The Self and Political Possibilities in Dewey and Foucault: Comparative Implications for School and Society

• In Event: Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: Love, Self, and Possibility

Abstract

This paper explores John Dewey’s and Michel Foucault’s respective positions on the development of the self and its implications for school and society. Both reject the Cartesian self and conceive of the individual as a product of the social world. However, their disparate accounts of the process by which the self is formed through social relations lead to divergent possibilities for agency and political action. While Dewey provides a more fully articulated account of individual growth and clearer avenues for social change, I argue that each formulation offers unique insights that are useful for both classroom applications as well as conceptualizing social action in particular contexts.

Author

• Lance E Mason, Indiana University - Kokomo