The Origins of Classroom Deliberation: Democratic Education in the Shadow of Totalitarianism, 1938–1960

Many theorists of democratic education assume that the idea of having students deliberate about social issues in the classroom can be traced directly to the student-centered and reform-oriented ideals of interwar educational theorists such as John Dewey and Harold Rugg. However, in this intellectual...

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Published inHarvard educational review Vol. 86; no. 4; pp. 506 - 526
Main Author Fallace, Thomas D.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge Harvard Education Publishing Group 01.12.2016
Harvard Education Press
Subjects
Anti Intellectualism
Authoritarianism
Citizenship Education
Classrooms
Controversial Issues (Course Content)
Core curriculum
Democracy
Democratic Values
Education
Educational Change
Educational History
Educational Philosophy
Educational Theories
Epistemology
Fascism
Historians
Historiography
Ideology
Intellectual History
Pedagogy
Political Issues
Progressive Education
Scholars
Scientific Research
Social Action
Social criticism & satire
Social Problems
Social Studies
Students
Teaching
Teaching Methods
Thinking Skills
Totalitarianism
War
World War II
New York
United States > US
Chicago Illinois
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Summary:Many theorists of democratic education assume that the idea of having students deliberate about social issues in the classroom can be traced directly to the student-centered and reform-oriented ideals of interwar educational theorists such as John Dewey and Harold Rugg. However, in this intellectual history, Thomas D. Fallace argues that classroom deliberation as it is currently conceived emerged in part out of a backlash against the interwar ideology and epistemology that took place between 1938 and 1960, when democratic theorists rejected any commitment to ideology because such commitments were considered dangerous in a world falling prey to totalitarianism. As a result, leading educational theorists reoriented the focus on teaching social issues in the classroom away from the transmission of ideological subject matter toward deliberative skills, scientific thinking, open-ended inquiry, and consensus building, representing a major reorientation in civic education that largely continues to this day.
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ISSN:0017-8055
1943-5045
DOI:10.17763/1943-5045-86.4.506