The Making of the "Public" through Democracy: A Study on the History of Social Thought and American School Reform

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25780468
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Education
• Research Institution: Joetsu University of Education
• Principal Investigator: Izawa Shigeki 上越教育大学, 学校教育研究科(研究院), 准教授 (70460623)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: ジョン・デューイ / 学校改革 / デモクラシー / 公衆 / 進歩主義 / 政治参加 / カリキュラム / シティズンシップ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study criticizes historical, political, and philosophical assumptions given for educating democracy by reexamining and reinterpreting the history of social thought and American school reforms in the period from the end of 19th century to the present. The core argument in this study is that the making of the “public” through democracy still remains controversial historically but constitutes the central issue which school reform theorists such as John Dewey have developed in favor of social reconstruction through education, while at the same time creating new understandings of modern education for citizenship, morality, and critical thinking. Through a lens of education of the “public”, social images of American school reforms will be projected, observed, and reviewed fundamentally.

Free Research Field

教育哲学・教育思想史