JOIN THE CONVERSATION—ARE YOU A PHILOSOPHER?Questions to Consider:- Do you think of yourself as a philosopher? Explain.
- Do believe that teachers should be philosophers? Explain.
- Read about John Dewey, Paulo Friere, and Septima Clark. Make a list of the major
ideas of each philosopher. Are any of their beliefs about the world and about educa-
tion like yours? Explain.
4.Write an essay titled “My Pedagogic Creed” that explains your ideas about people, so-
ciety and the world and how these ideas influence your philosophy of education.
John Dewey’s Philosophy of Education
John Dewey, one of the most important thinkers about education in U.S. history, made a list
of his basic beliefs back in the 1890s. He called it his “pedagogic creed.” Dewey’s progressive
educational philosophy was concerned with the need to educate people for life in a demo-
cratic society. Key concepts for Dewey were experience, freedom, community, and “habits of
mind.” He believed that there was an “organic connection between education and experi-
ence,” that effective teachers are able to connect the subject matter to the existing experi-
ence of students, and that they can expand and enrich students’ lives with new experiences
(Dewey, 1927/1954, p. 25).
According to Dewey, students learn from the full range of their experiences in school, not
just the specific thing they are studying in class. They learn from what they are studying,
how they are studying, who they are studying with, and how they are treated. In racially seg-
regated or academically tracked classes, students learn that some people are better than
others. In teacher-centered classrooms, they learn that some people possess knowledge and
others passively receive it. When teachers have total control over classrooms, even when
they are benevolent or entertaining, students learn to accept authoritarianism. During his
career, Dewey continually reflected on the experiences educators need to create for stu-
dents so they would become active participants in preserving and expanding government of,
by, and for the people.
For Dewey, the exercise of freedom in democratic societies depends on education. He
identifies freedom with “power to frame purposes” or achieve individual and social goals.
This kind of freedom requires a probing, critical, disciplined habit of mind. It includes intelli-
gence, judgment, and self-control—qualities students may never acquire in classrooms
where they are subject to external controls and are forced to remain silent. In progressive
schools that use a Deweyan approach, students engage in long-term thematic group projects
where they learn to collectively solve problems; classrooms become democratic communi-
ties where “things gain meaning by being used in a shared experience or joint action”
(Dewey, 1927/1954, p. 67; 1916, p. 263).
Dewey believed that democratic movements for human liberation were necessary to
achieve a fair distribution of political power and an “equitable system of human liberties.”
However, criticisms have been raised about limitations in Deweyan approaches to educa-
tion, especially the way they are practiced in many elite private schools. Frequently, these
schools are racially, ethnically, and economically segregated, so efforts to develop class-
room community ignore the spectrum of human difference and the continuing impact of so-
ciety’s attitudes about race, class, ethnicity, gender, social conflict, and inequality on teach-
ers as well as students. In addition, because of pressure on students to achieve high
8 CHAPTER 1