?
I begin to watch things change
And see them turn around #ednontech