Dewey's Dream: Universities and Democracies in an Age of Education Reform: Civil Society , Public Schools, and Democratic Citizenship

by Benson, Lee

• ISBN13: 9781592135912
• ISBN10: 1592135919
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-03-01
• Publisher: TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Summary

This timely, persuasive, and hopeful book reexamines John Dewey's idea of schools, specifically community schools, as the best places to grow a democratic society that is based on racial, social, and economic justice. The authors assert that American colleges and universities bear a responsibility for-and would benefit substantially from-working with schools to develop democratic schools and communities.Dewey's Dreamopens with a re-appraisal of Dewey's philosophy and an argument for its continued relevance today. The authors-all well-known in education circles-use illustrations from over 20 years of experience working with public schools in the University of Pennsylvania's local ecological community of West Philadelphia, to demonstrate how their ideas can be put into action. By emphasizing problem-solving as the foundation of education, their work has awakened university students to their social responsibilities. And while the project is still young, it demonstrates that Dewey's "Utopian ends" of creating optimally participatory democratic societies can lead to practical, constructive school, higher education and community change, development, and improvement.

Author Biography

John Puckett is Associate Professor in the Policy, Management, and Evaluation Division of the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Introduction: Dewey's Lifelong Crusade for Participatory Democracy	p. xi
Michigan Beginnings, 1884-1894	p. 3
Dewey's First Attempt to Combine Theory and Practice	p. 7
Dewey at the University of Chicago, 1894-1904	p. 13
President Harper and Chicago's Department of Pedagogy	p. 14
Plato's The Republic and Dewey's Philosophy of Education	p. 20
Participatory Democratic Societies and Participatory Democratic Schooling Systems	p. 22
Dewey's Laboratory School	p. 24
Wilhelm Wundt's Psychological Laboratory and Deyew's Scientistic Laboratory School	p. 29
Jane Addams, Hull House, and Dewey's Prophetic Essay "The School as Social Centre"	p. 33
The Schooling System as the Strategic Subsystem of Modern Societies	p. 40
Dewey Leaves the University of Chicago for Columbia University	p. 45
Dewey Abandons Any Attempt to Integrate Schooling Theory and Schooling Practice	p. 46
Dewey vs. Lippmann: Participatory Democracy and Face-to-Face Neighborly Communities	p. 51
Democratic Theory and the Construction of Democratic, Cosmopolitan, Neighborly Communities	p. 54
Elsie Clapp's Contributions to Community Schools	p. 63
Maurice Seay and Community Schools	p. 69
The Rise and Decline of the Community School Movement after 1945	p. 71
Penn and the Third Revolution in American Higher Education	p. 77
Increasing Penn's Engagement with Local Public Schools as a Practical Example of Democratic Devolution Revolution	p. 81
An Innovative Strategy to Achieve a Democratic Devolution Revolution	p. 83
Penn and West Philadelphia Public Schools: Learning by Reflective Doing	p. 86
The Center for Community Partnerships	p. 93
Changing Penn's Undergraduate Curriculum To Help Change West Philadelphia's Public Schools	p. 96
Community Healthcare as a Complex Strategic Problem to "Do Good" and Help Bring about "One University"	p. 99
Democratic Partnerships and Communal Participatory Action Research	p. 104
President Judith Rodin's Inspiring Vision of Penn and West Philadelphia as Constituting a "Beloved Community"	p. 107
President Amy Gutmann Proclaims a "Penn Compact" to "Serve Humanity and Society"	p. 108
The University Civic Responsibility Idea Becomes an International Movement	p. 111
An International Academic Consortium for the Advancement of Democracy	p. 114
John Dewey, the Coalition for Community Schools, and Developing a Participatory Democratic American Society	p. 121
Acknowledgments	p. 127
Authorship	p. 129
Notes	p. 131
Index	p. 143
About the Authors	p. 151
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.