The social ambiguities of John Dewey’s pedagogical progressivism

Abstract

Many education researchers today tend to focus primarily on the democratic dimensions of John Dewey’s pedagogical progressivism as well as its relevance to the ongoing debates on French schooling. The notion of peda¬gogical progressivism, especially in its deweyan form, is thus often viewed as closely intertwined, if not consubstan¬tial, with democratic ideas and processes in social matters. This article aims at questioning this view by highlighting the social ambiguities of Dewey’s pedagogical progressivism at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century in the United Sates. By studying the relationship between the philosopher’s political, philosophical and educational choices, this article shows that one cannot consider Dewey’s pedagogical progressivism without analyzing, questioning and discussing its inherent social ambiguities.