Dewey's Participatory Educational Democracy

In this essay, Emil Višňovský and Štefan Zolcer outline John Dewey's contribution to democratic theory as presented in his 1916 classic Democracy and Education. The authors begin with a review of the general context of Dewey's conception of democracy, and then focus on particular democratic ideas and concepts as presented in Democracy and Education. This analysis emphasizes not so much the technical elaboration of these ideas and concepts as their philosophical framework and the meanings of democracy for education and education for democracy elaborated by Dewey. Apart from other aspects of Deweyan educational democracy, Višňovský and Zolcer focus on participation as one of its key characteristics, ultimately claiming that the notion of educational democracy Dewey developed in this work is participatory.     

JOHN DEWEY ON LISTENING AND FRIENDSHIP IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY

In this essay, Leonard Waks examines John Dewey's account of listening, drawing on Dewey's writings to establish a direct connection in his work between listening and democracy. Waks devotes the first part of the essay to explaining Dewey's distinction between one‐way or straight‐line listening and transactional listening‐in‐conversation, and to demonstrating the close connection between transactional listening and what Dewey called “cooperative friendship.” In the second part of the essay, Waks establishes the further link between Dewey's notions of cooperative friendship and democratic society with particular reference to machine‐age technologies of mass communication. He maintains that while these technologies provide the means for extending communications throughout modern industrial nations, they simultaneously undermine the conditions fostering face‐to‐face listening‐in‐conversation. It remains an open question, Waks concludes, whether new educational arrangements incorporating interactive digital communication technologies will embody and promote transactional listening‐in‐conversation and revitalized democratic community.     

Democratic Education versus Smithian Efficiency: Prospects for a Deweyan Ideal in the “Neoliberal Age”

In this essay, David Meens examines the viability of John Dewey's democratic educational project, as presented in Democracy and Education, under present economic and political conditions. He begins by considering Democracy and Education's central themes in historical context, arguing that Dewey's proposal for democratic education grew out of his recognition of a conflict between how political institutions had traditionally been understood and organized on the one hand, and, on the other, emerging requirements for personal and social development in the increasingly interconnected world of the early twentieth century. Meens next considers Dewey's ideas in our contemporary context, which is dominated by a neoliberal ideology that extends the economic logic of Smithian efficiency to all domains of modern social and political life. He argues that the prevalence of neoliberalism poses two challenges to Deweyan democratic education: first, Dewey's emphasis on general education and a resistance to specialization is economically inefficient; and second, Dewey's strong, democratic conception of the “the public” is anathema to the neoliberal vision of the public as a conglomeration of individual agents. These challenges, he concludes, significantly stack the deck against Deweyan education by ensuring that the latter will be neither economically practicable nor widely understood.     

Deweyan Democratic Agency and School Math: Beyond Constructivism and Critique

In this article, Kurt Stemhagen reconstructs mathematics education in light of Dewey's democratic theory and his ideas about mathematics and mathematics education. The resulting democratic philosophy and pedagogy of mathematics education emphasizes agency and the connections between mathematics and students' social experiences. Stemhagen considers questions about the disconnect between constructivist reformers and critical mathematics educators, and he positions Dewey's ideas as a way to draw on the best of both to create an active and more democratic school math experience.     

The Paramount Importance of Experience and Situations in Dewey's Democracy and Education

In this essay, David Hildebrand connects Democracy and Education to Dewey's wider corpus. Hildebrand argues that Democracy and Education's central objective is to offer a practical and philosophical answer to the question, What is needed to live a meaningful life, and how can education contribute? He argues, further, that this work is still plausible as “summing up” Dewey's overall philosophy due to its focus upon “experience” and “situation,” crucial concepts connecting Dewey's philosophical ideas to one another, to education, and to democracy. He opens the essay with a brief synoptic analysis of Democracy and Education's major philosophical ideas, moves on to sections devoted to experience and situation, and then offers a brief conclusion. Some mention is made throughout about the surprisingly significant role art and aesthetics can play in education.     

