EDUCATION &

DEMOCRACY
Week One: Introduction & Overview

Endicott College
R. McAlpine
2015
John Dewey 1859-1952

“Education, therefore, is

a process of living and

not a preparation for

living.”
Overview
EDUCATION
: the action or process of
teaching someone
especially in a school,
college, or university
: the knowledge, skill, and
understanding that you get
from attending a school,
college, or university
: a field of study that deals
with the methods and
problems of teaching
DEMOCRACY
: a form of government in
which people choose
leaders by voting
: a country ruled by
democracy
: an organization or
situation in which everyone
is treated equally and has
equal rights
John Dewey His Life and Work

The aims of education to support democracy.

Collaboration, communication and

appreciation of interdependence should

promote the aim of achieving peace and

prosperity.

Similarly, critical thinking, self-understanding,

creativity, and living a full and satisfying life

should promote both intellectual development

and community spirit.

Overview – Approaches to Education
Authoritarian Autonomous Democratic
Education Education Education

The authoritarian The autonomous The democratic

approach is teacher- approach is learner- approach is group-
centered. managed learning. centered.
John Dewey His Life & Work

“If you simply indulge this impulse (to use

pencil and paper) by letting the child go on

indefinitely, there is no growth that is more

accidental. But let the child first express the

impulse and then through criticism, question,

and suggestion bring him to consciousness

of what he has done, and what he needs to

do, and the result is quite different.”

John Dewey His Life & Work
In his book, The School and Society, Dewey
wrote that students learn and grow best in
an environment of “embryonic community
life, active with types of occupations which
reflect the life of the larger society, and
permeated throughout with the spirit of art,
history, and science.”

Dewey School classrooms represented small,

vibrant, communities. As students worked in
groups on practical projects they were
directed to larger lessons–ranging from the
mathematical to the moral–in work that they
did in the kitchen or the sewing room. They
were also taken on frequent trips outside the
school to visit places such as farms where
they learned about orchards and harvests.
Combination of Appoaches to Education
Rigidity----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Flexibility

Teachers are seen as:

Instructors Facilitators Consultants Senior learners
Students are seen as:
Raw material Receptacles Resistors Clients Partners Autonomous Democratic
Parents are seen as:
Spectators Problems Resources Helpers Partners Educators
The curriculum is:
Imposed/Competitive Imposed/Confidence-building Negotiated Democratic
The aims are:
Obedience Subject-learn Skills-learn Imagination Self-direct Co-operate
The organization for learning is:
Classes Individual Work Stations Groups
The model of power in use is:
Authoritarian Autonomous Democratic

The outcomes are:

Learning how to Learning how to One- Multi-dimensional Received ideas Imagination
be taught learn dimensional & creativity
Education is a Process of Living
• Education should • Teacher role should
be based on be democratic not
dictatorial
experience Life=
Customs

Institutions

Experience Teacher Role Beliefs

Victories &
Defeats

Recreations
&
Occupations
Individuality &
Art
Interdependence

• The student should • Making art is not

be learning as an separate from
individual while perceiving art, and
learning from others art is not just ‘fine
unlike him/herself art’, but applying
creative solutions.
On Schooling
"Social environment forms the mental and

emotional disposition of behavior in

individuals by engaging them in activities that

arouse and strengthen certain impulses, that

have certain purposes and entail certain

Peabody Model School consequences."

1891-2000

Predated Dewey’s Laboratory School by five

years and provided teachers with the
opportunity to experience first-hand the
vocation of teaching.
Week One: Introduction & Overview
Dewy, J. (2013) Chapter 1, Education as a Necessity in Life. In: Dewey, J.
(2013). Democracy and Education. FREE E-book. Release Date: July 26, 2008
[EBook #852]. Last Updated: January 26, 2013.

Dewy, J. (2013) Chapter 2, Education as a Social Function. In: Dewey, J.

(2013). Democracy and Education. FREE E-book. Release Date: July 26, 2008
[EBook #852]. Last Updated: January 26, 2013.

Burke, C.; Grosvenor, I. (2015) The School I'd Like: Children and Young
People's Reflections on an Education for the Future, 2nd Edition. Routledge
Press.

Thomson, J. (1994) Natural Childhood. Simon and Schuster, Inc.