The Factory Model of Education

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Recommended: Standardized testing in education

Pinar refers to the current situation in the field of education as a “nightmare” because education is no longer in the hands of educators. Our society today is becoming full of citizens and educators who are comfortable being the silent majority. Educators are sitting back in the shadows remaining silent while our government tells us how and what to teach in order to cultivate the minds of an economically productive future society. Teachers are no longer able to educate students about the value of becoming intellectuals because their time is spent training students to pass a test. In order to solve this problem, Pinar suggests that we learn more about our past and how we came to this juncture in our lives in order to deal with the problem that exists in education until this day.
The factory model of education uses teachers as technicians simple there to administer scripted lessons and tests with no freedom of learning. This model makes schools seem more like a production line whose end product is to be citizens who can work to make them and their country economically competitive by accumulating mounds of stuff. The corporate model is not nearly as restrictive as the factory model. This model still limits what is taught in the classroom to a check sheet but teachers are allowed to be more flexible with their approach and teaching strategies.
Curriculum theory according to Pinar is complicated conversations where teachers are not allowed to teach how they deem appropriate. They must teach what they are told to teach based on curriculum derived from results on standardized tests.
Currere refers to education as the running of a course or a course of study. Currere focuses on referencing the past during the present...

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...m while having freedom to choose how to teach it. This allows the curriculum to become more personable. Teachers currently associate curriculum with government mandates. They believe that curriculum is what they are told to teach instead of what is desired to learn. Curriculum in the educational setting, according to Pinar, is intended to be used to teach us to think intellectually, sensitively, and with courage to prepare us to be individuals committed to other individuals.
Pinar suggests that educators respond to the current condition of curriculum and pedagogy by continuing to encourage students to become productive and pursue further education. He believes that education needs to be reconstructed using the complicated conversations. Teachers need to become intellectually independent, no longer business-oriented, and easily swayed by political practices.

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