UCLA’s Institute for Democracy,
Education, & Access
Multiple Perspectives on Multiple Pathways Series
(University of California, Los Angeles)
Year
Paper mp֓rr֓
Multiple Pathways, Vocational
Education, and the “Future of
Democracy”
John S. Rogers
Joseph Kahne
UCLA
Mills College
Ellen Middaugh
University of California, Berkeley
This paper is posted at the eScholarship Repository, University of California.
http://repositories.cdlib.org/idea/mp/mp-rr011-0207
Copyright c 2007 by the authors.
Multiple Pathways, Vocational
Education, and the “Future of
Democracy”
Abstract
This paper argues that, while contemporary advocates of Multiple Pathways
address some important concerns with equity, they do not attend sufficiently to
the quality of civic life that the civic role of schooling promotes. Such attention
is critical to the future of democracy. Recent scholarship on civic education
suggests that unless high schools move proactively to assure a robust program
in civic education, students will not develop essential civic skills.
Educators and policy makers interested in providing Multiple Pathways through
high school today can learn much from John Dewey’s contribution to the public
debate on vocational education between 1913 and 1917. Dewey sought to focus
the public’s attention on education’s civic role—on preparing students for public
deliberation, communal problem solving, and joint action to advance the common good. He argued that, in formulating the relationship between so-called
“vocational” and “academic” education, the primary consideration must be the
democratic goals of schooling.
Dewey pointed to the importance of treating work and the broader political
economy as subjects for study. He called for students to examine opportunities for workers to utilize intelligence and make decisions within the workplace.
Dewey wanted students to use the methods of social science inquiry to explore
the cause and effect of economic and social problems as well as how these problems can be addressed. Such engaged study, he reasoned, would provide young
people with the skills and commitments necessary to press for democracy in the
workplace, the political sphere, and in broader social relations.
Dewey’s vision of democratic vocational education provides several important
lessons for educators considering whether or how to link academic and career
education today. For example, schools should highlight socially useful work that
builds community; explore the meaning of democratic decision-making across
public and private institutions; and promote inquiry into whether different worksites advance these goals. Such an infusion of democratic education within a
Multiple Pathways approach, we conclude, will enable students to acquire civic
knowledge and forge democratic commitments.
Multiple
Perspectives
on Multiple
Pathways
Multiple Pathways, Vocational Education,
and the “Future of Democracy”
John Rogers
UCLA
Joseph Kahne
Mills College
Ellen Middaugh
UC Berkeley
Multiple Pathways, Vocational Education, and the
“Future of Democracy”
John Rogers, UCLA
Joseph Kahne, Mills College
Ellen Middaugh, UC Berkeley
1
The kindred question of industrial education is fraught
with consequences for the future of democracy. Its right
development will do more to make public education truly
democratic than any other one agency now under
consideration. Its wrong treatment will as surely
accentuate all undemocratic tendencies in our present
situation, by fostering and strengthening class divisions in
school and out.
---John Dewey, 1913
Educators and policy makers interested in providing Multiple Pathways through
high school today can learn much from John Dewey’s contribution to the public debate
on vocational education between 1913 and 1917. Dewey sought to focus the public’s
attention on education’s civic role—on preparing students for public deliberation,
communal problem solving, and joint action to advance the common good. He argued
that, in formulating the relationship between so-called “vocational” and “academic”
education, the primary consideration must be the democratic goals of schooling. In other
words, “vocational” and “academic” are neither competing emphases, nor should either
stand alone; rather, they are two goals that together serve greater social, economic, and
democratic ends. He reasoned that civic education should not be neglected as reformers
reshaped the traditional curriculum. More fundamentally, Dewey held that introducing
vocational education offered new and powerful opportunities to advance democracy. His
presumption was that the ‘right’ vocational education would support the development of
students into adults who press for democracy in the workplace, the political sphere, and
in broader social relations.
This essay looks to Dewey’s scholarship on democratic vocational education as a
model of how to advance civic skills and commitments in the context of education about
careers and the workplace. Dewey pointed to the importance of treating work and the
2
broader political economy as subjects for study. He called for students to examine
opportunities for workers to utilize intelligence and make decisions within the workplace.
Dewey wanted students to use the methods of social science inquiry to explore the cause
and effect of economic and social problems as well as how these problems can be
addressed. Such engaged study, he reasoned, would provide young people with the
skills and commitments necessary for active and informed participation in an industrial
democracy.
The remainder of this essay explores how the Multiple Pathways approach might
be broadened to incorporate Dewey’s concern with the democratic aims of education.
