This paper surveys the development of educational theory and philosophy in the United States across five decades, from the 1950s through the 1990s. Beginning with the dominant "isms" of the postwar era—experimentalism, progressivism, existentialism, and pragmatism—the paper traces how broader social, political, and scientific events shaped educational thinking over time. It examines the influence of Sputnik on 1960s reform, the social upheaval of the 1970s, the feminist and postmodern turns of the 1980s, and the consensus-versus-dissensus debates of the 1990s. Throughout, the paper draws on key journal articles and theorists to illustrate how the relationship between philosophical theory and educational practice evolved, deepened, and diversified over this half-century.
During the 1950s, one of the central concerns of most educational theories was the existing "isms" and how they coincided with education. Some of the most common were "experimentalism," "re-constructionism," and "progressivism," and these were directly proportional to any educational analysis. However, most researchers also took into account more universal theories or "isms" such as "cultural relationism," "logical positivism," "pragmatism," and "transcendental realism." It was in 1952 that the most innovative and fascinating piece on the relation of existentialism and education was presented, with the mutual input of a group of graduate students including Maxine Greene and Robert Ennis from the Department of Educational Philosophy at NYU (Brameld, 1952). Even though this piece makes tentative associations with educational theories, the focal point was on the deficiency of rigorous discipline among the existentialists as well as their preoccupation with fear, prejudice, and apprehension. This line of thought was mainly inspired by the theories already presented by Søren Kierkegaard and Jean-Paul Sartre (Feinberg and Odeshoo, 2000).
Numerous articles during the 1950s also focused on justifying the prevalence of the association between education and philosophy and other fields. Most of these articles tried to explain that the sphere of educational philosophy was such a widespread and interlinked spectrum that it could not be singly encompassed in either education or philosophy alone (Feinberg and Odeshoo, 2000). Some of the other pieces published that decade were mainly analytical and/or critical of another philosopher's views and tactics for forming educational theories. One of the most frequently discussed philosophers was John Dewey. Even though Dewey's theory and viewpoint appear as a recurrent feature in most articles of the early 1950s, very few of these articles mention his name in the text or title. Later in the decade, the number of articles attempting to explain Dewey's approach decreased to about two per year, on average. Other popular philosophers included Matthew Arnold, Josiah Royce, Martin Buber, Edmund Burke, Charles Peirce, Charles Fourier, John Henry Newman, Aquinas, and G.W.F. Hegel. Most of the articles written on these philosophers aimed at reviving their philosophical notions; for example, Ferdinand Canning Scott Schiller's viewpoint was revisited in an innovative 1956 article (Winetrout, 1956).
There were also quite a few articles that chose to concentrate solely on the numerous problems or aspects of existing education policies, such as the degree of educational liberty available to both students and teachers, and the educational as well as broader responsibilities of academic management. An example of this format is the article by the Dean of the College of Education at a major university, who attempted to design a completely fresh theory of teacher training. He believed this could be achieved by invalidating what he considered the conservative or traditional understanding of the relationship between the traits and the various units of education (Spalding, 1951). He followed the viewpoint first put forth by Aristotle, which regarded the numerous units as the primary factors and the traits as the secondary factors. Spalding supported this viewpoint because he believed it led to a more lucid understanding of society's needs and requirements for educational standards, temperaments, and policies (Feinberg and Odeshoo, 2000).
Most educational theories over the years became more dependent on and linked to the philosophy of education. Essays of this kind were not very common in the earlier years and were in fact less clearly defined; instead, education and its association with other fields were the main focus of many articles, including those examining the relationship between education and sociology (Znaniecki, 1951), economics, literature, and psychology. Most of these articles were mixed in their handling of those associations, especially those focused on education and psychology. Articles such as "The Adolescent Feeling of Psychological Isolation" and "An Analysis of Horney's Concept of the Real Self" (Collier and Lawrence, 1951; Robbins, 1958) showed very weak connections to education. Oscar Oppenheimer's view of the individual's right to freedom and growth, expressed in "Freedom and Mental Health," remains visible in numerous writings, especially by authors like Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum (Oppenheimer, 1952).
One of the other relationships explored through these articles was that between religion and education. Articles of this kind spanned the world's major religions—Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and others—and examined how the traditions of these religions were relevant to curriculum preferences and how they further influenced educational structure. The majority of these essays were published in 1953, and some of the prominent ones are "The Problem of Religious Courses in a State University" by Oliver Martin, "Religion and Public Education" by Samuel Burkhard, and "Should Parochial Schools Receive Public Funds?" by Irwin Widen (Spalding, 1951; Widen, 1953; Burkhard, 1953; Martin, 1953).
Another set of theories explored in various essays concerned the impact that significant social issues would have on education. Much of the subject matter focused on foundational educational and philosophical concepts such as "freedom," "liberty," and "democracy," which were especially popular. Theories of "ontology," "causation," "nature," and "the Good" were also addressed under philosophical terms. One of the most innovative patterns found in these writings was the incorporation of everyday verbal philosophy or language analysis within the educational sphere; examples include "Philosophical Semantics and Education" by Richard Dettering and "Needs and the Curriculum" by Henry J. Perkinson (Dettering, 1951; Perkinson, 1959).
It was the launch of the Russian rocket Sputnik that prompted American scholars to recognize that the United States was lagging behind in the scientific and technological spheres. This launch led to a thorough analysis of schools, which revealed that the conditions in the majority of them were deficient in effective disciplinary procedures and that school administrators were not paying adequate attention to the academic curriculum (Greene, 2000). This prompted a sudden and hurried wave of reforms. The U.S. government invested in swift and efficient education in science and technology. The admissions process became more competitive as more and more students were urged to pursue higher education. Curricula became more dynamic and included wide fields of science. Teachers were given formal training and greater incentives to work harder, so that the U.S. could catch up with the educational standards of Russia and other countries (Greene, 2000).
