Democracy and Education: Dewey and Adult Learners Today

In the authors' conference presentation, they sought to emphasize that in his well-known book, "Democracy and Education" (1916), John Dewey's goal was to describe an education appropriate to a democracy. They point out that he also believed that his approach was a more humane way of teaching and, as many have argued since (e.g., Paley, 1992; Rogers, 1969, 1983), a more effective way for students to learn. However, his primary goal was to argue for a form of education that allowed students to be their own free agents in learning. (For a contemporary restatement of this viewpoint, see also Biesta, 2017.) The authors also observe that although he wrote about education for children, his ideas are easily applied to education at all stages of life. (Dewey is sometimes credited with being one of the first to advocate "life-long" learning; see e.g., Cross-Durant, 1987.) Adult learners, many years out of school, have been learning on their own to make decisions and choices, to acquire skills needed at home or at work, to improve life for others, and to contribute to their communities. In short, in the many years out of school, adults typically have acquired an impressive set of work skills along with personal knowledge of importance in their lives. When they are encouraged to seek credit for this knowledge (the extent of which they often fail to fully appreciate), they are far readier to approach their academic studies in the ways Dewey recommends than are traditional-aged students without this extended period of learning on their own. Thus, the authors conclude, given the current rather rigid state of education (e.g., its domination by textbook companies, testing industries, government bureaucracies, and demands for credentials), that the best place to begin rethinking current-day educational practices, which they believe may be helping to undermine the nation's democratic institutions, should be with adult college students. This paper includes a brief summary of the authors' approach to their conference session and the session's outcomes. [For the complete proceedings, see ED597786.]