We begin by comparing historical arguments for vocational education with the
contemporary case for Multiple Pathways. We find that prevailing formulations of
Multiple Pathways are more attentive to equity than earlier arguments for vocational
education. Nonetheless, contemporary advocates of Multiple Pathways do not attend
sufficiently to the quality of civic life that the civic role of schooling promotes. We then
locate our democratic focus in relationship to the growing public concern with low and
uneven levels of youth engagement in civic life. We first review the current state of civic
education, which suggests that civic goals cannot be taken for granted; unless high
schools move proactively to assure a robust program in civic education, students will not
develop essential civic skills. We then turn to Dewey’s writing on vocational education
to identify how he introduced civic purposes into the debate on vocational education and
how he reconceptualized vocational education in light of these purposes. This analysis
points to a Deweyan framework for a democratic vocational education that promotes
“industrial intelligence” for an “industrial democracy” (Dewey, 1916b). We then
3
consider what lessons this framework holds for career and civics education. In
conclusion, we discuss the possibilities and challenges of reshaping Multiple Pathways in
light of democratic purposes.
Historical and Contemporary Debates on Vocational Education
Dewey’s focus on the democratic purposes of schooling set him apart from his
contemporaries who built the case for vocational education narrowly on economic
grounds. Early twentieth century reformers reasoned that the traditional school
curriculum was not preparing large segments of America’s youth for adult roles in a
global economy. The influential Commission on National Aid to Vocational Education
warned that “the rising demand for a better product” in both domestic and foreign
markets demanded that American labor be “as efficient and as trained as the labor of the
countries with which we must compete” (Report of Commission, 1913, p. 123). The
commission noted a fundamental mismatch between the labor market demands for skilled
artisans and factory workers and the academic programs of traditional high schools that
were “largely planned for the few who prepare for college” (p. 124). Posing “learning by
doing” as a strategy for re-engaging students, the Commission asserted that vocational
education could “attract and hold” the nine out of ten urban students who dropped out of
school before graduating (p. 125-6). In this way, vocational education would introduce
“the aim of utility to take its place in dignity by the side of culture, and to connect
education with life by making it purposeful and useful” (p. 127).
There are striking parallels and important differences between the vocational
education debate Dewey entered in 1913 and the discussion of Multiple Pathways today.
4
Advocates of Multiple Pathways point to the demands of the global economy as evidence
that high schools must incorporate career and technical education.1 “The globalization of
business and industry,” argues Hans Meeder (2006, p. 5) of the Association for Career
and Technical Education, means that “competitor nations are surging forward” in
producing more highly educated workers. American school systems thus must provide
students with the “core skills” that can be applied in “a wide and rapidly changing variety
of work settings” (Meeder, 2006, p. 5). Yet, large numbers of students do not develop
such skills in high schools organized by a traditional academic curriculum. In many
schools, particularly those serving large numbers of students of color and students from
low-income families, students become disengaged from the traditional curriculum, and
many drop out of school (Kazis, 2003). The advocates of Multiple Pathways assert that
integrating career and technical training into the high school can re-engage students by
promoting more active learning and giving students a sense of how their learning is tied
to future goals (Meeder, 2006; Brand, 2003).
While current advocates of Multiple Pathways echo some of the early twentieth
century arguments, they consciously seek to distance themselves from two key themes of
the earlier vocational education reformers. First, advocates of Multiple Pathways reject
the view that high school students must choose between a pathway leading directly to
work and one leading to college. “The past division between preparation for college and
preparation for work,” argues Betsy Brand (2003, p. 7) “has become a false dichotomy.”
1
Kliebard (1999) argues that this focus on the economic ends of schooling is a direct
result of the campaign to expand vocational education in the early 20th century. That is,
the early advocates for vocational education succeeded not just in expanding vocational
education opportunities, but also in framing the purposes of curriculum in economic
terms.
5
Brand holds that all work has become knowledge work requiring “higher literacy,
numeracy, and technical skills” and hence postsecondary education (2003, p.1). Second,
and related, advocates of Multiple Pathways posit a different understanding than the early
vocational education advocates of what it means for young people to be included in the
new economy. Whereas the early advocates for vocational education believed that
students with “different tastes and abilities” should follow different pathways into highly
differentiated adult roles (Report of Commission, 1913, p. 124), the Multiple Pathways
advocates (Brand, 2003; Kazis, 2003; Meeder, 2006) assert that all students should
become highly trained knowledge workers In this sense, students could follow Multiple
Pathways towards a common goal of college and career training.
Vocational
Education and
Academic
Curriculum
School-Based
Activities
Purpose of
Education
Traditional Approach
to Vocational
Education
Dual Curriculum:
One track for
students on pathways
to college; one track
for students on direct
path to work.
Routinized skill
training in vocational
track; humanistic
studies in academic
track.
