Boostrom (2016) invites students of curriculum and education to reexamine John Dewey's 1916 book, “Democracy and Education (D & E)”, in relation to its relevance in contemporary society and schooling. It is established from the outset of the paper that although D & E was cited roughly three times daily, the views contained therein are not translated into educational practice or policy in the US. This disparity is unpacked in relation to the contemporary difficulties of utilising D & E, while also supposing that D & E has such a vast amount of ideas it is impractical to attempt to deconstruct them all at once; succinctly put by Boostrom, “Dewey is a hard read”. By deconstructing Dewey’s views, Boostrom alerts readers to their irrelevance in “dealing with today’s questions about curriculum and schooling”, as “Dewey seems blind to the economic realities of schooling and of life”. Boostrom cites Reinhold Niebuhr as supportive of this view, suggesting D & E lacked understanding of how much society’s progression- and concomitantly education- could be hindered by the “economic interests of the owning classes”.
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Boostrom asserts that, where educational institutions were once intended to facilitate education for its own sake, now they are geared towards career and life paths. For example, “career and technical education (CTE) programs” being interwoven throughout US education policy and legislation is a far cry from Dewey’s view that it is “absurd[…]to try educate individuals [...] to only one line of
Boostrom asserts that, where educational institutions were once intended to facilitate education for its own sake, now they are geared towards career and life paths. For example, “career and technical education (CTE) programs” being interwoven throughout US education policy and legislation is a far cry from Dewey’s view that it is “absurd[…]to try educate individuals [...] to only one line of