Educating from Failure: Dewey’s Aesthetics and the Case for Failure in Educational Theory

Abstract

This essay is an attempt to add to the argument that beauty matters in education through offering a reciprocal but interconnected point: if the dynamic harmony and deep connectedness of beauty need to be taken seriously, so must their aesthetic converse–the disharmony and estrangement of failure. While the discourse of philosophical aesthetics has long included categories such as the beautiful, the good, and the virtuous, the seeds for achievement of these ideals are planted in the soil of disharmony, uncertainty, and failure. Using a Deweyan account of art as experience, this essay argues that disharmony and failure are as much aesthetic categories as harmony and beauty and must be taken as seriously in teaching and learning. It further argues that failure, rather than beauty, is often more suited to providing the foundation for unlocking the unique potential of students and helping them cultivate their capacity for creative thought and action.

Authoring Self: GED Students Transforming Their Identities in a Composition Makerspace

“…With composing, learning to write well happens through the process of writing badly, receiving feedback, and making improvements (Elbow, 1973), and composing is certainly complex. So, through the act of composing, students became aware of the daily failures that “disrupt our expectations and lead to the process of inquiry and the formation of new understanding” (Stoller, 2013, p. 24). As one participant, Gloria, stated after accidently deleting a picture from her blog, “I learned something.…”

“…This process- and product-oriented practice changes the way that people participate in the learning environment. Students no longer focus on producing or composing a final product to be consumed and judged; instead, they think more like mature artists, valuing the process of growing and pruning as they carry out their work (Stoller, 2013). By surveying young students who participated in makerspaces, Catterall and Peppler (2007) found that participation that focuses on process gives students opportunities to feel accomplished, demonstrate their skills, speak aloud about what they are learning and producing, and take on leadership roles within the community of learners.…”

Taylorism and the logic of learning outcomes

“…The official curriculum, pedagogies and research on teaching ignore the nature of desire and the passions of students altogether (Garrison, 1997, p. 29). Reciprocally, they make no space for failure or loss as a meaningful dimension of learning (see Stoller, 2013). Yet if the purpose of education is the cultivation of students as creative and empathetic democratic individuals, views on teaching and learning must move beyond cold, clinical knowing to including concepts like compassion, empathy and friendship (see Stoller, 2014, p. 88) Educating for democracy…”

Fulfilment: Crisis, discontinuity and the dark side of education

“…Tobias Hölterhof https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6255-1244 ENDNOTES 1 Exceptions include sources discussed later in this paper as well as in texts such as Stoller (2013), O'Donnell (2014) and Myers (2019). 2 Maslow describes difficulties in finding suitable participants for his study of the characteristics of fully self-actualised persons, especially among the young.…”

“…11Exceptions include sources discussed later in this paper as well as in texts such as Stoller (2013), O'Donnell (2014) and Myers (2019). …”