Service learning and the just community: Complementary pragmatist forms of civic character education

Abstract

This article investigates the theoretical link between two approaches to civic character education: Service Learning and the Just Community, given that the two share a strong democratic ethical component. Based on historical research and bibliographical review, we show that John Dewey’s pragmatism forms a theoretical foundation of both approaches. Our revision combines the search for a normative foundation of democratic life with the need for contextual agreements: universal principles of justice with conversation and action in specific situations, moral autonomy with social commitment in real circumstances. By merging the two educational approaches to civic character education, we conclude that social and democratic progress does not mean renouncing ethical principles, but drawing them in a different way: revisably, creatively, dialectically, practically, and intersubjectively.