Schools should
prepare some for
manual work and
some for decision
making and
professional work.
Multiple Pathways
Approach
Integrated
Curriculum:
Students study
college prep
curricula and
participate in
internships
Deweyan Approach
Unitary Curriculum:
Students study the
workplace and the
broader political
economy. Students
develop academic,
vocational, and civic
skills.
Academic lessons
Project-based
applied within
learning that
context of career
promotes inquiry in
themes and work-site and about the
internships.
workplace.
Schools should
Schools should
prepare all for
prepare all to be
college and careers
active citizens and
in the knowledgechange agents in
based economy.
workplace and
society.
6
Silence on the Democratic Purpose of Schooling
Yet, the new inclusiveness of the Multiple Pathways rhetoric does not mean that
this approach advances democratic ends. Advocates for Multiple Pathways are largely
silent about the democratic purposes of schooling. This is not to say that they reject
Dewey’s commitment to equality of opportunity. Advocates of Multiple Pathways
recognize that the new global economy creates winners and losers based on access to
formal education and career training. Their hope is that new educational structures can
support more inclusive economic structures by ensuring that all young people have the
education necessary for well-paid jobs.
Nonetheless, with the exception of a couple of fleeting references to preparing
young people for citizenship, the advocates of Multiple Pathways pay no attention to
education’s democratic purposes (Brand, 2003, p. ii; Meeder, 2006, p. 24). This
inattention suggests that a Multiple Pathways approach might give short shrift to civic
education at a time when declining and unequal patterns of civic participation pose a
serious threat to multi-racial democracy. Such concerns are heightened by the fact that so
much of the rhetoric of career and technical education focuses on the private, rather than
public, returns to education.
Further, by not attending to democracy, advocates of Multiple Pathways are left
with narrow, instrumental goals as guideposts for integrating academic and career
curriculum. The goal of economic inclusion points toward curriculum aimed at
developing generic skills (of numeracy, literacy, technology). It does not aim to develop
a critical understanding of how these skills fit into a broader social context that, in its
way, could be seen as instrumental to the social good. For example, lessons in car
7
mechanics which are used to teach principles of physics are important and synergistic to
students’ learning; but students might also benefit from opportunities to discuss policies
related to alternative fuels and emission standards or to study the respective roles of the
auto industry and the United Auto Workers in shaping the working conditions under
which cars are manufactured. Further, the goal of economic inclusion does not shed light
on how to prepare young people to be agents of change in the workplace and in the
broader public realm. In contrast, Dewey’s consideration of democratic ends provides a
powerful framework for thinking about how and why schools should incorporate
academic and vocational streams (as well as the even more foundational question of what
is “academic” and what is “vocational.”)
The Need to Attend to Civic Education
Over the last decade, policy makers and scholars in political science and
education have renewed attention to the democratic purposes of public education. They
highlight the need for youth to understand the purpose and function of government and to
develop the skills and commitments needed to participate robustly in electoral politics,
public institutions, civic organizations, and (where necessary) protest activities (Niemi
and Junn, 1998; Delli-Carpini and Keeter, 1996; Gibson and Levine, 2003). This
examination of the “civic mission” of schools reflects growing concerns with the health
of American democracy (Gibson and Levine, 2003). A series of reports and scholarly
books and articles have described a “crisis” in youth civic engagement (Putnam, 2000;
National Secretaries of State, 1999, Galston 2001, Macedo, 2005, Gibson and Levine,
2003). This crisis is characterized by declining youth interest, knowledge, and
8
participation in formal politics. It is also evidenced in disparate patterns of youth civic
engagement across lines of class and race.
The results of a recent study of California high school seniors offer a sobering
case in point. In 2005, we surveyed 2,366 graduating seniors who had completed the
state-required 12th grade U.S. government course in order to get a clearer sense of student
civic capacities and commitments as they reach voting age (Educating for Democracy,
2005). The respondents came from public schools selected from various geographic
regions in order to represent a range of factors including student race and ethnicity and
school achievement level. We found that a high percentage of the students reported that
they intended to vote, but a much smaller percentage said that they were informed
enough to vote. Their confidence declined further when they were asked about their
knowledge of specific issues: Iraq, the economy, taxes, education, health care, and the
like (Educating for Democracy, 2005).
A large number of the high school seniors had difficulty with questions assessing
civic content knowledge. Half of the students did not know the function of the Supreme
Court, a third could not identify one of their U.S. senators when given a list from which
to choose, and almost half could not choose which of the two major political parties is
more conservative. Most high school seniors did not recognize a political role for
themselves beyond voting. Less than half agreed with the statement: “Being actively
involved in state and local issues is my responsibility.” This lack of interest may be
related to their lack of experience with political action. Fewer than 1 in 10 students
reported that they had worked to change a policy or law in their community, state or
9
nation during high school and only 1 in 3 said that they had worked to change a policy or
rule at their school (Educating for Democracy, 2005).
