Education and Universalism in Europe: When Education Supports Democracy

Reading Democracy and Education

What is John Dewey’s Democracy and Education? In a literal sense, it is a study of education and its relation to the individual and society. Moreover, Dewey tells us, it is a philosophical rather than historical, sociological, or political inquiry. His original title for the work was An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. That was the heading he had in view when he signed a contract to...

Deliberative Democracy and Education

From Education to Democracy?

The conventional wisdom, since at least the writings of John Dewey (1916), views high levels of educational attainment as a prerequisite for democracy. Education is argued to promote democracy both because it enables a “culture of democracy” to develop and because it leads to greater prosperity, which is also thought to cause political development. The most celebrated version of this argument i...

Rereading Democracy and Education Today

This article provides a close reading of Democracy and Education, situated in the context of Dewey’s work prior to and during World War I, to illuminate the close tie between Dewey’s overriding concerns during this period and today’s educational concerns. The analysis suggests two projects for contemporary democratic educators.

John Dewey's Philosophy of Education Before Democracy and Education

John Dewey's Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education, was published in 1916. It is still the best-known work in philosophy of education by an American author, and has remained in print down to the present time. Democracy and Education differs from many texts in the philosophy of education in that it was not written merely as a philosophy to be "applied" to educat...