"We are Still stuck in a Factory" : Social and Political Resistance to Changes in Education

Abstract

The changed dynamics of everyday life make it impossible for the present and future generations to replicate their parents’ life patterns in the new social, political and economic contexts. This is why the state sets new challenges and responds with innovations for the education system. The system “produces” people according to society’s trends of development. “It is the school which, in times of unprecedented transformation, prepares to make necessary social changes and innovations (or at least it should do so). It is the school which prepares the next generation to participate in the social system by bringing up citizens for the state and training qualifi ed employees for the economic system” (Sawisz 1989, p. 122, 5). Does the present education system offer sufficient opportunities for future citizens and employees to acquire the knowledge necessary for existing in a dynamically changing society? According to Alvin Toffler, it does not.