Education as Unfolding, Preparation and Growth: A Reflection from John Dewey’s Perspectives and Its Implications to African Context

Abstract

Perhaps one of the concepts that have no single definition is ‘education’. Over multiple of definitions of the term, at least we can say education can categorically be defined either as a process or as an outcome. This papers aims to describe John Dewey’s perspectives on education, from the book of “Democracy and Education: An introduction to the Philosophy of Education” as he tries to describe the ongoing debate on whether education should be defined as a growth, as a preparation or as unfolding. The paper also raises some critiques on the conceptualization of education and it largely shows its implications to families, teachers or school managements as well as policy makers toward connecting the concepts of education with pedagogies as well as having the clear objectives on the education process. African countries need to consider that the process of education is designed differently from one country to another basing on the way education is conceptualized. If education is taken as unfolding or preparation, it is better for the curriculums, education policies, syllabuses as well as pedagogy to reflect the particular concept of education in articulated in such particular country.

Keywords: Education, Perspectives, Unfolding, Growth, Reflection

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-9-14

Publication date:March 31^st 2019