Managing Educational Transformation in the Globalized World: A Deweyan Perspective

Abstract

In the globalization scenarios we currently face, educational systems are challenged by different and sometimes competing pressures and requests. These call for a deep transformation of the organization, role, and social function of educational systems. Within this context, the very concept of education has come to be understood in different ways, which sometimes distort its moral and social value. In this essay, Maura Striano contends that from a Deweyan perspective, educational transformation must be seen as strictly connected to social change, and education should be understood as a process that facilitates and supports social growth and development. In order to be effective and fruitful, Striano suggests, this transformation must occur from the inside of educational systems and can only be brought about by reflective and inquiry‐based inner processes if it is to have a sound moral and social impact within the changing framework of the globalized world. That education shares in the confusion of transition, and in the demand for reorganization, is a source of encouragement and not of despair. It proves how integrally the school is bound up with the entire movement of modern life. —John Dewey, The Educational Situation

Finitudine, pàthos ed educazione in John Dewey

“…L'educazione, pertanto, acquista con Dewey un primato forse mai avuto in passato: non mezzo, strumento utile a questo o quel fine, ma fine in sé: l'educazione dà a se stessa i suoi propri fini. A questo proposito è bene ricordare come pochi pensatori hanno tematizzato l'educazione con tanta forza e fiducia così come Dewey ha fatto; pochi hanno posto al centro del loro progetto filosofico l'educativo in quanto tale (Bellatalla, 1999;Spadafora, 2009;Striano, 2009) tanto che è possibile affermare che il primum, in Dewey, non è filosofico, ma educativo.…”

“…È altresì opportuno ricordare che una visione non irenica dell'opera deweyana emerge anche dai lavori di diversi studiosi che, sebbene non impegnati in modo diretto nell'esplicitare un tale lato, ne mostrano tuttavia un ritratto tutt'altro che rassicurante, evidenziando come la sfida deweyana alla metafisica platonicocartesiana implica la messa in questione di ogni terreno sicuro del pensare (Bernstein, 1961;Biesta, 1994;Biesta & Burbules, 2003;Boisvert, 1998;Jackson, 1994Jackson, /1995Margolis, 2010;Semetsky, 2003;2008;Striano, 2009). Nei loro lavori il ritratto di Dewey come promotore di un ottimistico e lineare sentiero verso la democrazia e la conoscenza è messo in questione, e il pensiero del filosofo e pedagogista statunitense appare in tutta la sua profondità e complessità.…”

Dewey in Transition: Towards a Pragmatist Ethics of Recognition in Schools

“…By the same token, Stefano Oliverio () has addressed ‘the topicality of a pragmatist attitude in contemporary educational scenarios’ (p. 610), as a ‘specific way of “inhabiting” the educational undertaking in all its dimensions (theoretical, methodological, and practical) and a method of sieving educational proposals in reference to their potential to live up to the needs of contemporary times’ (p. 625). Saito (, ), Striano (), and Oliverio () set about transitioning Dewey's ideas as a possible and necessary update that can only be carried out through revision and updating, or as Dewey's might have suggested, ‘reconstruction’. Indeed, as Neubert () mentioned as well, Dewey reconstructed himself several times throughout his life as a philosopher, and argued that the need to reconstruct ideas was a recurrent phenomenon due to how intimately they are tied to their context of origin and use.…”

“…and its impact on contemporary education policies. Another example of this kind of exercise of transitioning Dewey's ideas comes from Maura Striano (), who indicated the ways in which Dewey's philosophy may prove useful to analysing the nature of the pedagogic problems and challenges posed by school systems that are becoming more and more globalised. Several keys to interpreting Dewey's philosophy, and particularly his ideas on pedagogy, are indeed potentially transitionable to present‐day problems.…”

Developing Educational Practices in the Globalized World

“…Within this framework, globalization and global economy shape the nature of educational opportunities and institutions and this poses a deep challenge to educational systems (Striano, 2009) which are forced to develop according to shared guidelines (Carnoy & Rothen, 2002) but, at the same time, to maintain a specific cultural and territorial configuration.…”