introduction This article examines the potential of Action Research informed by Dewey’s pragmatism as a research methodology in the social sciences. Not only a philosophical orientation, pragmatism is also a powerful mode of inquiry. When combined with the democratic research approach of Action Research, Deweyan pragmatism has great potential to shed light on educational and other social science questions, forward social change, and enact Dewey’s vision of radical social democracy. Although Dewey’s philosophy, one could argue, has never been mainstream in education and in research, the combination of Deweyan philosophy and Action Research has the potential to revive interest in Dewey’s work and serve as an example of Deweyan inquiry. This article is divided into three sections. In the first, I will provide an overview of both Action Research and pragmatism as a mode of inquiry, while in the second, I will outline a theoretical framework for Deweyan-inspired Action Research based on the scholarship of pragmatic action researchers Greenwood and Levin (2007), as well as Dewey. In the third section, I will address criticisms leveled at both Action Research and Dewey, and suggest that the combination of these two discourses/practices has great potential as transformative social science research.
{"title":"The Potential of Deweyan-Inspired Action Research","authors":"J. Stark","doi":"10.1353/EAC.2014.0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/EAC.2014.0013","url":null,"abstract":"introduction This article examines the potential of Action Research informed by Dewey’s pragmatism as a research methodology in the social sciences. Not only a philosophical orientation, pragmatism is also a powerful mode of inquiry. When combined with the democratic research approach of Action Research, Deweyan pragmatism has great potential to shed light on educational and other social science questions, forward social change, and enact Dewey’s vision of radical social democracy. Although Dewey’s philosophy, one could argue, has never been mainstream in education and in research, the combination of Deweyan philosophy and Action Research has the potential to revive interest in Dewey’s work and serve as an example of Deweyan inquiry. This article is divided into three sections. In the first, I will provide an overview of both Action Research and pragmatism as a mode of inquiry, while in the second, I will outline a theoretical framework for Deweyan-inspired Action Research based on the scholarship of pragmatic action researchers Greenwood and Levin (2007), as well as Dewey. In the third section, I will address criticisms leveled at both Action Research and Dewey, and suggest that the combination of these two discourses/practices has great potential as transformative social science research.","PeriodicalId":37095,"journal":{"name":"Education and Culture","volume":"25 1","pages":"101 - 87"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82836135","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
geographical nexus of American industrial democracy, pushed Dewey to consider the problems industrial modes of organization pose for democratic theory. His re- conceptualization of democracy, and the refinements and clarifications to it that he made over the years, reflects an appreciation of the significance of work—of human transfiguration of chaotic matter into something useable, and of the corollary con - struction of human psychology as it meets with the world around it and resolves the problems it thereby encounters. By the 1920s, democratic realists contemplating the landscape of American political life in the wake of several more decades of industrialization, technological advances, and human mobility wondered if a democratic public were even possible. One hope was that, using Dewey's terms above, "matter" might have some "stan- dards" after all; the application of science and social science to the problems of the day might yield knowledge that could be employed in political decision-making. 2 Of these realists, Walter Lippmann was recognized by Dewey as particularly in- sightful. As Dewey noted, Lippmann provided "a more significant statement of the problem of knowledge than professional epistemological philosophers have been able to give." 3 Lippmann's book began with an epigraph from Plato's Republic, and, like Plato, Lippmann suggests that secure knowledge is the foundation of a good polity, with the illusions provided by the workaday world standing as a serious threat to its stability. Taking up the challenges that Lippmann's argument poses, Dewey's The Public and Its Problems provides a different account of the knowledge that should guide democratic politics, a modern account of practical judgment in lieu of technical reason. 4 A century later, the terms of work have changed again, and the problems Dewey and Lippmann considered are freshly relevant. This paper considers the 2012 Chicago Teachers Strike as an instance in which a public, in Dewey's sense, briefly emerged in response to perceived problems that raise precisely the set of ques - tions regarding knowledge and democratic governance that Dewey and Lippmann
{"title":"The Chicago Teachers Strike and Its Public","authors":"Amy Shuffelton","doi":"10.1353/EAC.2014.0018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/EAC.2014.0018","url":null,"abstract":"geographical nexus of American industrial democracy, pushed Dewey to consider the problems industrial modes of organization pose for democratic theory. His re- conceptualization of democracy, and the refinements and clarifications to it that he made over the years, reflects an appreciation of the significance of work—of human transfiguration of chaotic matter into something useable, and of the corollary con - struction of human psychology as it meets with the world around it and resolves the problems it thereby encounters. By the 1920s, democratic realists contemplating the landscape of American political life in the wake of several more decades of industrialization, technological advances, and human mobility wondered if a democratic public were even possible. One hope was that, using Dewey's terms above, \"matter\" might have some \"stan- dards\" after all; the application of science and social science to the problems of the day might yield knowledge that could be employed in political decision-making. 2 Of these realists, Walter Lippmann was recognized by Dewey as particularly in- sightful. As Dewey noted, Lippmann provided \"a more significant statement of the problem of knowledge than professional epistemological philosophers have been able to give.\" 3 Lippmann's book began with an epigraph from Plato's Republic, and, like Plato, Lippmann suggests that secure knowledge is the foundation of a good polity, with the illusions provided by the workaday world standing as a serious threat to its stability. Taking up the challenges that Lippmann's argument poses, Dewey's The Public and Its Problems provides a different account of the knowledge that should guide democratic politics, a modern account of practical judgment in lieu of technical reason. 