Although inquiry-based instruction has been a centerpiece of progressive visions of social studies education almost since its inception as a school subject a century ago, teachers often struggle to conceptualize it in ways that make true inquiry possible for their students. In this essay I suggest that social educators strengthen their connection…

John Dewey wrote widely about education and educational philosophy and it follows that there is a plethora of secondary source material addressing those large topics. Dewey spoke about the roles of the teacher (educator) and student (pupil/child) and their general relationship, yet there is a gap in scholarship addressing exactly what the nature…

Important works in the Dewey corpus -- particularly those discussing the theory and practice of art and aesthetic education, prepared from 1896 through 1900 while Dewey was working out the plan for the University's Laboratory School--remain virtually unstudied. When interpreting or building upon Dewey's theory of art and art education, scholars…

The assault on democratic values is not new--nor is the effort to promote the critical literacy skills necessary to understand the cultural, economic, moral, and social issues that underline these social concerns. Unfortunately, in modern society we have conflated an associated way of living with government, and government with politics, and…

The term "soul" is found throughout John Dewey's work, particularly when discussing self-realization and meaningfulness. Soul can be easily associated with religious connotations, and yet it is well accepted that he did not imply such. So, then, what did he mean? In his early writings, he shifted away from theologically inspired language…

The new realities of social media, echo chambers, and partisan information sources have created social forces that challenge core assumptions about democracy. Are we in an epistemological crisis, where separate and distinct communities of inquiry limit shared understandings of truth? In this essay, I turn to the political and educational thought…

Ninety years ago, John Dewey's discussion of "the religious"--as distinct from traditional "religion"--opened new ways of thinking about the connection between spirituality and everyday forms of human action. But in what ways does our contemporary religious landscape invite us to reimagine and reconstruct Deweyan approaches to…

This article explores the resurgence and application of John Dewey's concept of "inquiry" within Francophone literature, particularly in the context of education and training. Dewey's "Theory of Inquiry," first introduced in 1938, is examined through a comprehensive lexicographical analysis of 291 French- language scientific…

This essay explores with the help of the discipline of philosophy of education the educational implications of the practice of canceling individuals or ideas. In particular, it investigates what gets lost or undermined when we cancel various opinions, words, and practices. To advance my argument, I first introduce some basic definitions while…

The emergence of Large Language Models has exposed composition studies' long-standing commitment to Cartesian assumptions that position writing as a nonmaterial, distinctly human activity. This paper develops a naturalized theory of composition grounded in Deweyan pragmatic naturalism that dissolves the nature/culture dualism embedded in…

This essay applies lessons from John Dewey's theory of democracy and democratic education to the modern development of information communications technologies and the assertion that the development of such technologies will lead to a more open, more democratic society. Given the continuity of the technology and its applications with structures of…

One of the themes that runs through Dewey's "Experience and Education" is an argument to the effect that education aims at self-control. The details of this argument reveal close affinity between Dewey's philosophy of education and the ideals of the Enlightenment. They are also strikingly similar to John Locke's thoughts about freedom…

In light of decades of formal denouncement of Deweyan ideas in China and the increasingly authoritarian practices under its current leadership, the recent revival of engagement with Dewey's work among Chinese educators and intellectuals appears extraordinary as well as paradoxical. How is it possible that a project as ardently democratic as…

John Dewey argued that for education to be democratic, it is important for students to be not merely spectators but also participants in learning. Teachers sometimes find personal computing devices to be distracting or to contribute to passivity rather than activity in the classroom. In this essay we examine the question of whether a student's…

In this article I aim to establish a relevant connection between John Dewey's educational philosophy and the hippie communes of the United States during the nineteen sixties and seventies. After an assessment of Dewey's philosophy against the background of the countercultural sixties, I summarize and organize Dewey's philosophical thought around…