ABSTRACT
In this 1980 article, Helen Freeman and Alison Jones explore intersections of Dewey and Marx’s work. As they argue, despite the commonplace assumption that Dewey is a representative of liberal philosophy of education, there are considerable overlaps in view between the two thinkers, which indicates the possibility to use Dewey to elaborate some key themes in Marx’s work related to education. The authors start by reviewing some key political interpretations of Marxist thought during the early nineteenth and mid-twentieth century, contrasting more deterministic and mechanical perspectives (associated with German socialism and Stalinism) from later, more humanistic and cultural views. The authors then compare some of the key concepts of Marx and Dewey’s respective works, in particular their views of community, humanness and the nature of knowledge. Indicating key overlaps, they argue that in some ways Dewey expands on Marxist themes, elaborating possible educational implications of Marxism. This essay reflects the way Marxist thought was grappled with and applied in philosophy of education in the 1980s, before the emergence of educational theorizing related to the impacts of neoliberalism.
