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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2017
A century after its publication, Democracy and Education remains relevant and influential far beyond its original context. This essay explores the breadth of its relevance through a study of the use of Deweyan methods and ideas at a community high school in a small, impoverished township 50 km outside of Johannesburg, South Africa. Through this example, we learn that the relevance of Dewey's ideas are not limited either to his time or to his place, but instead fit seamlessly in a context as different from Dewey's as we can imagine. In a modern world in which most children outside of the world's wealthiest countries receive an education woefully inadequate for both the professional and civic responsibilities they will face as adults, this successful example begs the question of how modern school systems around the world might become more successful by harkening back to the ideas expressed in Democracy and Education.
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2 References to African School for Excellence's innovative education approach have appeared in several South African newspapers and magazines, including the Mail & Guardian, The Times, The Star, the Independent School Association of South Africa Magazine, Cambridge Exams Magazine, and more.
3 John Dewey to Alice Dewey, Nov. 1, 1894, Dewey Papers, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale,
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13 Dewey, Democracy and Education, 172.
14 Dewey, Democracy and Education, 65.
15 Dewey, Democracy and Education, 170.
16 Dewey, Democracy and Education, 78.
17 See “Research Evidence on Reading for Pleasure,” Education Standards Research Team, UK Department of Education, May 2012. See also Clarke and De Zoysa, “Mapping the Interrelationships of Reading Enjoyment, Attitudes, Behaviour and Attainment,” National Literacy Trust, London: 2011.
18 Dewey, Democracy and Education, 210.
19 Dewey, Democracy and Education, 359.