A PHILOSOPHICAL EVALUATION OF DEWEY'S THEORY OF EDUCATION

  • Victor Ogheneochuko Jeko (Ph.D)
  • Wesley Taiwo Osemwegie, (Ph.D)
  • Amaka Patricia Nwana (Ph.D)
Keywords: The Child, Community, Democracy, Education, School

Abstract

The idea of education as a social life has been neglected in contemporary time by both the educators and policy makers. This has derailed and destroyed the entire educational system, which has resulted in the present decay where certification is the goal of education in Nigeria instead of the utility and moral values it could bring to both the leaner and the society. Our present educational system has failed woefully because it neglects the fundamental principle of the school as a form of community life. Dewey's theory of education is generally overlooked despite its intellectual articulation and identification of the fundamental problems of human society. He sees philosophy as a problem solving discipline. His philosophy focuses on the importance of critical inquiry, practical intelligence, teleological nature of human conduct and character. His philosophy is predicated on the constitutive and integrated character of human conducts in social relations. He believes in the social nature of moral reality and of the public good in contemporary society. His advocacy is on educational progressivism of the child in the immediate social environment; and more comprehensive view of human society. His philosophy aims at human innovation, conducts, perception, thought, actions, habits, impulses, and intelligence. His vision of democratic society is anchored on progressive social change, knowledge and experience. His ideas are grounded on scientific principles and methodology that brings education within the template of science that promotes epistemological flourishing. Education is taken to be a social liberating agent that seeks to eradicate ignorance, which is in line with the Socratic recognition of this as a vice, while knowledge that education provides is seen as a virtue. This paper therefore seeks to examine the value of Dewey's theory of education and its relevance to the Nigerian system of education. It is the position of this paper that Nigeria has a lot to gain from the Deweyean theory of education because of its pragmatic, ethical and democratic values to the development of society. As a democratic society, it is imperative that our system of education include the ideas espoused in this theory of education since it is child-centred and affirms the biblical injunction that a child will not depart from the way he/she was trained when he/she grows up. Our approach here will be analytic as we will evaluate the ideas of other scholars in relation to our subject of discourse.

Published
2023-04-22
Section
Articles