4 A century later, the terms of work have changed again, and the problems Dewey and Lippmann considered are freshly relevant. This paper considers the 2012 Chicago Teachers Strike as an instance in which a public, in Dewey's sense, briefly emerged in response to perceived problems that raise precisely the set of ques - tions regarding knowledge and democratic governance that Dewey and Lippmann","PeriodicalId":37095,"journal":{"name":"Education and Culture","volume":"488 1","pages":"21 - 33"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77464751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Introduction: Revisiting The Public and Its Problems","authors":"K. Knight-Abowitz","doi":"10.1353/EAC.2014.0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/EAC.2014.0014","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37095,"journal":{"name":"Education and Culture","volume":"17 1","pages":"1 - 3"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83465075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Controversial Issue Instruction in Context: A Social Studies Education Response to the Problem of the Public","authors":"Thomas Misco","doi":"10.1353/EAC.2014.0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/EAC.2014.0011","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37095,"journal":{"name":"Education and Culture","volume":"20 1","pages":"47 - 59"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85084219","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"2013 Dewey Lecture: College—What Is It Good For?","authors":"David Labaree","doi":"10.1353/EAC.2014.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/EAC.2014.0006","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37095,"journal":{"name":"Education and Culture","volume":"50 1","pages":"15 - 3"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85326330","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this article, we first suggest that contemporary school policies and practices represent a utopia-gone-wrong. In striving for an unattainable educational utopia—that is, all students will be proficient in math and reading by 2014—current polices and their resulting practices have brought a classic dystopian turn—the dehumanization of students, teachers, and administrators. We then argue that such a turn can best be seen and then potentially stopped via a complete dystopian theory of education grounded in John Dewey’s radical aesthetics. In utilizing Dewey’s aesthetic theory as a lens of analysis, we argue that this turn toward dystopia is resulting in an increasingly numbing, anaesthetic educational experience at best; and a dehumanizing, violent educational experience at worst. Finally, we briefly ponder an antidote for our dystopian malaise: human love.
{"title":"Dystopian Schools: Recovering Dewey's Radical Aesthetics in an Age of Utopia-Gone-Wrong","authors":"Jessica A. Heybach, Eric C. Sheffield","doi":"10.1353/EAC.2014.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/EAC.2014.0002","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, we first suggest that contemporary school policies and practices represent a utopia-gone-wrong. In striving for an unattainable educational utopia—that is, all students will be proficient in math and reading by 2014—current polices and their resulting practices have brought a classic dystopian turn—the dehumanization of students, teachers, and administrators. We then argue that such a turn can best be seen and then potentially stopped via a complete dystopian theory of education grounded in John Dewey’s radical aesthetics. In utilizing Dewey’s aesthetic theory as a lens of analysis, we argue that this turn toward dystopia is resulting in an increasingly numbing, anaesthetic educational experience at best; and a dehumanizing, violent educational experience at worst. Finally, we briefly ponder an antidote for our dystopian malaise: human love.","PeriodicalId":37095,"journal":{"name":"Education and Culture","volume":"2 1","pages":"79 - 94"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86523575","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The proper goal of an introductory logic course, teaching critical thinking, is best achieved by maintaining the principle of continuity between student experiences and the curriculum. To demonstrate this I explain Dewey’s naturalistic approach to logic and the process of inquiry, one which presents the elements of traditional logic in the context of student experiences. I offer an example of a logic textbook which models the maintenance of the principle of continuity I advocate. Last, I advocate a pluralistic and experimental approach to accomplish this, including methods that rely on the role of the body in learning and reasoning.
{"title":"Teaching to the Test: A Pragmatic Approach to Teaching Logic","authors":"Seth Vannatta","doi":"10.1353/EAC.2014.0000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/EAC.2014.0000","url":null,"abstract":"The proper goal of an introductory logic course, teaching critical thinking, is best achieved by maintaining the principle of continuity between student experiences and the curriculum. To demonstrate this I explain Dewey’s naturalistic approach to logic and the process of inquiry, one which presents the elements of traditional logic in the context of student experiences. I offer an example of a logic textbook which models the maintenance of the principle of continuity I advocate. Last, I advocate a pluralistic and experimental approach to accomplish this, including methods that rely on the role of the body in learning and reasoning.","PeriodicalId":37095,"journal":{"name":"Education and Culture","volume":"19 1","pages":"39 - 56"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88835630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pragmatism as Transition: Historicity and Hope in James, Dewey, and Rorty by Colin Koopman (review)","authors":"Erin C. Tarver","doi":"10.1353/EAC.2014.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/EAC.2014.0003","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37095,"journal":{"name":"Education and Culture","volume":"1 1","pages":"95 - 99"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90967307","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pragmatist Politics: Making the Case for Liberal Democracy by John McGowan (review)","authors":"Christopher J. Voparil","doi":"10.1353/EAC.2014.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/EAC.2014.0009","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37095,"journal":{"name":"Education and Culture","volume":"115 1","pages":"113 - 118"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90862235","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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