Mead's social conception of education recognizing both the child and society¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 1 claim (1 for) · 1 study (1 theoretical), q1 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 1 claim rests on one study

Description¶

The course description of Mead's Course 50, quoted in the article, frames two inadequate one-sided theories of education: a psychological theory justified by the development of the child, and a sociological theory suggested by the demands of the society the child enters. Mead's stated aim is a replacement: "the necessity of replacing them by a social concep- tion of education which can recognize both the child and society at once". The article presents this social conception as the pedagogical translation of Mead's intersubjectivity, in which education is viewed not only as giving a body of facts but also as considering the effect the process of handing down has had on the material itself.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Consideration of both formal and informal education in their relation to each other, as the course description states

Constraints¶

• The course description indicates the psychological and sociological theories are each inadequate on their own and are to be criticized from the social standpoint

Target Learners¶

• graduate students of philosophy and education

Target Learning Objectives¶

• understanding education as socialization that recognizes both child development and societal demands

Claims¶

• In Mead's lectures, meanings grow out of social intercourse and the child constructs meanings only in social process [+W]

Related Theories¶

• Mead's theory of the social origin of reflective consciousness
• Dewey's democratic education
• Experiential learning: students develop opinions of a concept through interaction with information
• Dewey's pedagogical principles: school as life itself, no subject with educational value on its own, and education for all citizens

Examples¶

• Create social situations in which meaning arises through the learner's own response
• Organize education around the child's response to material rather than the material provided by elders

Key Sources¶

• Biesta, Gert J. J. (1997). George Herbert Mead's Lectures on Philosophy of Education at the University of Chicago (1910-1911). Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED422199