The limited civic capacity and commitment found in California high school
seniors reflect downward trends nationally in youth interest and engagement in public
life. Whether one considers youth voting rates, engagement in the community or in
formal politics, or even interest in discussing political issues, the last several decades
have seen steady and sizable declines among youth (Galston, 2001). Voting rates for
citizens under age 25 are particularly low relative to the larger U.S. population and
relative to youth in other countries. In U.S. presidential elections, for example, youth
voting rates have declined steadily from 52% to 37% between 1972 and 2000 (Levine
and Lopez, 2002). Youth participation in formal politics also has been declining. The
percentage of adolescents who report that they could see themselves working on a
political campaign, for example, has dropped by about half between the 1970s and the
present (see Macedo, 2005).
There is also evidence that many young people are not prepared for informed and
effective civic engagement. For example, college graduates in 1989 did about as well as
high school graduates 50 years earlier on 12 survey items that have been used to assess
student knowledge of politics since the 1940s2 (see Delli-Caprini and Keeter, 1996). In
addition, on the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in
Civics, only a quarter of high school students were judged to be proficient and 4 percent
scored at the advanced level. A third of all students and over half of non-white students
2
Their analysis of this data also indicate that the declining impact of educational
institutions on student’s civic knowledge rather than selection bias (the fact that a much
smaller percentage of students went to college in the 1940s and 50s) accounts for this
outcome.
10
did not demonstrate a “basic” level of understanding. In U.S. History, 11 percent scored
at the “proficient” or advanced levels (Gibson and Levine, 2003, p. 19).
When scholars speak of the “crisis” in youth civic engagement, they have in mind
both the level and distribution of civic capacity and commitment. Young people from
low-income families and young people of color do not participate at the same levels as
their more affluent and white peers. Cohen and Dawson (1993) show that youth of color
who live in areas with high concentrations of poverty are significantly less likely than the
general population to belong to civic groups and to have contact with political officials.
Verba’s (1995) path-breaking study on civic equality found that lower family income
predicted lower levels of voting, campaign work, contact with officials, and political
protest. This under-representation in the political process violates the principle of equal
representation and skews decision-making in favor of the more affluent. As the
American Political Science Task Force on Inequality and American Democracy (2004)
reported,
The privileged participate more than others and are increasingly well
organized to press their demands on government. Public officials, in turn,
are much more responsive to the privileged than to average citizens and
the least affluent. Citizens with low or moderate incomes speak with a
whisper that is lost on the ears of inattentive government, while the
advantaged roar with the clarity and consistency that policymakers readily
heed.
In the face of these critical concerns about the future of American democracy, it is
heartening to note a new body of research documenting the positive impact of robust
programs in civic education (Gibson and Levine, 2003; Torney-Purta, 2002; Metz and
Youniss, 2005; McDevitt and Kiousis, 2004; Kahne, Chi, and Middaugh, 2006; Kahne
and Westheimer, 2003). This research demonstrates that civic education opportunities
11
can promote civic outcomes. William Galston (2004) notes an array of strategies that
gain power when used in concert. These include instruction in the history and principles
of American democracy; classroom discussion of current events that make a direct and
tangible difference in young people’s lives; community service, participation in civic
organizations that address meaningful issues; and participation in public forums and
democratic governance in school and in the larger community (Gibson and Levine,
2003). These strategies appear to make a significant difference in civic outcomes for
low-income urban students, particularly because those students are infrequently engaged
in the political process (Kahne and Sporte, Forthcoming; Gibson and Levine, 2003).
The survey of California High School seniors described above offers a more
detailed picture of how particular civic learning opportunities can promote civic
development. In classes where students frequently talked about current events, 61
percent reported they were interested in politics compared to only 32 percent in classes
with no discussion of current events. Further, when their government classes emphasized
why it is important to be informed and to get involved in political issues, 52 percent of
students agreed that they should be actively involved in state and local issues. In classes
where “getting involved” was not emphasized, 35 percent agreed (Educating for
Democracy, 2005).
Participation in activities inside and outside the classroom also made a difference
in civic outcomes. Thirty-six percent of students who frequently took part in role-plays
or simulations that modeled democratic processes reported being involved in politics;
whereas only 13 percent of the students who had not had these classroom opportunities
were involved. Similarly, 54 percent of students who worked on projects with peers
12
from different backgrounds agreed that being involved in state and local issues was their
responsibility compared to 29 percent of the students who did not have this opportunity.
