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An Awkward Echo: Matthew Arnold and John Dewey. Research in Curriculumand Instruction

My study looks at the influence that Matthew Arnold, 19th century English poet and literary critic, had on John Dewey, American pragmatist and educational philosopher. While the influence of Arnold on Dewey was more pervasive than I had expected, my real purpose in writing this dissertation was to discover a middle ground between the educational philosophies the two men espoused and to construe a fuller approach to a pluralistic educational philosophy. I have looked at four aspects of mind that draw Arnold and Dewey into close correspondence. The first aspect I have called the tentacled mind from Dewey's favored metaphor of the mind as having tentacles that reach out and encounter directly the physical world. This aspect of mind allows me to look at the common use that both Arnold and Dewey made of the term "experience." The second aspect of mind I call the critical mind. I have explored this aspect of mind by looking at a brief history of English literary criticism from Dryden to Stanley Fish. The third aspect of mind is the intentional mind which deals with the rhetorical-hermeneutic relationship of mind to the intentionality of other voices and to its own intentionality. This aspect crosses into reader response theory, but I have found within it results that differ significantly from traditional reader-response theory. The final aspect of mind I have called reflective-response. In both Arnold and Dewey the reflective aspects of the mind differ widely from more contemplative conceptions of the mind in a reflective state; most notably for both Arnold and Dewey the reflective mind is never passive. I believe that when these four aspects of mind are brought together they amount to a truly pluralistic educational philosophy. In the course of my argument I have, as well, identified a need to rehabilitate both the concept of intentionality and that of authority.

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  • "My study looks at the influence that Matthew Arnold, 19th century English poet and literary critic, had on John Dewey, American pragmatist and educational philosopher. While the influence of Arnold on Dewey was more pervasive than I had expected, my real purpose in writing this dissertation was to discover a middle ground between the educational philosophies the two men espoused and to construe a fuller approach to a pluralistic educational philosophy. I have looked at four aspects of mind that draw Arnold and Dewey into close correspondence. The first aspect I have called the tentacled mind from Dewey's favored metaphor of the mind as having tentacles that reach out and encounter directly the physical world. This aspect of mind allows me to look at the common use that both Arnold and Dewey made of the term "experience." The second aspect of mind I call the critical mind. I have explored this aspect of mind by looking at a brief history of English literary criticism from Dryden to Stanley Fish. The third aspect of mind is the intentional mind which deals with the rhetorical-hermeneutic relationship of mind to the intentionality of other voices and to its own intentionality. This aspect crosses into reader response theory, but I have found within it results that differ significantly from traditional reader-response theory. The final aspect of mind I have called reflective-response. In both Arnold and Dewey the reflective aspects of the mind differ widely from more contemplative conceptions of the mind in a reflective state; most notably for both Arnold and Dewey the reflective mind is never passive. I believe that when these four aspects of mind are brought together they amount to a truly pluralistic educational philosophy. In the course of my argument I have, as well, identified a need to rehabilitate both the concept of intentionality and that of authority."@en
  • "Matthew Arnold, 19th century English poet, literary critic and school inspector, felt that each age had to determine that philosophy that was most adequate to its own concerns and contexts. This study looks at the influence that Matthew Arnold had on John Dewey and attempts to fashion a philosophy of education that is adequate for our own peculiarly awkward age. Today, Arnold and Dewey are embraced by opposing political positions. Arnold, as the apostle of culture, is often advocated by conservative educators who see in him a support for an education founded on great books and Victorian values, while Dewey still has a notably liberal coloring and is not too infrequently tarred for the excesses of progressive education, even those for which he bears no responsibility at all. Both, no doubt, are misread by those who rather carelessly use them as idols for their own politics of education. This study proposes a pluralistic approach to education in which pluralism means not only plurality of voices, but also plurality of processes. Using a model built out of a study of rhetoric and hermeneutics, four aspects of mind are indentified that draw Arnold and Dewey into close correspondence. These aspects are the tentacle mind (using Dewey's favorite metaphor for breaking down the barrier between mind and body), the critical mind (which builds on the concepts of criticism that animated both Arnold and Dewey's approach to experience), the intentional mind (which attempts a long overdue rehabilitation of the concept of authority and an expansion upon the increasingly apparent limitations of reader-response theory) and the reflective-response mind (in which the contemplative mind is treated to that active quality that makes it more a true instrumentality and less an obscuring mechanism of isolation). Dewey echoed Matthew Arnold who himself echoed so many of the voices that preceded and were contemporary with his own. Theirs were awkward echoes, as all such echoes invariably are. They caught at the intentionality of those voices they echoed, trying for nearness, but hoping, at least, for adequacy. Awkward, but adequate, is what this study offers, but it may well be what we most need right now. This book contains the following chapters: (1) Sketching; (2) Educational Pluralism;(3) The Tentacled Mind; (4) The Critical Mind; (5) The Intentional Mind; (6) The Reflective Mind; and (7) An Adequate Echo. A bibliography is also included."@en

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  • "An Awkward Echo: Matthew Arnold and John Dewey. Research in Curriculumand Instruction"@en
  • "An awkward echo Matthew Arnold and John Dewey"@en
  • "An awkward echo Matthew Arnold and John Dewey"
  • "An awkward echo : Matthew Arnold and John Dewey"

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