Mediating Work and Culture through Dewey’s Integrative Vision of Vocational Education

Abstract

John Dewey’s educational philosophy provides a compelling resource for empowering adult vocational education through a cultural vision, ultimately rooted in a view of social democracy as the creative task of lifelong learning before us. This is supported by Dewey’s interpretation of knowledge construction in its varied cognitive, ethical, and aesthetic forms, which provides the basis for transforming the perceived opposition between academic studies and vocational education in contemporary schooling, which I appropriate to the adult basic education field. To flesh this out, the essay homes in on the certified nursing assistant field through descriptive narratives, a nursing assistant training manual, and a corresponding lifelong curriculum framework. The challenges of implementing any aspirational vision are noted. Yet given its substantial grounding in experiential and transformative learning, progressive education, humanistic psychology, and a view of human resource management based on these influences, Dewey’s cultural philosophy of vocational education opens up pathways that can move in this direction, and is, therefore, worthy of much deliberate consideration.