A comparison paper I researched and wrote on Antonio Gramsci, (1891-1937), a Italian middle-class Marxist, politian and theoretican who wrote many works on schooling and education, political theory, sociology and linguistics to name a few and Jown Dewey (1859-1952) who was an American philosopher and psychologist. He too was middle-class and studied and wrote works on educationn, political and social science and moral philosophy.
Abstract
In the course Understanding Learning theories for Education I am assigned to write a comparison research paper on two of the many philosophers and educators that I have read in the course. Among them I chose to write the comparison on Antonio Gramsci and John Dewey.
I will discuss in the paper Antonio Gramsci and John Dewey’s background, what their ideas and beliefs consisted of in the relation to education, and their similarities and differences in their views on philosophy, socialism and education for which seem to go hand in hand.
Antonio Gramsci
Education is a very complex subject. Since my graduate studies in Education, I never realized its complexity until now. There are many educators from past to present with a variety of ideas, views and theories on how education should be. I decided to write about two educators/philosophers of the past and they are Antonio Gramsci and John Dewey. I will begin with Antonio Gramsci.
Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) was born in Sardina, Italy. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006) Originally Gramsci was born in a middle-class family but it ended when his father was arrested and incarcerated for financial misconduct. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006) After high school, Gramsci received a scholarship and attended the University of Turin and studied philosophy and linguistics. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006) Gramsci never finished his degree because he was so involved in political activities and became involved in the Italian Socialist Party (ISP). (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006) He also involved himself in several adult education activities as well as composing many writing on culture. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006) Gramsci helped to establish a factory council movement that executed factory based educational programs that campaigned socialism and socialist relations between workers. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006)
In 1926 Gramsci was arrested and incarcerated for the conviction of various political offenses. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006) Although his prison time was hard, he was able to set up schools for prisoners and what he called the prison notebooks that contained writings about his views of adult education, humanities, social science, and hegemony. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006) The prison notebooks were published by the means of Gramsci’s sister helping him smuggle his articles out from prison to be published. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006).
Unlike many Marxists of that time period, Gramsci was heavily into culture and thought it to be very important He felt that the effect of sites like the church, school and family cannot be reduced to or explained through the economy alone. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006) Gramsci began his study and writings on hegemony that is the social, cultural, ideological or economic influence exerted by a dominant group. (Merriam-webster.com, n.d.) Gramsci’s view was that the state not only ruled by force but it also ruled by consent and the consent is won on a complex and uneven terrain by invested actors. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006) He felt that hegemony was maintained by organic intellectuals that are able to mediate the goals, needs, and interests of different classes to win their consent. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006) The intellectuals either help support hegemony or resist it. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006).
Gramsci saw that there was a difference in schooling and education. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006) In his essay called “On Education”, he fought the competing roles of classical humanistic education reserved to the upper class and vocational education for the lower class or factory workers and argued that common humanistic education was important for all classes. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006) He felt common schooling was antidemocratic and real democracy can come when everyone has the capacity to conceive democracy thoughtfully. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006).
Gramsci’s ideas on hegemony are that hegemony refers to a particular social situation in which all aspects of social reality are dominated by or supportive of a single class. (Mayo, 2008)
Gramsci’s were comprehensive, involving an analysis of class politics in a variety of its forms. (Mayo, 2008) As far as education, his was a project that extended far beyond an analysis and discussion of schooling and formal educational issues and saw that every relationship of hegemony is an educational one. (Mayo, 2008)
Gramsci’s ideas on adult education were an important catalyst in the war of position in which a process of wide ranging social organization and cultural influence. (Mayo, 2008) In his work in the Italian Socialist and Communist movements, and in prison, Gramsci was heavily involved in adult education. (Mayo, 2008) He saw progressive and emancipatory elements within other routes (alte vie, and article Gramsci wrote) that can compliment Unitarian school to advance the interests of the Italian working class. (Mayo, 2008) For Gramsci, the Factory Councils were intended for the factory worker to be able to educate him or herself, gather experience and acquire awareness of the duties the incumbent upon classes that hold the power of the state. (Mayo, 2008) This was to constitute and important step for the working classes in the direction of exercising leadership before winning government power. (Mayo, 2008) Gramsci saw that all disciplines in the factory should have collaboration between them and form a unity and became an inseparable part of the whole labor system. (Mayo, 2008) He thought that knowledge and unity among workers lead to a greater understanding to society. (Mayo, 2008)
Gramsci saw adult educators as organic intellectuals which are cultural or educated workers who are experts in legitimation. (Mayo, 2008) He felt these educators were intellectuals who are organic to the lower class groups aspiring to power. (Mayo, 2008) He argued that the working class should produce its won intellectuals to else assimilate traditional intellectuals, the process of assimilation being a crucial aspect of the was of position itself. (Mayo, 2008) In essence, Gramsci would rather see good quality adult education be accessible to all people of all classes especially the lower classes in order to excel in a high class.
