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DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND TOMORROW

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2017

Jay Kloppenberg*
Affiliation:
African School for Excellence

Abstract

A century after its publication, Democracy and Education remains relevant and influential far beyond its original context. This essay explores the breadth of its relevance through a study of the use of Deweyan methods and ideas at a community high school in a small, impoverished township 50 km outside of Johannesburg, South Africa. Through this example, we learn that the relevance of Dewey's ideas are not limited either to his time or to his place, but instead fit seamlessly in a context as different from Dewey's as we can imagine. In a modern world in which most children outside of the world's wealthiest countries receive an education woefully inadequate for both the professional and civic responsibilities they will face as adults, this successful example begs the question of how modern school systems around the world might become more successful by harkening back to the ideas expressed in Democracy and Education.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 2017 

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References

NOTES

1 Dewey, John, Democracy and Education, 1916. Reprint (New York: Free Press, 1997), 119 Google Scholar.

2 References to African School for Excellence's innovative education approach have appeared in several South African newspapers and magazines, including the Mail & Guardian, The Times, The Star, the Independent School Association of South Africa Magazine, Cambridge Exams Magazine, and more.

3 John Dewey to Alice Dewey, Nov. 1, 1894, Dewey Papers, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale,

4 John Dewey, “Psychology and Social Practice,” Middle Works 1: 134–135, quoted in Westbrook, Robert B., John Dewey and American Democracy (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991), 9798 Google Scholar.

5 Hattie, John, Visible Learning (New York: Routledge, 2009), 22 Google Scholar.

6 Dewey, Democracy and Education, 38.

7 Dewey, Democracy and Education, 159.

8 Shayer, Michael, “Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education II: Its Effects and Scope,” International Journal of Science Education 21:8 (1999): 883902 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Shayer, Michael, “Not Just Piaget; Not Just Vygotsky, and Certainly Not Vygotsky as Alternative to Piaget,” Learning and Instruction 13 (2003): 465–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Isoda, Masami, “Where Did Lesson Study Begin, and How Far Has It Come?” in Japanese Lesson Study in Mathematics: Its Impact, Diversity, and Potential for Educational Improvement, eds. Isoda, Masami, Stephens, Max, Ohara, Yutaka, and Miyakawa, Takeshi (Singapore, Asia: World Scientific, 2007), 12 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Walker, Timothy, “The Joyful Illiterate Kindergarteners of Finland,” The Atlantic 1 (October 2015)Google Scholar. Web.

11 Herrnstein, Richard and Murray, Charles, The Bell Curve (New York: Free Press, 1994)Google Scholar.

12 Michael Shayer and Philip Adley, “Accelerating the Development of Formal Thinking in Middle and High School Students IV: Three Years after a Two-Year Intervention,” Journal of Research and Science Teaching (April 1993).

13 Dewey, Democracy and Education, 172.

14 Dewey, Democracy and Education, 65.

15 Dewey, Democracy and Education, 170.

16 Dewey, Democracy and Education, 78.

17 See “Research Evidence on Reading for Pleasure,” Education Standards Research Team, UK Department of Education, May 2012. See also Clarke and De Zoysa, “Mapping the Interrelationships of Reading Enjoyment, Attitudes, Behaviour and Attainment,” National Literacy Trust, London: 2011.

18 Dewey, Democracy and Education, 210.

19 Dewey, Democracy and Education, 359.