While school administrators concentrated on the reforms being introduced, philosophers still analyzed and sought associations between education and philosophical theory. Articles written in this period concentrated on the philosophical view of the rapid incorporation of mathematics and social studies into the school curriculum, and paid attention to the varying methods of instruction and the potential impact a single philosophical framework had on the overall execution of educational policies (Greene, 2000). One significant pattern noticed by philosophers was that concepts considered to represent philosophical progress—such as optimism, practicality, pragmatism, empiricism, reconstruction, logic, language values, and existentialism—were consistently incorporated into curricula. Many researchers believed the objective of these inclusions was to allow students the opportunity to find logic through the use of metaphysical and epistemological simplifications in order to arrive at certain conclusions and reactions (Dewey, 1963; Kant, 1963).
However, Sidney Hook, a philosopher at New York University, argued extensively against these objectives in one of the most widely read articles written for the Harvard Educational Review. He declared that there was no logical relevance or use for epistemological or metaphysical theories within a classroom setting (Hook, 1956). The debate over the practical implications and relevance of such theories extended over a long period of time. By April 1966, Robert Guttchen had written an article analyzing this very debate. He highlighted the numerous methods of questioning and the issues raised in correspondence to their impact on individualized activity (Guttchen, 1966). Guttchen first outlined the different perspectives on practice that existed among philosophers and explained why it was so difficult for philosophers to agree on a single method of educational practice within a school setting. He also attempted to bridge a commonality between the approach endorsed by philosophy and its educational application. Guttchen, however, could not arrive at one effective and useful application or consequence of the association formed between philosophy and educational practice (Guttchen, 1966).
The important thing to note is that the researchers of that time were largely negligent of the social and ideational circumstances that had shaped the structure of schools. Nearing the end of the 1960s, analytic or language philosophy became the central focus, which led to the isolation of the classroom setting from the broader problems that surrounded it (Greene, 2000). Most educational philosophers of the time were inclined to restrict themselves to formal aspects and problems—such as the sovereignty of the educational system independent of societal influence, and the assessment of school structure for its growth or for the progression of the epistemology it embodied (Greene, 2000). All those frameworks that appeared invasive or seemed to introduce a personal bias were quickly identified and removed. This was one of the reasons that led to the preoccupation with the possible consequences of applying philosophical theories. Inflexibility was adeptly achieved by isolating practice from its related theoretical context—an approach many researchers believed was the only efficient way to develop unbiased logic in an individual. The application of the "movements" theory also made examination more impartial because of its dependence on overviews borrowed from different schools of thought. However, philosophical theories based on pragmatism, reconstruction, existentialism, and pure philosophical analysis were not successful at allowing individuals to form impersonal conclusions (Greene, 2000).
"Social upheaval shapes diverse educational theory"
"Postmodern and feminist turns; teacher training emphasis"
"Consensus vs. dissensus; pragmatism meets postmodernism"
Most researchers believed that during the 1950s, the topics not raised consistently as influences on educational theories—such as racial discrimination and the status of women—had a more drastic effect than the issues that were addressed. Feinberg and Odeshoo's essay incorporated the story of Ken Benne, who had been expelled from a university over an assumed homosexual activity, demonstrating a grave deficiency in understanding the social structures of society as a whole. What was considered the norm at the time appears discriminatory today, mainly because those issues had not been addressed in that decade. Now, educational theories are not considered complete if they do not incorporate such circumstances and their overall effects (Burbules, 2000).
Educational theories were more specialized and respected in the 1960s than at any other time, on the basis of the incorporation of assessment procedures that guaranteed impartiality, clarity, and practical rigor. However, the 1960s witnessed a confirmed separation from the preceding concerns about the linkage between educational theories and their execution. The increasing association with existentialist philosophies saw the incorporation of commitment and situatedness into the foundational framework of theories. Regardless of their differences, the philosophical arena was shared by both the analytical and the existentialist trends (Burbules, 2000).
Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions in 1970 brought forth the notion of paradigm competition, which was arguably the single most influential concept in the coming decades. While the 1970s saw philosophy as the benchmark behind numerous analytically based educational theories, the most lively and influential theorists had been largely ignored and poorly represented in the articles and essays of the era (Burbules, 2000).
The theories formed in the 1980s are the foundation of numerous theories existing today. This was the decade when educational theories began incorporating gender and racial differences into the agenda before forming a theory. The 1980s saw feminism, the neo-Marxist perspective, and the first drafts of postmodern theory recognized as legitimate areas of concern in educational philosophy. Curriculum theory and social and political theory gained momentum in this decade. However, the downside remained that discussions were largely confined to the educational sphere. Also, within progressive circles, the main debate revolved around the qualities of optimistic versus pessimistic visions of social change (Burbules, 2000).
The 1990s brought tragedy, feelings of loss, and uncertainty to societies. The main topic of discussion in this decade was the qualities of consensus versus dissensus as a result of social and academic consequences. All those beliefs firmly held in the past were acutely challenged in this decade, and the process of reformation in the social and academic spheres was set in motion (Burbules, 2000). In the future, one can hope that the reforms and incorporations made over the past decades in educational theory will yield fruitful results by enhancing educational standards and improving the efficiency with which educational philosophies are put into practice.
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