Educating the Public: Dewey and Arendt's Model and the Crisis of Chinese Education

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Seeking Dewey's Relevance

Abstract

The lack of necessary competencies of the public limits the function of the democratic politics. Based on this fact, Dewey and Arendt respectively proposed their own education model for educating the public. Among them, Dewey hopes to use education to shape 'the public' and transform the 'great society' into 'great community' in order to avoid public opinion is completely manipulated. Arendt values the preservation of 'public space'. Individuals express themselves in the public space, understand others, and never believe in any always-correct final answer. This is what Arendt proposed to prevent totalitarianism. The differences between the two models are discussed. Based on these two models, the relationship between Chinese education and Chinese political reform is also discussed.

Author

• Daoyong Ding, Beijing Normal University