During the early days of vocational education there was a spirited debate, carried on the pages of The New Republic magazine, between John Dewey and David Snedden regarding the goals and implementation of vocational education. There was a parallel debate (The Atlantic Monthly) between W. E. B. Dubois and Booker T. Washington about the most appropriate form of education for African American students. This basically was a debate of classical education versus vocational education. Today we are still debating some of the same philosophical issues. By studying the past, we may gain additional insight into the future.
2. Identify and describe five of the major philosophies employed in education.
3. Identify the leaders of philosophical thought.
4.Differentiate between the views of John Dewey and David Snedden regarding the form and implementation of vocational education.
5. Differentiate between the views of W. E. B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington regarding the best type of education for the Negro.
6. Identify philosophical issues facing agricultural and extension education today.
2. Read Smith's article "Philosophy Diversions-Which Road?" from the Journal of Extension, Winter 1991 (Vol. 29 no. 4).
3. Read Strom's essay on "The Role of Philosophy in Education-for-Work" in the Journal of Industrial Teacher Education, Winter, 1996. 33(2), 77-82.
4. Read Spurgeon and Moore's article "The Educational Philosophies of Training and Development Professors, Leaders and Practioners" in the Journal of Technology Studies from the Summer-Fall 1997 issue. You will need Adobe Acrobat to read this article. There is a chart in this article which presents a comparison of several adult education philosophies.
6. View brief vignettes of the historical leaders of Idealism:
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7. View brief vignettes of the historical leaders of Realism:
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| Aristotle | Bacon | Descartes | Locke |
8. View brief vignettes of the historical leaders of Pragmatism:
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| Peirce | James |
9. Read AN ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL ARGUMENTS IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION REFORM by Emery J. Hyslop-Margison from the Journal of Career and Technical Education (Spring 2001).
10. Read "Integrating Academic and Vocational Education: Lessons from Early Innovators" from the Rand Corporation and mentally compare this with the previous article.