Further, students who reported having a chance to voice their opinions about school
policies outside of class were more committed to political participation than those who
said they had few such opportunities (Educating for Democracy, 2005).
Unfortunately, these promising practices in civic education do not occur often
enough. When asked whether they had experienced the sort of instruction described
above—instruction that supported the development of committed, informed, and effective
citizens—the most common answer from California’s high school seniors was “a little”
(Educating for Democracy, 2005). A recent study that found 90 percent of U.S. students
said they most commonly spent time reading textbooks and doing worksheets (Baldi, et
al., 2001). These findings also speak to the enormous pressure on public schools to focus
their instructional time narrowly on subject matter for which students and educators will
be held responsible in state and federal accountability systems.
Counter pressures make it all the more important for schools to infuse the civic
mission across the curriculum. While some aspects of a schools’ curriculum, such as the
high school government course, clearly have the potential to support both educative civic
activities and learning the facts of government, it is also clear that educating for
democracy should not rely on a one-semester course taken during the senior year. Rather,
opportunities to educate for democracy should exist throughout the high school
curriculum and they should build upon each other. A school-wide commitment (which is
to say, a community-wide commitment) is therefore necessary.
13
Linking a Democratic Vision to a Multiple Pathways Approach
What would such a commitment mean in schools that embrace a Multiple
Pathways approach? There certainly are challenges to integrating civic learning
opportunities across classroom and internship sites that are organized around career
themes, but no more so than integration into traditional models of “vocational” or
“academic” education. As with the traditional models, if career-related internships, for
example, are seen as distinct from civic activities, both students and their teacher/mentors
will find little enthusiasm or time for such ”integration.” Moreover, there is some reason
to worry that once students pursue different pathways through high school, some
pathways will offer more civic opportunities than others. For example, high school
seniors in the California survey who did not expect to take part in any form of postsecondary education reported significantly fewer of the opportunities that foster civic
commitments and capacities than those with post-secondary plans. Twenty-five percent
of students who were planning to attend a four-year college reported that they had
frequently been part of simulations in their classrooms; only 17 percent of students who
planned on vocational education after high school could say the same. Only 10 percent
of those with no post-secondary plans reported frequently having such opportunities in
their classrooms (Educating for Democracy, 2005).
The Multiple Pathways approach potentially creates contexts for students to study
the relationship between democracy and the economy and to extend civic lessons into the
workplace. Unfortunately, neither the civic education literature nor the scholarship in
career and technical education speak to how this should be done. For insight on what it
might mean to integrate democratic and career education, we turn back to Dewey.
14
Dewey and Democratic Vocational Education
During the period between 1913 and 1917, Dewey joined the public debate
between labor and business over how vocational education programs should be structured
and governed. It is noteworthy that by 1913 an array of ideologically diverse groups
agreed on the importance of expanding vocational education. As Kantor (1986)
describes, support came from “businessmen, corporate apologists, … efficiency-oriented
educators, … labor leaders, liberal reformers, and radical intellectuals” who shared the
view that schools should respond to the demands of the new industrial economy. Like
other spheres of reform during the Progressive era, this coalition was rife with
disagreement over the specifics of policy proposals. Labor believed that vocational
education should be integrated into the existing public education system; business and
manufacturing groups advocated separate autonomous sites for industrial education
(Kliebard, 1999). The question “should …vocational education [be] under ‘unit’ or
‘dual’ control,” framed the broader policy dialogue and served as Dewey’s point of entry
into the debate (Dewey, 1913).
The vigor with which Dewey addressed the issue—he produced fourteen separate
articles, speeches, or chapters on the topic—is testimony to his belief that the debate on
vocational education represented more than a narrow dispute over administrative
structure and control (Rogers, 1994, p. 120). For Dewey, who envisioned schools as a
“projection … of the type of society we would like to realize,” all educational decisions
fundamentally were choices about what sort of democracy should be created (Dewey,
15
1916a, p. 326). From this vantage, decisions about vocational education were choices
about the future possibilities of economic democracy.
The movement for vocational education conceals within itself two mighty
and opposing forces, one which would utilize the public schools primarily
to turn out more efficient laborers in the present economic régime, with
certain incidental advantages to themselves, the other which would utilize
all the resources of public education to equip individuals to control their
own future economic careers, and thus help on such a reorganization of
industry as will change it from a feudalistic to a democratic order (Dewey,
1917a, p. 150).
Not surprisingly, Dewey found himself at odds with manufacturing interests and
advocates for ‘dual’ control. A prime adversary was David Snedden, the Massachusetts
Commissioner of Education, whose 1906 report helped create broad-based momentum
for expanding vocational education in the public school system.3 Snedden argued that
those who wanted to use education to democratize factories were “romantic
impracticalists” (quoted in Wirth, 1972, p. 154). He reasoned that the purpose of
vocational education is to create “greater productive capacity” (Snedden, 1915, p. 37).
