EDUCATION &

DEMOCRACYWeek Two:

The Democratic Concept of Education

Endicott College

R. McAlpine

2015

The Democratic Concept of Education

• Education as a social function

• Aims, goals, objectives

• Collaboration, communication, interdependence

• Intellectual development

Reciprocity in Democracy & Education

Dewey’s Consideration of Formal Education

• Dewey believed that a successful democracy depends upon

the educational development of the people.

• For a democratic society, people must have the good judgment

and intelligence to contribute to the workings of society.

• Education, of course, is not merely “formal education”, it is

growth and development throughout life, both before and after

any formal component.

• Democracy should be an educating social system and that life

in a democratic society should contribute to the growth and

development of its citizens. The very act of self government

should both require education and lead to further education; it

is a reciprocal arrangement.

Reciprocity in Schooling and Society

• It was Dewey’s aim to reform education by making it available to the masses, not just the intellectual elite, and to create schools that represented mini-communities.

• This is what he called “an embryonic part of democratic society”.

“The things in civilization we most prize are not of ourselves. They exist by grace of the doings and sufferings of the continuous human community in which we are a link. Ours is the responsibility of conserving, transmitting, rectifying and expanding the heritage of values we have received, that those who come after us may receive it more solid and secure, more widely accessible and more generously shared than we have received it.”

Education as Growth

• Dewey unfolds how education is a strong tool for personal

and emotional growth. In order to direct our students

toward positive growth, social impact must be considered.

Education as Growth- Continuity

• We learn from each experience,

positive or negative

• One’s accumulated learned

experience influences the nature

of one’s future experiences

(plasticity)

• Every experience in some way

influences all potential future

experiences for an individual

and for the greater society

(habit)

Continuity Interaction

Education as Growth- Interaction

• Past experience interacts with

the present event, to create

one’s present experience

• Any event can be experienced

in profoundly different ways due

to individual (history) differences

• The teacher who asks questions

and possesses insight into the

effects of the past that students

bring with them is equipped to

provide quality education that is

relevant and meaningful to the

student experience and learning

environment.

Aims, Goals, Objectives

For Dewey, democracy

was about the

participation in the

workings of society –

the construction,

maintenance, and

transformation of social

and political life.

AIMS

GOALS

OBJECTIVES

CONTEXT

PROCESS

OUTCOMES

Hierarchy of Aims, Goals, Objectives

AIMS

GOALS

OBJECTIVES

CONTEXT

PROCESS

OUTCOMES

Aims, Goals, Objectives

Aims, Goals, Objectives

What does good teaching look like?

Child- Centered Education

Dewey’s Tree Experiment

He had children start in the classroom and asked them to draw a picture of a tree. Then he took them outside and had them play in the trees where he also asked specific questions about trees. Then he brought them back to the classroom and asked them to draw a tree once again. The difference between the first drawings versus the second, were the later had superior definition.

Schooling – Social Context for Learning

Schooling provides a

social context for

learning.

The physical setting in

which students learn,

includes the culture they

were raised in and the

groups they interact

with.

Education – An Ecological Model

• Who are the

organisms?

• How do physical

aspects hinder or

support student

learning?

• How can we

dynamically fulfill the

learning purpose of the

ecosystem?

Education – An Ecological Model

The Formula

[B=f(P,E)]

The learning behavior is

(B) that’s the function of

the persons/organisms

(P) interacting with eh

classroom environment

(E).

Physical – Social Environment

What are the physical factors?

Space, furniture, arrangement and design, color, audio/visual stimuli, use of natural materials. What are the social factors?

Number of students, where they are working and with whom? Behavioral setting demotes the physical-social situations in which human behavior occurs

White Rock Mountain School

The Function (Task of the Ecological Teacher)

Learning & Living

environment

teachers

students

The Preparation

(Task of the Ecological Teacher)

Before the children

even enter the

classroom, it is the

teacher’s task to crate

an appropriate space

for work, play and the

practice of:

equity, respect and

tolerance.

While no amount of

“design” can substitute

for caring, nurturing

relationships, thoughtful

attention to concrete

details can enhance

these interactions.

Ecological Classroom- Function Factors

1. Physical Environment

2. Classroom Organization

3. Rules and Expectations

4. Routines

5. Intangibles

“Education is thus a fostering, a nurturing, a cultivating process. All of these words mean that it implies attention to the conditions of growth.” (Dewey, pg. 10)

The words “environment”, “medium” denote something more than surroundings which encompass an individual. They denote the specific continuity of the surroundings with his own active tendencies.” (Dewey, pg. 11)

Ecological Model

“The extension in space of the

number of individuals who

participate in an interest so that

each has to refer to his own

action to that of others, and to

consider the actions of others to

give point and direction to his

own, is equivalent to the breaking

down of those barriers of class,

race, and national territory which

kept men from perceiving the full

import of their activity.”

(Dewey, pg. 87)

Living and working in a school

that functions in an ecological

model, cerates a dynamic

understanding by which students

are aware that place shapes

people and people shape space.

Education – Process and Product

“the need to pay

attention to natural

settings, the need to

provide facilities that

encourage learning

through play, through

conversation, and

through the body”

(Uptis)

Learn How We Live & Live How We Learn

Dewey recognized the

necessity of

connections between

personal voice and

public space,

understanding the

inseparable role of

education in a

democratic society.

As social space,

schools and classrooms

are shaped by the

actions of those who

populate them,

reinforcing existing

practices while at the

same time introducing

new dimensions that

have to be addressed.

Learn How We Live & Live How We Learn

If democracy is primarily a form of associated living, then is the formal process of education the aim of rehearsing individual and collective roles in participating in a democratic society?

Using the Ecological Model as an example of creating a shared learning space- then are the aims of communication, collaboration, experimentation, etc. then enabling student to learn to live and live to learn?

Week Two:

The Democratic Concept of EducationDewy, J. (2013). Chapter 3, Education as Direction. In: Dewey, J. (2013). Democracy and Education. FREE E-book. Release Date: July 26, 2008 [EBook #852]. Last Updated: January 26, 2013.

Dewey, J. (2013). Chapter 4, Education as Growth. 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 6, Education as a Conservative and Progressive. In: Dewey, J. (2013). Democracy and Education. FREE E-book. Release Date: July 26, 2008 [EBook #852]. Last Updated: January 26, 2013.

Dewey, J. (2013). Chapter 7, The Democratic Concept of Education. In: Dewey, J. (2013). Democracy and Education. FREE E-book. Release Date: July 26, 2008 [EBook #852]. Last Updated: January 26, 2013.

Uptis, R. (2010). Raising a School: Foundations for school architecture. South Frontenac ON: Wintergreen Studios Press.