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Deweyan Democracy, Neoliberalism, and Action Research

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Abstract

This article aims to establish a line of continuity between John Dewey’s democratic and educational ideals and the practice of action research, to justify that the latter affords an adequate means to enact Dewey’s ideals against the destructive challenges that neoliberalism poses to democracy today. This aim involves three ideas that will be developed in three corresponding sections. After the Introduction, the first section analyzes at length the main tenets of Dewey’s thoughts about democracy by emphasizing the role of the educational dimension. The article then approaches neoliberalism by focusing on one of its variants, New Public Management, and explains why the latter implies a direct erasure of Dewey’s ideals concerning democracy, individual growth, education, and social advancement. Finally, the third section turns to action research and its potential to encourage our societies to move closer to Dewey’s democratic ideals, and suggests that action research can begin to fill the gap that Dewey’s work left concerning the institutional dimension of democracy.

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Acknowledgements

I presented an oral version of this article during two sessions of the program “Pensar el presente”, held at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid during the 2017/2018 academic course. I wish to thank Buenaventura Marco Moreno and the students that attended those sessions for their comments and recommendations. I am solely responsible for any weaknesses in the paper, of course.

Funding

This research forms part of the project “Agonística. De la participación al agonismo” funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (HAR2017-85230-R).

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  1. Department of Language and Literature Education, Facultat de Magisteri, Universitat de València, Ave. Tarongers 4, 46022, València, Spain

    Luis Sebastián Villacañas de Castro

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Correspondence to Luis Sebastián Villacañas de Castro.

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Villacañas de Castro, L.S. Deweyan Democracy, Neoliberalism, and Action Research. Stud Philos Educ 39, 19–36 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-019-09664-1

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