Dewey: The Democratic Conception in Education

Context
Several aspects of the spatio-temporal context of the writing of Dewey’s Democracy and Education and some notes about this author could enhance our understanding of this essay. He published this book n 1916 in the United States. Thus, one year before the creation of the first communist state, he completed this piece during the First World War. Tensions triggered by several nationalist movements within major European empires had generated this war (Hobsbawn, 1996). This has influenced Dewey’s analysis of the German educational system at the time. Furthermore, at this point in time, compulsory education was not yet part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and was not implemented everywhere in the United States (Epstein, 2007). Hence, Dewey could only describe and examine the case of the birth in Germany of this educational movement. As for Dewey’s life, he was one of the founders of pragmatism. In the same sense, he has believed in educational progressivism and has espoused democratic ideals (Senese, Tozer, and Violas, 1997). Philosophies of education represented his most important interest (Senese et al., 1997).
Summary of The Democratic Conception in Education of Dewey
Dewey has underpinned his chapter with one premise: education serves the purpose of improving society. He has claimed that educators must predicate this purpose with an understanding of societies and with an ideal society. As a result, in this chapter, Dewey has examined various notions of society to identify an ideal one. Then, he reviewed three historic philosophies of education to indicate briefly what educators will have to accomplish to build this ideal society. He has broken down his argumentation in five sections.
1. The Implications of Human Associations
In this section, he has tried to articulate the criteria that would characterize his ideal society. To realize this, he has started by defining society as a human association maintained because of the interests shared by the members of the society. This has led him to claim that the word society can have two distinct meanings, one de jure and one de facto. According to him, de jure, a society would correspond to a united whole. However, he has suggested that, in fact, a number of societies, of human associations, comprise this society de jure. Such societies can be criminal ones, educational ones, religious ones… Dewey has advanced that, for each society, its members possess common interests. These interests can be conflicting with the ones of others. For Dewey, this meant a reduction in the number of interactions between the societies that limits progress. Thus, he has called for increasing the number of common interests of the members of the society de jure.
2. The Democratic Ideal
From this, his ideal society proceeds, a democratic one. According to Dewey, a democratic society involves transcending the barriers existing between classes, races and national territories. In this sense, such a society would eliminate the barriers existing between the conflicting interests. The author has selected this ideal because the objective of democracy is to increase and to sustain the common interests of citizens. He has considered that this type of society would be mobile. Therefore, Dewey has believed that to attain this objective education must foster personal initiatives and adaptability. This has prompted his examination of historic philosophies of education.
3. The Platonic Educational Philosophy

The Platonic educational philosophy is the first of those philosophies. Dewey has asserted that the following premise underlies this philosophy: a society is stably organized when every individual does what is useful to others. After suggesting that he support this premise, he affirmed that Plato had proposed that the goals of education are to identify the aptitudes that these individuals would employ to do what is useful to others, and to develop those aptitudes. Ultimately, this education would assign everyone to one of three professions. However, Dewey has contended that this would limit social progress. In addition, since Plato had advanced that the platonic educational model could only proceed from a harmonious society, therefore could not improve a society, Dewey has argued that this model is not completely appropriate for the mobile democratic ideal.
4. The “Individualistic” Ideal of the Eighteenth Century

Consequently, Dewey began the examination of an educational ideal of the eighteenth century. Rousseau’s Emil grounds this educational conception. In essence, Rousseau’s educational philosophy is antisocial, meaning that it is at odds with the French society of the eighteenth century. Dewey has asserted that the goals and the means of this movement lay in nature. According to the writer, the objective of Rousseau’s movement had been the emancipation of the individual from the prejudices of the feudal society. This had entailed replacing the feudal system by the ideal of humanity.
5. Education as National and as Social

However, Dewey has thought that the reliance on naturalistic means was problematic for the German people of the nineteenth century. He has argued that, for the Germans, this reliance had represented a negation of education in itself. This has predicated Dewey’s analysis of the third historic philosophy of education, the German example. To formulate this analysis, he has first warned readers about the political state of the German people at the time. The end of the Napoleonic war had separated Germans between the Kingdom of Prussia, the Russian Empire and the Austrian Empire. In this context, German nationalism had emerged. According to Dewey, the naturalistic ideal of Rousseau was not adequate to supply nationalists with patriots. Dewey has affirmed that, therefore, Germans had decided to develop an organized system of education. For Dewey, this organized system had aimed at raising patriotic citizens, implying forgetting about Rousseau’s humanitarian ideal. Dewey has claimed that this would have required and had required the subordination of Germans to nation. Kant had articulated such a concern earlier but most German nationalists labeled him as an egoist.
In line with Kant’s point of view, Dewey has drawn two conclusions. First, he has contended that the comprehension of the dualism between individualistic and social educations necessitates taking into account the various contexts. More importantly, his analysis has led him to highlight the problem for education in and for a democratic society of the conflict between nationalistic principles and wider social aims. He has thought that nationalistic goals entail obscuring social aims. He has propounded that the solution to this issue involves changing school curricula and teaching methods and ensuring that no class would exploit any other. Then, he proposed that educators start emphasizing on what binds people together.