Deweyan Transactionalism in Education: Beyond Self-Action and Inter-Action

Jim Garrison & Johan Öhman & Leif Östman

Language: English

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Published: Feb 24, 2022

Description:

Philosophers of education are largely unaware of Dewey's concept of transactionalism, yet it is implicit in much of his philosophy, educational or otherwise from the late 1890s onwards. Written by scholars from Belgium, Italy, Norway, Sweden, and the USA, this book shows how transactionalism can offer an entirely new way of understanding teaching and learning, the individual and sociocultural dimension of education, and educational research. The contributors show how the concept helps us to see beyond an array of false dualisms, such as mind versus body, self versus society, and organism versus environment, as well as an equally vast array of binaries, such as inside-outside, presence-absence, and male-female. They introduce the key critical ideas that transactionalism represents including emergence; living in a world without a within; the temporally and extensionally distributed nature of meaning, mind, and self. The use and elaboration of transactionalism is grounded in philosophical inquires and in empirical analyses of practices in formal and informal settings including values education, early childhood education, biology education, museum education, coding and computer science, Oceanographic and Atmospheric study, policy reform, play, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Review

“A milestone in the advance of transactionalist studies which explicates, develops and applies Dewey's most important work through a series of sophisticated theoretical and empirically rich studies.” ― Chris Shilling, Professor, University of Kent, UK

“Garrison, Öhman, and Östman offer a remarkable book on John Dewey's transactionalism. Not only does this work highlight Dewey's last book, On Knowing and the Known, with Arthur Bentley, it demonstrates the functional utility of philosophy applied to schooling. This outstanding addition to Dewey scholarship is a must-read book for anyone interested in moving 'schooling' away from mere training and toward engagement, enactment, and growth.” ― Deron Boyles, Distinguished University Professor, Georgia State University and Past-President, John Dewey Society, USA

“Deweyan Transactionalism in Education is an amazing example of what the editors call “applied philosophy”. Mobilizing Dewey's notion of transaction and applying it to multiple educational contexts, the authors design an epistemological framework which grounds a transactional understanding of educational processes and practices, according to a sustainable perspective.” ― Maura Striano, University of Naples Federico II, Italy

About the Author

Jim Garrison is Professor of Philosophy of Education at Virginia Tech, USA. He is a past-president of the John Dewey Society, the Philosophy of Education Society, and the Society of Professors of Education. He is co-author of Democracy and Education Reconsidered: Dewey After One Hundred Years (2016) and Empirical Philosophical Investigations In Education and Embodied Experience (2018).

Johan Öhman is a Professor of Education at Örebro University, Sweden. He is co-author, with Leif Östman,of Sustainable Development Teaching (2019).

Leif Östman is Professor of Curriculum Studies at Uppsala University, Sweden. He is co-author, with Johan Öhman of Sustainable Development Teaching (2019).