Progressive Education and Racial Justice: Examining the Work of John Dewey

Abstract:John Dewey was a progressive theorist, a pragmatist, a philosopher, and arguably the most influential American educator of the twentieth century. Yet, despite extensive documentation about John Dewey's philosophies of education and democracy, there is limited research and no consensus about Dewey's views about race and racism. I use a combination of primary sources, secondary sources, and archival data to explore the John Dewey's ideas about progressivism, racism, and schooling. I assert that Dewey, despite an expressed commitment to full and equal rights for African American students, normalized the experience of White students and implicitly endorsed accommodationist education reforms for African American children.