Introduction to Section III: Deweyan Growth in Practice

At present, the structures, practice, and discourse of schooling are anchored to a “commercial spirit” that understands students, educators, and parents as economic operators trading competitively in human capital and to a discourse of failure that is disabling those who seek to understand and enact John Dewey's notion of education as democratic practice. Here Barbara Stengel illustrates both the commercial spirit in public schools and the discourse of school failure across two geopolitical settings: Shanghai, China, and urban U.S. schools. She argues that framing the educational enterprise in terms of economic success and failure makes it difficult for educators to address Dewey's vision of democracy and education substantively. Stengel concludes with an acknowledgment that, regardless of putative political commitments, these two public school systems are schooling — though not often educating — the same neoliberal subject, but that Dewey's vision of democracy and education nonetheless remains critical and compelling.     

DEWEYAN DEMOCRACY IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD

Drawing primarily on the work of John Dewey, Kathy Hytten argues that rethinking democracy can help us to respond more productively to the challenges of globalization. Dewey maintained that democracy is much more than a political system; instead it is a personal way of life, a mode of associated living, and a moral ideal. Yet this is not the vision of democracy prevalent today, especially within the rhetoric of globalization. Hytten begins by describing some of the challenges of globalization. She then shows how Dewey faced similar challenges, discussing why Dewey's ideas are still relevant. Hytten goes on to trace how Dewey's conception of democracy can help us to think differently about these challenges. She concludes by arguing that Dewey offers us some valuable democratic habits, dispositions, and visions that remain important resources in building a pluralistic, socially just, inclusive, and enriching community within our globalized world.     

Dewey in Transition: Towards a Pragmatist Ethics of Recognition in Schools

This article aims to study one of the potential contemporary updates of pragmatist philosophy. Specifically, it explores pedagogic possibilities that open up by adding Axel Honneth's studies to the discussion on the ethics of recognition, with the community dimension of education found in John Dewey's philosophy of education. In the spirit of Richard S. Bernstein's understanding of Dewey's radical democracy and from a more clearly educational philosophical perspective, the article explores the pedagogical possibilities that arise from broadening the communitarian dimension of education found in Dewey's philosophy of education with the studies by Honneth on the ethics of recognition. In the line of Colin Koopman's definition of transitionalism as a ‘philosophical temperament’, Honneth's ethics of recognition ‘transitions’ the Deweyian tradition towards a more contemporary disposition to think through the ethical dimension of education. The article intends to make use of a fruitful dialogue between classic pragmatism and critical theory to address some challenges of contemporary school life.     

DEWEY'S THEORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PUBLIC AND THE PUBLIC CHARACTER OF CHARTER SCHOOLS

In this essay, Leonard Waks reconsiders the issue of the public character of charter schools, that is, schools funded through public taxation but operated by non‐state organizations such as nonprofit and for‐profit educational corporations and nongovernmental public interest organizations. Using John Dewey's conception of a democratic public as a framework, Waks examines the following questions: (1) Are schools chartered and funded by government, but operated by nonprofit nongovernmental organizations, ever appropriate instruments of a democratic public? (2) If so, what criteria might distinguish those that are appropriate from those that are not? (3) How might public education be re‐institutionalized so as to include the charter schools that are appropriate? Waks concludes that Dewey's theory of democratic publics can play a useful role in thinking about how to balance the democratic benefits of charter schools for the various subcommunities of our society with the democratic requirement of broad public discourse and intergroup education.     

Dewey and Culture: Responding to ‘Extreme Views’

Dewey famously believed that we learn through experience, through which we build up habits. Education should be about developing good habits. Experience for Dewey, is not an individual possession but grows out of social interaction, which always takes place in a given culture. Dewey's views on culture are significant in relation to a current issue in education in England, namely the legal requirement for teachers to report students who express ‘extreme views’, under the Prevent Strategy. The article first gives the current context in recent policy implementation in England and discusses how it raises ethical dilemmas which profoundly affect what it means to be a teacher. This is then illustrated through a vignette, a narrative of a newly qualified teacher living a dilemma raised by the policy. Consequences for the development of democratic education and education for democracy emerge from considering Dewey's views on experience and culture in relation to the teacher's dilemma. The conclusion suggests some ways forward in the face of the difficulties raised by the Prevent strategy reporting requirement.     