The critical question for Snedden was how this goal could be met most efficiently. He
held that separate sites for vocational education could best prepare young people for the
“pursuit of an occupation” because these settings could mirror the reality of factory life
(Snedden, 1915, p. 34). In such sites, “shop standards not school standards must prevail”
(Snedden, 1910, pp. 36). Students would be prepared for highly differentiated adult roles
in lines with “right standards of efficiency in the economic world” (quoted in Kantor,
1986, p. 415.)
3
Snedden’s student, Charles Prosser, was the principal author of the 1913 report referred
to above by the Commission on National Aid to Vocational Education (Hyslop-Margison,
2001).
16
Noting that the differences between himself and Snedden were “profoundly
political and social,” Dewey rejected the idea that education’s role is to prepare young
people for particular trades (Dewey, 1915, p. 412). “I object to the identification of
vocation with such trades as can be learned before the age of, say, eighteen or twenty;
and to the identification of education with acquisition of specialized skill in the
management of machines” ,” (1915, p. 411), One problem with such trade training was
that it neglected the constant change in both machines and the broader workplace that
characterized the new industrial economy (Dewey, 1914). In addition, it skewed teaching
and learning toward low-level skills. Too narrow a focus on one job or role, Dewey
(1916a, p. 318) reasoned, encouraged educators to emphasize “skill or technical method
at the expense of meaning.”
Dewey’s fundamental concern was that Snedden’s model of vocational education
reproduced class inequalities.
I am utterly opposed to giving the power of social predestination, by
means of narrow trade-training, to any group of fallible men no matter
how well-intentioned they may be (Dewey, 1915, p. 411).
He worried that, in separating cultural and vocational education, Snedden accepted the
prevailing separation of mental and manual labor in the workplace. This distinction
presumed that social efficiency demanded a hierarchical division of labor in which “a few
do the planning and ordering, the others follow directions and are deliberately confined to
narrow and prescribed channels of endeavor” (Dewey, 1916a, p. 320). Dewey held that
such “feudal” relationships were both inefficient and immoral; they wasted untapped
talent and undercut meaningful social interaction and development. Wishing to challenge
17
the “industrial regime that now exists,” Dewey (1916a, p. 328) posed vocational
education as an instrument for social change.
The kind of vocational education in which I am interested is not one which
will "adapt" workers to the existing industrial régime; I am not sufficiently
in love with the régime for that. It seems to me that the business of all who
would not be educational timeservers is to resist every move in this
direction, and to strive for a kind of vocational education which will first
alter the existing industrial system, and ultimately transform it (Dewey,
1915, p. 412).
It is noteworthy that Dewey’s “desired transformation” points toward a society in
which work and economic relations are interwoven with social democracy. He
envisioned
a society in which every person shall be occupied in something which
makes the lives of others better worth living, and which accordingly
makes the ties which bind persons together more perceptible--which
breaks down the barriers of distance between them. It denotes a state of
affairs in which the interest of each in his work is uncoerced and
intelligent (Dewey, 1916a, p. 326).
This normative vision recasts “vocation” in democratic terms. Vocations are open and
accessible to all. Through vocations, workers participate in knowledge work that builds
community and is socially productive.
Dewey believed that “genuinely vocational education” prefigures the intellectual
and social relations of such work and provides future workers with “industrial
intelligence”—the knowledge and skills needed to press for industrial democracy
(Dewey, 1915, p. 411). One facet of industrial intelligence lies in the ability to locate
one’s work within “its historical, economic and social bearings” (Dewey, 1913, p. 101).
Dewey stressed the de-humanizing nature of specialized work separated from the larger
purpose of the activity. While conceding that efficiency may dictate a certain amount of
18
specialization in the workplace, he wanted workers to understand the origins and purpose
of what they were doing. Such understanding, Dewey asserted, enables workers to
become more than mere “appendages to the machines they operate” (Dewey, 1916a, p.
324). It provides the insights necessary to develop (rather than merely follow) work
plans. Dewey also imagined “the study of economics, civics, and politics” enabling
future workers to recognize the problems with prevailing economic arrangements as well
as strategies for social reform (Dewey, 1916a, p. 328). In part, he had in mind studying
prominent progressive era ‘social issues’—for example, “child labor … and the sanitary
conditions under which multitudes of men and women now labor.” Dewey also wanted
future workers to develop a deeper (and critical) analysis of power and inequality. He
called for workers to study the “methods employed in a struggle for economic supremacy
… [and] the connections between industrial and political control” (Dewey, 1916b, p.
