Educational Adaptations in a Changing Society: New Education networks and the diffusion of pragmatism in Africa in the 20’s and 30’s
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14516/ete.132Keywords:
History of colonial education, educational transfer, pedagogical discourses, progressivism, pragmatism, adapted educationAbstract
Educational Adaptations in a Changing Society is the final report arising from two conferences that took place, in July 1934, in Johannesburg and Cape Town, under the auspices the New Education Fellowship. These conferences addressed three fundamental questions related to the role of education in leading social change: the aim of the educational effort, the methods involved, and the content of what should be taught and when. These general concerns sought to respond to the rapid social and economic changes taking place in South Africa (and in other European colonies) at that period: urbanization, school massification, racial conflict, etc. By urging educationalists, philosophers, teachers, administrators and churchmen alike to co-operatively discuss educational reforms and pedagogical technologies adapted to the African context (vocational training, adapted curricula, rural education, moral instruction, etc.) the conference sought to create a reformist environment were the ideals of progressive educational thought intertwined neatly with the social gospel of the protestant movement. It is in this context that I propose to address Dewey’s participation in the conference, not as an individual outstanding pragmatist voice, but as a conceptual persona, who makes it possible to understand theories, ideas and visions of educational modernization as discursive constructs envisaged for the colonial terrain. I will try to tackle the question of policy transfer not as an active borrowing strategy from one context to another, but as an indigenization of concepts and ideas that are passed on by threads of broader colonial discourses and modes of colonial governance.
References
Boyd, W. (Ed.). (1930). Towards a New Education: A record and synthesis of the Discussions on The New Psychology and the Curriculum at the Fifth World Conference of the New Education Fellowship held at Elsinore, Denmark, in August 1929 [s.l.]: Knopf.
Boyd, W., & Rawson, W. (1965). The Story of the New Education. London: Heinemann.
Boydston, J. A. (Ed.). (1985). John Dewey, «Schools of To-Morrow», Essays on Education and Politics, 1915. The Middle Works of John Dewey, 1899-1924, Vol 8. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press.
Brehony, K. (2004). A New Education for a New Era: The Contribution of the Conferences of the New Education Fellowship to the Disciplinary Field of Education, 1921-1938”, Paedagogica Historica, 40(5/6), 733-755.
Brickman, W. W. (1949). John Dewey’s Foreign Reputation as an Educator. School and Society, 70, 257-265.
Brickman, W. W. (1984). The Turkish cultural and educational revolution: John Dewey’s Report of 1924. Western European Education, 16(5), 3-18.
Brickman,W. W., & Lehrer, S. (Eds.) (1975). John Dewey Master Educator. New York: John Wiley.
Campbell, J. K. (1968). Colonel Francis W. Parker: The Children’s Cruzader. New York: John Wiley.
Cremin, L. (1959). What Happened to Progressive Education? Teachers College Record, 61(1), 23-29. Recuperado em 20/06/2006, de: http://www.tcrecord.org
Depaepe, M. (2001). La Recherche expérimentale en éducation de 1890 à 1940: les processus historiques sous-jacents au développement d’une discipline en Europe de l’Ouest et aux Etats-Unis. In Hofstetter, R., & Schneuwly, B. (Eds.), Le Pari des Sciences de l’éducation (pp. 29-56). Bruxelles: De Boeck Université.
Dewey, J. (1937). The Need for a Philosophy of Education. In Malherbe, E. G., Carson, J. J. G., & Jones, I. D. R. (Eds.), Educational Adaptations in a Changing Society. Report of the South African Education Conference held in Capetown and Johannesburg in July, 1934, under the auspices of The New Education Fellowship. Juta & Co.: Capetown and Johannesburg.
Dewey, J. (2002) [1900 e 1902]. A Escola e a Sociedade e A Criança e o Currículo. Lisboa: Relógio d’Água.
Ensor, B. (1937). Trekking on in Education. In Malherbe, E. G., Carson, J. J. G. & Jones, I. D. R. (Eds.), Educational Adaptations in a Changing Society. Report of the South African Education Conference held in Capetown and Johannesburg in July, 1934, under the auspices of The New Education Fellowship. Juta & Co.: Capetown and Johannesburg.