Book Review Section 2

In discussing reform of public schools, the conversation is usually about schools; in this article I examine the meaning of public, drawing on Dewey's (1927/1954/1988) understanding of the nature of a public and its importance to democratic life. Vouchers and other market challenges to public education are a danger to the existence of a public, and a threat to democratic life. I consider the relevant differences between publics, markets, and audiences, and their relation to democracy. Finally, I consider public schools as both a reflection of public will and a central means to create a public.     

DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION IN THE TWENTY‐FIRST CENTURY: DEWEYAN PRAGMATISM AND THE QUESTION OF RACISM

Why is John Dewey still such an important philosopher today? Writing from the perspective of the Cologne Program of Interactive Constructivism, Stefan Neubert tries in what follows to give one possible answer to this question. Neubert notes that Cologne constructivism considers Dewey in many respects as one of the most important predecessors of present‐day constructivism and regards Deweyan pragmatism as one of its most important dialogue partners in contemporary discussions about pragmatism and constructivism in philosophy and education. Among the many aspects in which Dewey's works still speak powerfully to us today, Neubert highlights in this essay one theme that is at the heart of Dewey's philosophical approach: the relation between democracy and education.     

Imagining Democratic Futures for Public Universities: Educational Leadership Against Fatalism's Temptations

At current rates, almost all U.S. public universities could reach a point of zero state subsidy within the next fifty years. What is a public university without public funding? In this essay, Kathleen Knight Abowitz considers the future of public universities, drawing upon the analysis provided in John Dewey's Democracy and Education. Knight Abowitz conducts an initial institutional analysis through two broad prisms: that of the political landscape that authorizes universities as public institutions, and that of the present political–economic context of public education in general and public universities in particular. Dewey's conception of democratic education is then explored; his arguments regarding aims, experience, thinking, and social intelligence provide important tools for imagining the democratic futures of public universities today.     

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DEWEY'S AESTHETICS IN ART EDUCATION IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION

On the occasion of Dewey's sesquicentennial anniversary, Kazuyo Nakamura explores Dewey's aesthetics, which holds the plurality of art and culture in high regard. Nakamura develops a theoretical foundation for art education in the present age of globalization based on educational insights drawn from Dewey's aesthetics. The theme of this essay unfolds based on three topics: Dewey's view of the educational value of art in general education, the fundamental viewpoint of art in relation to democracy, and the discussion of the educational aspect of individuality and community with respect to the experience of art. Based on Dewey's aesthetics, this essay presents new perspectives on art education that emphasize the realization of personal values, development of intelligent visual literacy, and enhancement of the quality of communication of art, in the context of globalization.     

The Place and Conditions for Democratic Education in Interreligious Encounters

This paper explores the spatial and environmental conditions for democratic education in an interreligious project. The interreligious project provides a case for applying Dewey's concepts of experience and environment. Four kinds of experiences are presented: invited places-being a guest, common meeting points-shaping an interreligious “we”, nomadic places-sharing everyday life and school as a secular public place-acting in public. It is concluded that educational experience is shaped by acting in a variety of environments. However, dimensions of power are also present in the context of civil life and should be taken into consideration.     

Educational Visions from Two Continents: What Tagore adds to the Deweyan perspective

In this global village, it is relevant to look at two educational visionaries from two continents, John Dewey and Rabindranath Tagore. Dewey observed that the modern individual was depersonalized by the industrial and commercial culture. He, thus, envisioned a new individual who would find fulfillment in maximum individuality within maximum community, which was embodied in his democratic concept and educational philosophy. Tagore's educational vision was based on India's traditional philosophy of harmony and fullness. It focused on self‐realization within the context of international education. This article compares the educational visions of Dewey and Tagore and demonstrates that Tagore's international educational perspective adds to Dewey's concepts of social individual and democracy and that their perspectives have implications for contemporary education.     