John Dewey
The second theorist of education I will discuss is the educator and philosopher John Dewey. John Dewey (1859-1952) was born into a middle class community in Burlington, Vermont. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006) After high school, Dewey went to the university of Vermont and studied political science, social science and moral philosophy. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006) After graduation in 1879, Dewey worked as a high school teacher in Oil City, Pennsylvania for two years then returned to Vermont in 1881 and again taught in high school and continued to study philosophy. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006) In 1882, Dewey went to graduate school for philosophy at Johns Hopkins University. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006) He was heavily influenced by the worked of George Hegel and Immanuel Kant and wrote his dissertation on the psychology of Immanuel Kant. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006)
Dewey’s first academic position in a university was in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Michigan which was heavily marked with British and Continental philosophy and German idealism. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006) While at the university, Dewey published “Mind” and “Psychology” that attracted many readers in the academic community. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006) In the late 1890’s, Dewey moved away from the German idealism toward pragmatism which is a philosophical movement that includes those who claim that an ideology or proposition is true if it works satisfactorily, that the meaning of a proposition is to be found in the practical consequences of accepting it, and that unpractical ideas are to be rejected (IEP, n.d.). At the turn of the century, Dewey worked at the University of Chicago and developed a program called the Department of Education and helped to create 23 additional education courses and helped to found the University of Chicago’s Laboratory School. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006)
Because of political differences, Dewey resigned from the University of Chicago and became a professor at Columbia University with assignments at the Philosophy depart and Teacher’s College. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006) Dewey’s concerns with democracy and education can be seen in the thirty-seven volumes of his collected works. (Fott, 2009) At Columbia University, Dewey produced The Influence of Darwin on Philosophy and Other Essays in Contemporary Thought (1910), Essays in Experimental Logic (1916), Reconstruction in Philosophy (1920), Human Nature and Conduct (1922), Experience and Nature (1925), The Quest for Certainty (1929), Logic: The Theory of Inquiry (1938), and Knowing and the Known (1949). (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006)
Dewey was fascinated by epistemology, the theory of knowledge and how we come to have knowledge. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006) In his view, traditional epistemologies drew a sharp distinction between mind and world and which this created a model called pragmatic epistemology deriving from Hegelian idealism but afterwards Dewey rejected this solution because Hegelian idealism could not accommodate the insights and methods of experimental science that Dewey promoted. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006)
Dewey became influenced by William James’s more naturalistic arguments about epistemology in which cast idealism as excessive or unnecessary. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006)
He also found Darwin’s work compelling especially Darwin’s complex relationship between organisms and environment and began to think of a relationship between the development of human knowledge interacting with a person’s adaptive response to the environment and defining environment as “whatever conditions interact with personal needs, desires, purposes, and capacities to create the experience which is had. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006)
Dewey claimed a genetic epistemology wherein thought was viewed as an effect of the interaction between organism and environment and posited that knowledge was practical or instrumental developed to solve problems that human beings encountered in the world and used the term instrumentalism to refer to his epistemological approach. (Dimitriadis & Kamberelis, 2006)
Dewey believed in a form of democracy in which involved community. His concerns with democracy and education can be seen in the thirty-seven volumes of his collected works. (Fott, 2009) Although he was a pragmatist, Dewey had to change his views in response to what he learned and experienced in the world. (Shutz, 1980) Dewey thought within the community the aim of schools and the ethical goal of human society was not to dissolve differences between groups but to coordinate within the character of each person the various influences of the various social environments into which a person enters allowing people an integrated sense of self (Shutz, 1980). He stated that there are three characteristics that create community and that are interaction or association, shared action and shared values. (Shutz, 1980)
Dewey often focuses on the achievement of good consequences through joint inquiry as central to the success of the kind of conscious community his most fundamental aim was the promotion of democracy itself and rejected good consequences through non-democratic action. (Shutz, 1980) If a community acts non-democratically, it will foster non-democratic habits of action, and thus eliminate the possibility of achieving the very goal for which it ultimately strives. (Shutz, 1980) Education to Dewey is present whenever there is communication, the goals of which are the formation and maintenance of the shared beliefs and practices that make the community possible. (Fott, 2009) If the community is productive and democratic, the quality of its education should follow suit.