142). In short, workers must understand how economic interests influence political
processes, and they must understand how political decisions influence both work
conditions and the relationship within and between different sectors of industry.
For Dewey, industrial intelligence manifested itself in skills and dispositions as
well as in understanding a body of knowledge. His primary concern was forging a more
empowered role for workers. He reasoned that, in order for future workers to become an
“integral part of a self-managing society,” they need to be able to consider, create, and
carry out plans of action (Dewey, 1916b, p. 141). This requires “intelligent initiative,
ingenuity, and executive capacity” (Dewey, 1915, p. 411). Dewey associated these
attributes with the application of the scientific method in social settings. Industrial
intelligence thus meant the ability to identify problems, formulate hypotheses, conduct
19
observations, analyze data, and formulate strategies for change.4 Dewey also looked
beyond such capacities to the “intellectual and emotional traits” that express a
commitment to inquiry and democracy. He expected workers with industrial intelligence
to insist “upon widespread opportunity, free exchange of ideas and experiences, and
extensive realization of the purposes which hold men together” (Dewey, 1916b, p. 138).
Dewey recognized that developing industrial intelligence required new
approaches to teaching and learning. “As new subject-matter is needed, so are new
methods” (Dewey, 1916b, p. 142). Neither the “scholastic method of acquiring,
expounding, and interpreting literary materials,” nor the strategy of “habituation” through
“repetition” and “drill” could foster the understandings of the political economy or the
creativity and initiative associated with industrial intelligence (Dewey, 1916b, p. 142). In
part, Dewey called for revitalizing humanistic methods so that, rather than “taking flight
to the past,” students would be encouraged to “discover the humanism contained in our
existing social life” (Dewey, 1916b, p. 142). This meant studying academic disciplines
as tools of inquiry that could help students understand the “defects of present industrial
aims and methods … [as well as the] means by which these evils are to be done away
with” (Dewey, 1916b, p. 142).
In addition, Dewey called for “laboratory methods” that applied the experimental
approach to the study of “ordinary industrial activities” (Dewey, 1916b, p. 142). The
factory floor offered an ideal site for observation and experiment. While the factory
worker is generally “under too immediate economic pressure to have a chance to produce
knowledge like that of a worker in the laboratory … in schools, association with
4
Dewey later developed these ideas into a model for participatory social inquiry. (See
generally, Oakes and Rogers, 2006).
20
machines and industrial processes may be had under conditions where the chief conscious
concern of the students is insight” (Dewey, 1916a, p. 324.) Thus, Dewey hoped that all
students would have opportunities to consider and experiment with different ways to
organize work processes and the relation between workers. In this way, youth initiated as
students of the work place would be prepared to transform these sites when they became
workers themselves.
Deweyan Insights for Education about Work and Civic Life
What insights can we draw from Dewey’s almost century old contribution to the
debate on vocational education? Certainly, advocates of Multiple Pathways in this
collection have unmistakably rejected the “social predestination” that Dewey ascribes to
Snedden. Yet, Dewey’s critique of “trade-training” provides several important warnings
for today’s educators considering whether or how to link academic and career education
(Dewey, 1915, p. 411). First, his worry that future technology threatens to make obsolete
any specialized skills suggests that educators should avoid focusing the curriculum
narrowly around work as it is presently constituted. There is simply no guarantee that
narrow vocational skills learned today will be marketable in the workplace of tomorrow.
Second, his criticism that trade training tends to foreground the production of goods at
the expense of learning points to the need for career education that attends systematically
to the production of student learning. That is, care must be taken to ensure that students
are placed in the workplace for the sake of their intellectual and social development,
rather than to advance the interests of any business.
21
Dewey’s third warning is not to neglect a democratic vision of vocation as
socially useful work that builds community. This redefinition of ‘vocation’ also holds
lessons for Multiple Pathways, and linking to a broader civic imperative offers schools a
principle for selecting and shaping career themes (see Quartz and Washor, this collection
of papers, for a further discussion). For example, schools might opportunistically partner
with and draw from community workplaces, businesses, governments, social services,
and industries to construct themes that address shared public concerns. This
understanding of ‘vocation’ is similar to Harry Boyte and Nancy Kari’s (1996) use of the
term “public work.” They envision citizens involved in a number of practical activities
geared toward “building the commons,” e.g. creating schools, supporting volunteer fire
departments, maintaining public parks (Boyte and Kari, 1996, p. 9). Dewey used
‘vocation’ more broadly to refer to any shared enterprise that serves the interests of
society. This might mean promoting career themes tied to human services such as health
care. Or, it might mean framing themes such as building/construction in relationship to
the broader public interest that new structures would serve. Educators, students, and
community members would need to grapple with what Dewey’s principle means in
practice. (And such discussions would represent rich opportunities for civic learning.)
