Kyle
Greenwalt
Michigan
State University
Jared
Kemling
Southern
Illinois University
Along with my associate editor,
Jared Kemling (Southern Illinois University), I am pleased to share with you
this editorial team’s first issue of The Journal of School & Society. We
thank the many members of the John Dewey Society who have supported us in this
project as well as our contributors to this exciting issue.
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| The Journal of School & Society |
The John Dewey Society was founded
in 1935. While the ideas and topics that interested Dewey are shared by many in
our organization, as an editorial team, more than anything else, we seek to
work in the spirit of the great
American philosopher—and in particular, with his commitment to the use of the
method of conjoint experience and communication for the enrichment of
democratic living.
TheJournal of School & Society seeks to position itself as speaking to all
those interested in the place and function of education in a democratic
society—to academics, certainly, but even more so to public school teachers, to
parents, and to community and labor activists. To that end, we actively seek to
highlight voices from diverse constituencies. We seek to be a journal of
intelligent practice for creative and justice-oriented practitioners.
To that end, this issue deals with
the future of vocational education.
Our
Contributors Reflect on the Work Vocational Education
The
term “vocational education,” it seems, is quickly losing its popularity in
favor of other terms and other trends: CTE (Career and Technical Education),
POS (Programs of Study), and, perhaps most excitingly, the MakerSpaces that
have been popping up in communities across the globe. A whole new way of
working has brought with it a whole new way of learning to work. James R. Stone
III, Director of the National Research Center for Career and Technical
Education at Southern Regional Education Board, makes this abundantly clear in
his article in this issue.
What accounts for the decline in
vocational education, as it was once known? Certainly, federal policy and
legislation have played a part in this—as Stone makes clear. But there are
perhaps other reasons as well. The older view of vocational education got
itself entangled on the horns of several dilemma from which it was never able
to free itself. Was it about enrichment of the living present or was it about
preparation for a coming future? Was it about fitting children to the needs of
industry or was it about re-shaping industry towards more socially-just
outcomes? Was it about the preservation of the skills of the past or about
learning the skills of the future? And just who, in any case, should engage in
topics we might consider “vocational?”
Needless to say, Dewey would have
rejected any such dualisms and asserted the importance of vocational
education—rightly understood—for all learners. Pieces in this issue by Anthony
DeFalco and Liu Xing make this point in compelling ways: any worthy educational
endeavor must, it seems, have its cake and eat it too. It must combine
appreciation of the past with readiness for the future, present enjoyment with
future demands, individual gifts with social needs, and efficiency with equity.
To that end, the piece by the
Reverend Kit Carlson of All Saints Episcopal Church in East Lansing, Michigan,
is deeply resonate for me—as a scholar, as a teacher, and as a parent. Drawing
upon figures such as Martin Luther, Frederic Buechner, and Parker Palmer,
Carlson asks us to consider the difference between vocation and career, all the
while asking how we can connect our “deep gladness” with “the world’s deep
hunger.”
In our everyday lives, when pipes
break, we need plumbers to fix them. But in a democracy, surely we need not
just plumbers who know their work, but plumbers who carry with them a sense of
their worth and purpose. Such is the story told by Karen Murphy, Communications
Director of Michigan State Employees Association: of plumbers who rushed into
Flint to install new filters and faucets for residents threatened by the lead
poisoning of the city’s water. Can we appreciate the work done by these plumbers
and, at the same time, deny them a fair wage? Can we appreciate their work and deny
them the right to collectively organize? Can the new wave of vocational
education concern itself with credentials but ignore issues of social justice?
It must not.
Those carrying out the work of CTE
must ensure that this does not happen. We turn, then, ultimately, to those
doing the work. Both k-12 public school teachers and community organizations
are well represented in this issue.
Erica Swinney of Manufacturing
Renaissance tells the fascinating story of her organization’s work to partner
with Chicago Public Schools in offering the very type of cutting-edge CTE that
seems so promising to those working in the field: stacked credentials, long-term
career counseling, and attention to the so-called “soft skills” that make a
person a valued colleague, comrade and citizen—all in a Chicago community hard
hit by the flight of manufacturing jobs and institutional racism.
Where, indeed, will the next Grace
Lee Boggs come from? Erica Swinney just might be able to tell us.
From the classroom, we hear from
John Denson, an agricultural teacher in Texas. Drawing upon his experience as
both a parent and a classroom teacher, Denson points out the continued opportunities
for learning as we help a new generation of farmers feed the world. Love of
animals—something that seems almost inherent to our species—can, in the hands
of a talented educator, be led into love of both agricultural methods and
democratic purposes. It also builds traits of character—the lovely notion of
“horse sense” that Denson speaks of—that serve young adults well in the future.
We also hear from Diane Allerdyce in
a wide-ranging interview with Natasha Perez—all in a video that has been
wonderfully edited and produced by James Jackman. Allerdyce is a long-time John
Dewey Society member and a founder of the Toussaint L'Ouverture High School for
Arts & Social Justice in Delray Beach, Florida. In this interview with
Perez, Allerdyce broadly considers how her incredible school contributes to
“the vocation of being human” among a group of students who clearly have so
much to offer the world. From the arts, to social justice, to career education,
Allerdyce helps us consider of what a truly integrated school curriculum
consists.
Finally, we hear from Kevin Russell,
a social studies educator turned manufacturing instructor. Russell helps us see
how these two subjects, in the hands of the right educator, are actually not so
far apart. They both aim to ready kids to transform their communities through
work done in service to others. Russell lays bare for us the struggles that
teachers will have to confront as they open themselves up to the idea that colleges—with
their ever increasing tuition rates—might not open as many doors as they
promise. That teachers might demonstrate to students the beauty and worth of
many different life paths.
John Dewey and Vocation
One
senses that everything that John Dewey cared about could be fruitfully
approached through the topic of vocational education. As he said in Democracy
& Education: “The dominant vocation of all human beings at all times is living—intellectual
and moral growth.”1
What this means, then, is that
vocational education—in the sense developed by the contributors across this
issue—is a process that never ends.
The excitement of vocational
education can be sensed when we realize that each day brings opportunities for
further growth and transformation—that today can be different than tomorrow, if our society values the human potential within
all of its diverse members.
Dewey understood this and he
insisted upon honoring the diverse talents that each human being brings to the
world. In his reconstruction of society, he called for new ways of working and
serving, ones that would put learning at the forefront.
As he noted, “ if even adults have
to be on the lookout to see that their calling does not shut down on them and
fossilize them, [then] educators must certainly be careful that the vocational preparation
of youth is such as to engage them . . .”2
This, then, is a vocational
education worth pursuing. One that contributes to a life devoted to learning
in, through, and for our work—broadly understood—all in pursuit of the common
good.
1
John Dewey, Democracy and Education (New York: The Free Press, 1916/1997), 310.
2
John Dewey, Democracy and Education (New York: The Free Press, 1916/1997), 311.
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