Forstenzer, J. orcid.org/0000-0001-8208-6474 (2025) Do the unexpected! why Deweyan educators should be pluralists about political tactics and strategies. Educational Theory. ISSN 0013-2004
Abstract
How should Deweyan educators teach their students about engaging in efforts to bring about social change in a political context marked by polarization, power differentials, and oppression? In this article, Joshua Forstenzer argues that Deweyan educators must encourage their students to engage in pluralistic and creative experiments rather than teach a pre-set model for social change. To this end, he engages with two critiques: one formulated by Lee Benson, Ira Harkavy, and John Puckett, according to which Dewey's pedagogic vision failed to be sufficiently practically minded; the other formulated by Aaron Schutz — drawing on Saul Alinsky's theory of community organizing — according to which Deweyan educators fail to be meaningfully politically minded, because their democratic faith blinds them to the role of conflict in real politics. In response, this article argues that the Deweyan outlook is closer to Alinsky's than Schutz assumes and that it demands that we Deweyan educators introduce our students to a rich diversity of voices and traditions that address the concrete conditions of social change to provide our students with a fullness of civic experiences, as well as a depth of political and social ideas to challenge the status quo.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Keywords: | Deweyan democracy; social change; civic education; Saul Alinsky; community organizing |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Sheffield) > School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 08 Jan 2025 15:42 |
Last Modified: | 28 Mar 2025 16:37 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/edth.70006 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:221088 |