Further, Dewey’s understanding of democratic vocational education represents a
powerful framework for teaching and learning. This framework envisions students using
the experimental method to study work places and other social settings. For example,
students could gather and analyze data on how workers use math across different
worksites or on how workers in these different settings are compensated. Dewey’s
framework also calls for students to study the broader relationship between the
22
government and the economy. Students might examine and debate proposals regarding
the minimum wage, living wage, or paid family leave. They might examine access to
medical care. They might also discuss the role that organized labor and corporations play
in the legislative process. The goal of such curriculum is to enable young people to
appropriate the skills and disposition of inquiry as well as to promote a broad
understanding of how current economic structures and processes came into being and
how they might be changed. This approach resonates with some current scholars of
career and technical education who call for “liberal,” or “democratic,” or “critical”
vocational education (Lewis, 1997; Hyslop-Margison, 2001; Gregson, 1995).
By attending to social and economic issues, Dewey extends civic education
beyond the formal political institutions of American democracy. He notes, “political
democracy is not the whole of democracy. On the contrary, experience has proved that it
cannot stand in isolation” (1916b, p. 138). Schools’ common practice of separating
courses in “government” and “economics” highlights such a separation of the political
from “the whole.” In contrast, the Deweyan approach frames issues of class inequality
and poverty in their relationship to fundamental concerns with equality and political
participation. It also makes explicit that economic conditions are not natural and
inevitable, but the result of particular public policy choices.
This broad vision of civics education suggests that students should study
democratic practices within a variety of institutions—political, social, and economic. For
example, it is common to place students as interns in government agencies or
community-based organizations for ‘service learning’ projects that enable youth to learn
about substantive issues as well as how the political process works. Students might
23
equally benefit from internships that allow them to study firsthand how unions or
businesses include workers in decision-making and governance. In this view, the key
consideration should not be whether the internship site is ‘public’ or private, but rather
whether the student will have a meaningful opportunity to study the exercise of voice and
collective decision making.
Dewey’s vision of democratic industrial education for industrial democracy
means highlighting problems related to economic inequality and considering how such
inequality can be redressed. Significantly, this concern with social change might hold
particular resonance for low-income youth who presently are the least engaged in formal
politics. That is, a curriculum that highlights strategies for addressing economic
inequality may re-engage youth who previously have felt the mainstream curriculum does
not attend to their primary concerns (Morrell, 2004; Oakes and Rogers, 2006). Dewey’s
vision also highlights the importance of preparing students to be effective citizens – with
the knowledge, skills, and commitments needed to work for fundamental changes in the
political economy. This entails providing them with the tools to understand social
problems, the vision of a possible democratic future, and the ability and commitment to
take action for change.
Multiple Pathways and the Future of Democracy
Reframing the Multiple Pathways approach around democratic purposes holds
great potential for revitalizing education and civic life. We would expect students who
experience democratic education through Multiple Pathways to develop knowledge and
skills along three lines. First, they would acquire procedural knowledge about the formal
workings of government and substantive knowledge about critical policy issues,
24
particularly issues tied to economic inequality. Second, they would forge a normative
vision of democracy, economic democracy, and the democratic work place. Third, they
would develop the skill, understanding, and commitment needed to participate effectively
in the workplace, in formal political institutions, and in campaigns to effect social
change.
Although the historical record leaves us doubtful about the future of democracy in
vocational education, a “new” education that more broadly interprets “vocations” in light
of their civic purposes offers a very positive vision. Throughout the last century,
economic purposes have served as the overarching rationale for vocational and career
education (Kliebard, 1999). Moreover, in large measure, these purposes have been
defined by business and elite interests (Kantor and Lowe, 2000). It is likely that any new
effort to promote democratic vocational education will face pressure to differentiate
opportunities across pathways, re-prioritize academic or vocational curriculum over civic
curriculum, and reproduce the values, understandings, and practices of the prevailing
political economy.
As in Dewey’s era, it is possible that other constituencies might be brought to
bear to counter these pressures sustaining the status quo. For example, organized labor
and grassroots community groups might participate alongside professional educators and
representatives from business groups in developing and guiding the implementation of
new policies. There are a number of emerging examples from across the country of
groups representing the interests of working people effectively joining in educational
reform. In many of these cases, the reform efforts highlight the democratic ends of
25
schooling (Oakes and Rogers, 2006; Anyon, 2005). Clearly, any serious effort to infuse
democracy into the Multiple Pathways approach will require robust democratic action.
26
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