An Inquiry Into the Implications of John Dewey’s Philosophy for Today’s Ecological Education

• In Event: John Dewey and Issues of Pedagogy

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that Dewey’s vision of educative experience as emerging from situated transactions between students and environment is—fundamentally—an ecological interpretation of the educative process. Furthermore, I suggest that a reconsideration of Dewey’s philosophy of education as “pragmatic ecology” (Browne, 2007) is pressing, timely, and warranted. Because Dewey integrates the educational role played by both natural and social ecologies, his philosophy provides a model for educationists hoping to unite two competing strands within ecological education: the empirical goals and methods of scientific ecology and the values- and action-oriented desires of those within the ecology movement. In Dewey’s synthetic vision, inner and outer ecologies, human and material nature, the moral and the physical, are already linked.

Author

• Simon N. Jorgenson, University of Cincinnati