Fuchs, E. (2004). Educational Sciences, Morality and Politics: International Educational Congresses in the Early Twentieth Century. Paedagogica Historica, 40(5/6), 757-784.
Goodenow, R. K. (1990). The Progressive Educator and the Third World: A First Look at John Dewey. History of Education, 19(1), 23-40.
Hofmeyer, J. H. (1937). The Meaning of the Conference for South Africa. In Malherbe, E. G., Carson, J. J. G., & Jones, I. D. R. (Eds.), Educational Adaptations in a Changing Society. Report of the South African Education Conference held in Capetown and Johannesburg in July, 1934, under the auspices of The New Education Fellowship. Juta & Co.: Capetown and Johannesburg.
Hofstetter, R., & Schneuwly, B. (Eds.). (2001). Le Pari des Sciences de l’éducation. Bruxelles: De Boeck Université.
Ichimura, T. (1984). The protestant Assumption in progressive Educational Thought. Teachers College Record, 85(3), 445-457.
Kandel, I. L. (1929). The Influence of Dewey Abroad. Teachers College Record, 31(3), 239-244.
Kronish, R. (1982). John Dewey’s Influence on Jewish Educators: The Case of Alexander M. Dushkin. Teachers College Record, 83(3), 419-433.
Luzuriaga, L. (1990). História da Educação e da Pedagogia. São Paulo: Companhia Editorial Nacional.
Madeira, A. I. (2005). Portuguese, French and British Discourses on Colonial Education: Church-State Relations, School Expansion and Missionary Competition in Africa, 1890-1930. Paedagogica Historica, 41(1/2), 31-60.
Madeira, A. I. (2006). Framing Concepts in Colonial Education: A Comparative Analysis of Educational Discourses at the Turn of the Nineteenth to the Twentieth Century. In Sprogøe, J., & Winther-Jensen, T. (Eds.), Identity, Education and Citizenship - Multiple Interrelations (pp. 225-238). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Madeira, A. I. (2007). Ler, Escrever e Orar: Uma análise histórica e comparada dos discursos sobre a educação, o ensino e a escola em Moçambique, 1850-1950. (Tese de Doutoramento em Ciências da Educação - Educação Comparada). Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade de Lisboa.
Madeira, A. I. (2008). Comparing Colonial Education Discourses in the French and Portuguese African Empires: An Essay on Hybridization. In Cowen, R., & Kazamias, A. M. (Eds.), International Handbook of Comparative Education (pp.165-178). London & New York: Springer.
Madeira, A. I. (2009). Diffusion-Reception Networks of Pedagogical Knowledge: The circulation of John Dewey´s educational discourse in the Luso-Afro-Brazilian space. Encounters in Education, 10, 137-160.
Malherbe, E. G., Carson, J. J. G., & Jones, I. D. R. (Eds.) (1937). Educational Adaptations in a Changing Society. Report of the South African Education Conference held in Capetown and Johannesburg in July, 1934, under the auspices of The New Education Fellowship. Juta & Co.: Capetown and Johannesburg.
Mirel, J. (2003). Old Educational Ideas, New American Schools: Progressivism and the Rethoric of Educational Revolution. Paedagogica Historica, 39(4), 477-497.
Munizaga, A. R. (1960). John Dewey, filosofo de America. Ediciones de los Anales de la Universidad de Chile, 9.
Nóvoa, A. (1998). Modeles d’Analyse en Éducation Comparée: Le Champ et la Carte. Histoire et Comparaison (Essais sur l’Éducation). Lisboa: Educa.
Nunn, P. (1930). The New Education Fellowship. Oversea Education, 1(2), 33-37.
Passow, A. H. (1982). John Dewey’s influence on education around the world. Teachers College Record, 83(3), 401-418.
Popkewitz, T. (2009). The double gestures of cosmopolitanism and comparative studies of education. In Cowen, R., & Kazamias, A. (Eds.), International Handbook of Comparative Education (pp. 385-401). Springer: Dordrech.
Popkewitz, T. (Ed.) (2005). Inventing the Modern Self and John Dewey: Modernities and the Traveling of Pragmatism in Education. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Saito, N. (2003). Education for Global Understanding: Learning From Dewey’s Visit to Japan. Teachers College Record, 105(9), 1758-1773.
