Dewey and European Education

Although John Dewey's ideas have been of central interest in Anglo-Saxon philosophy and history of education, similar interest has developed slowly in continental Europe. Deweyan philosophy of education has had to pass through national filters, which meant that it was received in national contexts of reform. The "German Dewey" was differently construed to the French, Italian, or English Dewey. This seems to change after 1989 (and the fall of socialist education) when interest in Dewey increased. The political and philosophical interest in Dewey has to do with the lost alternative "socialism", and thus with the opening of Eastern Europe and the new problems of education within a worldwide community. This volume stresses two points. The original interest of European education in Dewey is presented in case studies, concerning different national contexts and thus different Deweys. What can be called the renewal of interest is argued from different sides. The book aims to show that interest in Dewey is not the remake of the reception within the different camps of progressive education.