Ella Flagg Young's Pivotal Role in Educational Theory and Practice

• In Event: 72.024 - Pivotal Landmarks: Turning to Life History as a Guide to Contemporary Educational Policy and Practice

Abstract

Ella Flagg Young is best known for her trailblazing superintendency of the Chicago Schools (1909-15) and presidency of the National Education Association (1910-11). Less well known about Young was her uncanny ability to stand at the pivot point of fundamentally defining education debates of the time, and then provide the decisive push necessary to alter the direction of practice and theory in the field thereafter. In this paper, I will examine two cases in which Young crucially impacted school work at critical moments: 1) her deep influence on John Dewey’s thinking about democracy, education, and teachers; and 2) her core deconstruction and reconstruction of the ways by which teachers prepare for and practice their profession.

Influence on Dewey. Young devoted significant time to both studying and practicing purposeful, deliberative, and mutually responsible collective decision-making in schools. Ellen Condliffe Lagemann (1996) has argued that during Young’s time studying with and then working alongside Dewey, she provided him with clear understanding of how democracy, education, and politics might actually be developed, a critical element absent from his work. A fiercely intellectual woman, Young influenced deeply as he formed his philosophies of democracy in education – the greatest influence of all, he would argue repeatedly. As superintendent of Chicago's schools, she demonstrated how an entire system might embody the notions of democracy that she and Dewey together formally articulated.

Teacher Preparation. Young only attended school for a few months as a child. Despite, or perhaps because of her lack of conventional classroom experience, she later pioneered unconventional and indisputably effective ways of helping teachers prepare for their work. She became the founding principal of Chicago’s practice-based normal program, winning acclaim for dramatically upgrading the quality of Chicago’s teaching force to a level the superintendent claimed was unequaled in the country. Overall, Young insisted on tightly linked theory and practice, as well as high standards for training.

Methods: The larger biographical project from which this presentation is drawn examines Young’s life in the broader historical context of public schooling. Analysis is based on a wide variety of archival and secondary sources.

Conclusions: Ella Flagg Young was a brilliant thinker with an extraordinary capacity for combining original thought with powerful action, often in the heat of the moment. She conceived exceptionally effective and inspiring ways to prepare teachers well and consistently. At root, she contended that democracy was essential in schools if worthy individuals were to choose to teach. She did not simply articulate this vision. She – and those who worked in community with her – modeled it.

Significance: Though Young and Dewey each wrote three of the six books that were published as the University of Chicago’s Contributions to Education series, they collaborated on a number of other scholarly projects, and they significantly shaped each other’s ideas, Young’s theoretical work--and her impressive integration of theory and practice--has languished in the shadow of Dewey’s. The author will present a clear case for the fundamental importance of Young’s contributions during the two pivotal moments described in this presentation.

Author

• Jackie M. Blount, The Ohio State University