Progressive Pedagogy has been defined by different people in different ways. Tom Little and Katherine Ellison defined Progressive Education in their inspiring book, “Loving Learning: How Progressive Education can Save America’s Schools” after Tom spent a year visiting progressive schools across the United States, this is what he came up with:
“Progressive Education prepares students for active participation in a democratic society, in the context of a child-centered environment and with an enduring commitment to social justice”
He also defined six core strategies of progressive schools:
- Attention to children’s emotions as well as their intellects;
- Reliance on students’ interests to guide their learning;
- Curtailment or outright bans on testing, grading; and ranking;
- Involvement of students in real-world endeavors, ranging from going on field trips to managing a farm;
- The study of topics in an integrated way, from a variety of different disciplines; and not the least,
- Support for children to develop a sense of social justice and become active participants in America’s democracy (52)
This definition and strategies provide a useful framework for expanding Progressive Pedagogies throughout the school house and society. Here is the definition that I am currently working with;
Progressive Pedagogies prepare people for active participation in a democratic society, in the context of a human-centered community and with an enduring commitment to universal justice.
Admittedly the definition was the easy part, here are my thoughts on the six core strategies to guide Progressive Pedagogical practice and as a lens for evaluating organizational culture
- Attention to community members emotions, contexts and lived-experiences as well as their ideas and agency
- Reliance on community members passions, interests and skills to guide their learning and contributions to the community
- Curtailment or outright elimination of single measure non-collobrative individual and collective evaluation
- Involvement of community members in real-world learning and work, fully engaged with the needs and desires of the community
- The integration of topics, disciplines and individuals in order to ensure a holistic understanding and design for all components of the organization.
- Support for all community members to be active participants in their own agency to strive for justice and full participation in self and communal growth and development.
One of the goals of Progressive Pedagogies is to support the transfer of theory into practice. Over my next blog posts I will explore ways to turn these core strategies into actions in multiple settings.
Be Well-Randy