Dewey and Education in the 21st Century

Ruth Heilbronn is a Lecturer in Teacher Education and the Philosophy of Education at the UCL Institute of Education, UK. Christine Doddington is Emerita Fellow of Homerton College, Cambridge, UK. Rupert Higham is a Lecturer in Educational Leadership at the UCL Institute of Education, UK.

• Editors' Introduction: The Book, The Conference and Fighting Back; Ruth Heilbronn, Christine Doddington and Rupert Higham Part 1 - Dewey, Experience and Technology. 1. Preserving Rich Experience in The Digital Age; Bob Coulter2. The Emergence of Makerspaces, Hackerspaces and Fab Labs: Dewey's Democratic Communities of The 21st Century?; Sally Eaves and Stephen Harwood 3. Constructing Creative Democracy at School by Reading the Classics: A Dialogue Between Martha Nussbaum and John Dewey; Gonzalo Jover, Rosario González Martín, Juan Luis Fuentes Part 2 – Dewey, Experience and Bodies.  4. Dewey and The Alexander Technique: Lessons in Mind-Body Learning; Charlotte Woods, Malcolm Williamson and Jenny Fox Eades5. Black Bodies in Schools: Dewey's Democratic Provision for Participation Confronts the Challenges of Fundamental Plunder; Sue Ellen Henry and Kathleen Knight Abowitz 6. Education in The Open: The Somaesthetic Value of Being Outside; Christine Doddington Part 3 - Dewey, Experience, Democracy and Education. 7. Dewey and The Democratic Curriculum; Neil Hopkins 8. Dewey Anticipates Habermas's Paradigm of Communication: The Critique of Individualism and The Basis for Moral Authority in Democracy and Education; Brian Dotts 9. The Role of the Educators' Disposition and Mental Processes in A Student’s Experience of Democracy; Victoria Door and Clare Wilkinson 10. Dewey's Notion of Interest: Antithetic to or Sympathetic with Educational Development?; Valentine Ngalim Epilogue – Gert Biesta

Based on a conference to mark the centenary of the publication of John Dewey's Democracy and Education in Cambridge, England, in October 2016, this volume brings together 10 essays by education and other scholars from Europe, the US, and Cameroon, who outline his philosophy of education in the 21st-century context and its emphasis on education for humanistic rather than economic purposes. They draw on his philosophy to expand their idea that commitment to fighting back against a technicist view of education is necessary, focusing on the areas of technology, embodiment, and democracy and development. They address issues and controversies related to digital technologies in education, including the fear the young people are spending too much time on social media, the value of makerspaces in learning, and the study of classic texts using the internet; how to understand lives as embodied, with discussion of the Alexander Technique, the somatic experience of African Americans in schools, and changing the physical environment to emphasize outside learning; and how a broader and forward-looking understanding of the curriculum can develop students' motivation to learn and the social bonds needed for a healthy democracy, with discussion of the role of educators' dispositions and mental processes, the concept of interests, communication, and the democratic curriculum.