The Democratic Curriculum: Concept and Practice

Dewey continues to offer arguments that remain powerful on the need to break down the divisions between ‘academic’ and ‘vocational’ in terms of his specific theory of knowledge. Dewey's writings are used to argue that a democratic curriculum needs to challenge such divisions to encompass the many forms of knowledge necessary in the contemporary classroom. Gandin and Apple's investigation of community participation (Orçamento Participativo or Participatory Budgeting) in the curriculum of the Citizen School in Porto Alegre, Brazil, will be explored as an example of democratic structures informing educational planning. The work of Paul Hirst, Atli Har?arson and Chris Jane Brough is analysed regarding the issue of curriculum aims and student negotiation. Dewey's emphasis on learning as a collective enterprise will resonate here. Brough offers innovative research on student‐centred curriculum integration that suggests even very young children are able to participate in debate over their own learning. Hirst and Har?arson provide contrasting views on the issue of curriculum aims—Hirst arguing that a curriculum cannot exist without definable aims while Har?arson challenges the very notion of settled aims if students are to be reflexive regarding their education. The article also refers to the work of Alexander on the use of dialogic questioning in the classroom. Such questioning, it is suggested, enhances and encourages collaborative forms of enquiry necessary for a democratic curriculum through discussion between teachers, students and other stakeholders.     

Dewey in His Skivvies: The Trouble with Reconstruction

In this essay, Robbie McClintock argues that educational theorists have inflated John Dewey's deserved reputation beyond what the quality of his work can sustain. He briefly recounts how Dewey developed a program for reconstruction in philosophy, education, and social life with the aim of overcoming chronic dislocations in social life. McClintock sees two parts to Dewey's reconstruction: a negative program, in which Dewey rejects the metaphysical heritage that had induced these social dislocations; and a positive program, in which he advances scientifically grounded instrumentalities for a more humane conduct of life. McClintock hypothesizes that Dewey's negative reconstruction, based on facile historical reasoning, dismissed historical resources that could have strengthened his positive program to develop a naturalistic humanism, one more instrumental in the art of living. To explain his hypothesis, McClintock selectively shows how, in numerous works, Dewey rejected prior thinking unnecessarily as a means to advance his ideas, focusing in particular on Dewey's dismissive assessment of Immanuel Kant's and G. W. F. Hegel's work. McClintock criticizes Dewey's historical views to encourage present‐day educational thinkers to avoid emulating them and to make full, creative use of the philosophical tradition instead. He closes the essay by suggesting how historical reason can anticipate future possibilities and thus inform present action, and by calling on all to use it in humanizing the lifeworld we share.     

Democracy and Education: Reconstruction of and through Education

While focusing on Democracy and Education, James Campbell attempts in this essay to offer a synthesis of the full range of John Dewey's educational thought. Campbell explores in particular Dewey's understanding of the relationship between democracy and education by considering both his ideas on the reconstruction of education and on the role of education in broader social reconstruction. Throughout his philosophical work, Campbell concludes, Dewey offers us a vision of a society self‐consciously striving to enable its members to live fully educative lives.     

Race,culture, and pluralism: The evolution of Dewey’s vision for a democratic curriculum

This is the second of four essays discussing John Dewey's short essay, ‘Education as engineering’. Dewey's views are remarkably timely against the background of recent discussions about the role of evidence in educational practice and a call for research that tells us ‘what works’. Dewey's view is nuanced and helps one to see what one should and should not expect from an engineering approach to education. However, Dewey pays little attention to the role of normative judgement in engineering and does not address the question of whether engineering in education might be fundamentally different from engineering in other domains. This paper provides some suggestions for how one may want to articulate this difference and argues that it is important to bear in mind that there are differences between the building of bridges and the ‘building’ of human beings.