The similarities that I have noticed thus far between Antonio Gramsci and John Dewey are that they both believe that good quality education should not only be limited to the upper-class. Education should be assessable and available to all persons. They also believe that politics, community, good communication and socialism all entwines with education. If these ingredients are not available within a community, the quality of education will be of poor.
Both me n studied philosophy, psychology and pedagogy and influenced by the readings and teachings of Karl Marx. In view of Gramsci’s ideas, many researchers discuss the philosopher on his views of hegemony. Hegemony is the influence and control over a group of people. (Marriam-webster, n.d.) Gramsci was against such ideologies because of his Communist beliefs and works in the Italian Communist party. John Dewey idea were two points selected by which to measure the worth of a form of social life are the extent in which interests of a group are shred by all its members, and the fullness and freedom with which it interacts with other groups. (Reed & Widger, 2008) An undesirable society, in other words, is one, which internally and externally sets up barriers to free intercourse and communication of experience. (Reed & Widger, 2008) A society which makes provision for participation in its goods of all its members on equal terms and which secures flexible readjustment of its institutions through interaction of the different form of associated life is in so far democratic. (Reed & Widger, 2008) Such a society must have a type of education in which gives individuals a personal interest in social relationships and control, and the habits of mind in which secure social changes without introducing disorder. (Reed & Widger, 2008)
Both men were deeply engaged in philosophy of education focusing on adults but also the philosophy of education in children. Gramsci felt that the need for pedagogy in children was necessary in their development. He felt that pedagogy in children was essential in their cognitive, emotional, and intellectual development unlike the view of the new Italian reform of that era. (Giroux, 1999) John Dewey’s views on pedagogy in education revolved around the provision of obstacles, problems for children to conceptualize then solve disposing them to seek out obstacles in their environment that might otherwise be ignored. (Shutz, 1980) He also argued that effective schooling must begin with the interests of the child using them as resources to develop problems for the child to grapple with, something that requires constant and careful planning on the part of the teachers. (Shutz, 1980)
My Greatest Influence Between the Two Philosophers
Although both Antonio Gramsci and John Dewey are very influential individuals when discussing educational philosophy, I think my greatest influence between the two is Antonio Gramsci because of his background. Although born in a middle-class family, his father became incarcerated while Gramsci was a child that dropped his social class, then he still was able to get a scholarship. He did not graduate from college but continued to study, researched and wrote about education, society, philosophy and due to his political beliefs was incarcerated and still was able to be active in his political party, be active in adult education and write and have published his writings called the Prison Notebooks for which he had his sister smuggle is literary works while in prison. He didn’t let his imprisonment stop him from doing what he believed in.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I have found two philosophers of education that were dedicated to society, environment and education. Although they came from different backgrounds they both got their messages across about how society and education should be implemented. They shown that education can be a complex process for both children and adults and these processes are very different. One thing is certain, in order for education to be effective, as they saw it, society has to function in a matter that is not totally ruled by a dictator, there must be a means where there is equality among all people in society. Environment is also an important catalyst. There must be a means for all people to gain availability and accessible for all types of education and not to limit certain knowledge because of a person’s class.
Bibliography
Dimitriadis, G. and Kamberelis, G. (2006). John Dewey. Theory for education (theory 4).
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Review of Politics 71. 7-19. DOI: 10.1017/50034670509000023.
Giroux, H. A. (1999). Rethinking cultural politics and radical pedagogy in the work of Antonio Gramsci. Educational Theory, 49(1), 1-20.
Hegemony. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster online. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hegemony
Mayo, P. (2008). Antonio Gramsci and his relevance for the education of adults. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 40(3), 418-435. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-5812.2007.00357.x.
Pragmatic. (n.d.). In Internet encyclopedia of philosophy – a peer-reviewed academic resource. Retrieved from http://iep.utm.edu/pragmati/
Reed, D. and Widger, D. (2008). Democracy and education by John Dewey. Retrieved from http://www.gutenburg.org/files/852/852-h/852-h.htm
Schutz, A. (1980). John Dewey’s conundrum: can democratic schools empower?. Teacher’s College Record, 103(2). 267-302.
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