2017/08/28 by Kelvin Beckett · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Critical and Liberation Pedagogy #Pragmatism in Philosophy and Education #Educational Philosophies and Pedagogies
paper · doi:10.1080/00131857.2017.1365705
openalex publication_date 2017/08/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/30
John Dewey adopted a child-centered point of view to illuminate aspects of education he believed teacher-centered educators were neglecting, but he did so self-consciously and self-critically, because he also believed that ‘a new order of conceptions leading to new modes of practice’ was needed. Dewey introduced his new conceptions in The Child and the Curriculum and later and more fully in Democracy and Education. Teachers at his Laboratory School in Chicago developed the new modes of practice (1896–1903). In this article, I explore Dewey’s new conception of education and compare it with the apparently opposed views of R. S. Peters and Paulo Freire. In doing so, I show that, despite their criticisms of Dewey, whether explicit (Peters) or implicit (Freire), these influential philosophers, representing quite different traditions in philosophy of education were in substantial agreement with him. I also show that, despite our own differences, as important as they are, seeing teachers and learners at work in a rapidly changing society, now on a global scale, in classrooms which are also changing, driven largely by new technologies, the conception of education Dewey, Peters, and Freire developed can provide us with the foundation we need to understand the changing teacher–learner relationship and the purposes their shared activities serve.