Comparing Dewey and Prosser Education Essay

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John Dewey and Charles Prosser were both instrumental figures in American educational philosophy and pedagogical theory. Both Dewey and Prosser were pragmatists, but each proposed a fundamentally different function for public education. Dewey stressed the importance of education for fostering civic duty and promoting democracy; Prosser remained more concerned with the role education would play in preparing children for vocational careers. Although both Dewey and Prosser believed education should be applicable to daily life, Dewey believed that Prosser's focus on vocational education might inhibit intrinsic motivation and the development of a person's natural interests, thereby artificially channeling children into specific career paths (Wonacott, 2003). Dewey believed that vocational education presented a danger of becoming too "rote, mechanical, and slavish," (Wonacott, 2003, p. 6). As Labaree (2010) points out, Dewey "lost" the philosophical debate over the role of education as Prosser helped to pass the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917, which ensconced vocational education into American society (p. 163). However, Dewey did not lose the debate entirely, as his foundational educational philosophies laid the foundation for liberal arts education in America.

Prosser believed that education was becoming dangerously close to becoming elitist in the sense that it tended to prepare students more for academia and its cerebral culture as opposed to the actual labor force in which most students would ultimately end up. This may be true, and yet Dewey suggested that instead of denying the relevance of theoretical knowledge, that hands-on learning be combined with exposure to multiple subjects and epistemologies.

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Prosser was "educating society for jobs rather than culture," and Dewey was interested in the opposite (Steinke & Putnam, n.d., p. 3). Although Dewey seemed to advance a principle of education that was abstract and theoretical, Dewey's educational philosophy is fundamentally pragmatic and experiential. Education is made meaningful through social connections and personal engagement with the material and environment.

Whereas Dewey remained concerned with the way education could or should improve the student's ability to participate fully in civic society, Prosser focused more on how students might contribute to the economy and their personal career development. Prosser's educational philosophy was firmly entrenched in the capitalist system and the market economy system of labor. Although he was not a Marxist, Dewey's educational philosophy more closely addresses issues related to social justice and alienation from labor and the sources of capital production. Both Dewey and Prosser valued the importance of education in making one's daily life more meaningful, but Dewey's definition of meaning can be considered higher on the Maslow needs hierarchy versus….....

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