Teachers, Leaders, and Schools: Essays by John Dewey

Introduction: The Classroom Teacher

19 Introduction: The Classroom Teacher IN WHAT WAY DOES DEWEY’S teaching in public and private schools, serving as an assistant principal, overseeing a university laboratory school, investigating child development, studying schools in several countries, examining the issues of professional educators, and scrutinizing the many needs of society contribute to our understanding of what classroom teachers face today? Or, we might more pointedly inquire, what does Dewey have to say about the importance of the various roles of the classroom teacher as teacher, private person, professional educator, and citizen today? The set of essays in this section were selected to address these and associated questions and to appeal to aspiring and practicing teachers. The articles also offer insights about teachers and schools for educational leaders to consider and evaluate. We believe that if both teachers and educational leaders were to study these essays, Dewey’s ideas could make their dialogue with each other even more powerful and thought-provoking. Although Dewey never wrote a major volume on teachers, he was unwavering in his belief that well-educated, reflective, professional teachers should have a voice in the direction of their own school work and in the preparation of future teachers (MW8, MW15.171–79, LW5.1–40). When teachers have the power to create learning conditions and to select subject matter based on the developing needs and interests of students, it serves the broader purposes of education, which include nurturing students to become reflective thinkers and informed participants in democratic classrooms and societies. Moreover, he argues, teachers also have responsibilities as members of a profession and as citizens in a democratic society. Those are just some of the themes he takes up in the following essays. In “My Pedagogic Creed” (EW5.84–95), perhaps Dewey’s most succinct and clear statement of his educational thought, we find hints of a comprehensive philosophy, or at least a general theory, of education. Utilizing belief statements, 20 The Classroom Teacher and building on the core principle that the process and the goal of education are one and the same—the participation of individuals in the social consciousness of society—the creed asserts the nature of, and relationships among, the multiplicity of elements that go into making education what it is, including school, subject matter, curriculum, methodology, students, teachers, nature, and society. In one sense, it is a concise introduction to this volume that makes explicit or implicit reference to most of the major themes in these essays, with the notable exception of Dewey’s view of the educational leader or administrator, a profession that was just emerging at the time. Using religious language that connotes his early interest in the spiritual and perhaps anticipates his later attraction to religious experience,he describes teaching as a calling that involves the teacher in the preparation of educational conditions for students that are conducive to their individual and social growth. In view of the nature of the ongoing development of students, he avers that classroom teachers need more than knowledge, pedagogical expertise, psychological insight, and theoretical understanding: they also need to have good character, compassion, and sympathy. Dewey’s implied advice to teachers in his creed becomes explicit in his article “To Those Who Aspire to the Profession of Teaching” (LW13.342–46). From the outset, he asks prospective teachers to reflect on their answers to three questions: What opportunities does teaching offer? How do I measure up to the demands of teaching? What disappointments and challenges will I face as a teacher? As he explores these questions with readers, Dewey identifies a series of indispensable passions that teachers will need throughout their careers and points out that their lives will be characterized by stressful situations, long hours, and limited financial rewards that can challenge these passions. As a result, he reasons, teachers need to be strong, caring, patient, and sympathetic individuals who also know their subjects and model the quest for knowledge. According to Dewey, teaching is not for those who lack personal integrity, respect for students, and passion but for those who are emotionally and intellectually committed to advancing the well-being of individuals and society. In the “Professional Spirit among Teachers” (MW7.109–12), Dewey argues that a professional spirit is missing from many teachers for several reasons, but especially because they are too infrequently called upon or allowed to be professionals or to use their minds to help improve schools. In the context of this assumption, Dewey makes two normative or value claims...