2 Introduction to John Dewey’s Pedagogical Philosophy
2 Introduction to John Dewey’s Pedagogical Philosophy
We will be reading John Dewey’s lectures given in 1938 and published as Experience & Education. If you begin reading without any introduction, you’ll likely feel that you are entering into the middle of a conversation and that you missed the set up.
In 1916, Dewey published a 24-chapter, in-depth pedagogical treatise: Democracy and Education. The ideas published there galvanized an intellectual and societal shift from “traditional” to “progressive” ideas about education.
The first chapter of Experience and Education begins with Dewey addressing the debate between “traditional” and “progressive” models of education. In short, “progressive” refers to Dewey’s own ideas, which by the time E&E was published, had become quite influential. By “traditional,” Dewey means the sort of ‘top-down’ education that was — prior to his influence — the norm in American schools.
Why Dewey’s educational philosophy is called “progressive” should become clear as you read E&E, but, to give you a quick leg up: “progressive” isn’t exactly the same as politically “left-leaning” (though there is surely important overlap between “progressive” educators and “progressive,” democratic political ideas).
For Dewey, progressive means that education is lifelong and, fundamentally, teaches us how to continue to learn. Education aims not toward a goal but toward aims — aims that we develop from our own intrinsic interests (individual and social, inextricably linked) and that we strive toward, though we may never achieve them. Indeed, to achieve an aim would be somewhat counter-productive: if you perceive that you have accomplished the purpose of your education, then you would stop learning and growing. For Dewey, that would be the worst possible outcome for the individual (and for society, especially a democratic society).
The terms “progressive” and “traditional” can be a little confusing for us, because progressive education was, for a time in the early 20th century, widely accepted as the correct model for public education in the United States. (So, it has been an historical if not a “traditional” part of the story of education in the U.S., and there is a robust tradition of progressivism in the history of U.S. education.) Both before and then again after that time, however, “traditional” models have dominated in both policy and practice. Meanwhile, some “progressive” values, educators, and schools have continued to persist throughout the 20th century and into today. Now that I’ve possibly made that a little more confusing for you while trying to clarify, let me try to prep you a little bit for the theoretical content of Experience & Education.
I’ll post a few central ideas/quotes from Dewey’s Democracy and Education (1916) here. By reading through this first, you’ll be familiar with some of the ideas that Dewey subsequently attempted to clarify in Experience & Education.
(I can’t help but add that I love this book and *highly*