Historiographic Perspectives of Context and Progress During a Half Century of Progressive Educational Reform

Historiographic Perspectives of Context and Progress During a Half Century of Progressive Educational Reform Ellen Durrigan Santora University of Alabama Related waves of contemporary school reform and historians of education, mostly educators, produced inspir- curriculum critique have revitalized interest in the history of ing histories that sought to ennoble the new profession of progressive education. Most recently those efforts to improve teaching. However academic arguments of relevance, society through education have centered on the restructuring presentism, and utility came to haunt both historical tradi- of schools and classrooms for more equitable educational tions. Academic historians debated the value of presentism opportunities and more cooperative forms of learning. Among while, educators debated the relative merit of functional and theorists, there is a resurgent concern about social reconstruc- non-functional scholarship. The 1930s represented a tion as an ideology of education with a vision and commit- watershed as the Depression created fertile ground for the ment to democratic principles and values. In addition, the functionalists in departments of education and progressive poststructural critique has renewed social reconstructionist historians with a sense of the present in the AHA (Appleby, efforts to dislodge formalism, objectivity, social Darwinism Hunt, & Jacob, 1994; Breisach, 1983; Cohen, 1976). The two and social efficiency as principle tenets of schooling (see traditions came together in the thirties for the common Stanley, 1992). purpose of outlining a reconstructed program for social An historiographic understanding of how sociocultural studies education in the schools (Bowers, 1969; Kliebard, change and the political context of schooling have influenced 1987). Yet their paths once again diverged. Bernard Bailyn progressive education would improve our ability to integrate (1960), in the name of professional historians, charged perspectives of the past into contemporary pedagogical educators were propagating a narrow view of history, and thought as well as enhance future research endeavors. education historians such as Ellwood Cubberley were guilty Breisach (1983) reminds us in his discussion of the uses of of using history to promote the glories of the education historiography that "Every important new discovery about profession. Bailyn urged historians to think of education "not the past changes how we think about the present and what only as formal pedagogy but as the entire process by which a we expect of the future; on the other hand every change in culture transmits itself across the generations" (p. 14). the conditions of the present and in the expectations for the Lawrence Cremin amplified Bailyn's position in The future revises our perceptions of the past" (p. 2). Wonderful World of Ellwood Patterson Cubberley (1965). Since 1960, historians of education have grappled with Together these invited the attention of educational historians the fate of progressive reforms. Yet their voices may have to what Diane Ravitch (1978) refers to as the Bailyn-Cremin been silenced through loss or distortion in the maelstrom of critique. reform-minded rhetoric. The purpose of this paper is two- fold: to examine changing definitions of progressive educa- Defining Progress tion, reveal the contexts, lenses, approaches, and themes from which historians have reconstructed its past and explore how The histories of progressive education included in this that informs reform-oriented research efforts. An historio- 1 graphic analysis of four principal themes — the progress, the analysis were all published between 1961 and 1993 — years vision, the context, and the politics of reform — portrays a that saw movement in a number of directions away from tra- ditional celebratory histories of public education. Cremin's complex process that tampered with and distorted the imple- 2 mentation of progressive educational reforms intended to The Transformation of the School (1961) foreshadowed the alter the sociocultural conditions of communities/society in Bailyn-Cremin critique by placing school reform within the favor of maintaining a contextual, structural and pedagogical context of social and intellectual history. Cremin viewed pro- status quo. gressive reforms in education as a single movement that in- corporated the combined efforts of groups of reformers each In many ways, the historiography of progressive educa- with distinct purposes but united in their desire to use the tion parallels American historiography as well as the histori- schools to improve the lives of families and communities as ography of education. This comes as no surprise when we well as those of America's youth. For him, progress in edu- realize the American Historical Association (AHA) has played cation was marked by changes in the schools as a result of a major role in the professional foundations of both. While the academically conceived reforms of "scientism, sentimen- early twentieth century historians emphasized national unity, talism and radicalism." Published at a time when progressive homogeneity, and the importance of America's destiny, Education and Culture Fall, 1999 Vol. XVI No. 1 2 ELLEN DURRIGAN SANTORA reforms were being widely condemned as the root of African Americans, and the poor as it questioned the ideol- education's ills — ills that were startlingly highlighted by ogy of progressive reform. Upsetting the simplicity of previ- the announcement that Russia had launched the first space ous interpretations of progressive education by men such as satellite — Cremin's The Transformation of the School took Lawrence Cremin and Merle Curti (1959), the new data an optimistic view of school reform. Anything that moved revisionists provided demonstrated a complexity that would schools into greater conformity with the changes of society henceforth defy singular interpretations of educational reform. contributed to the progress of the nation. As a result of such In contrast to both liberal and consensus historians, David an inclusionary view, complementary as well as competing Tyack wrote The One Best System (1974) with a conscious and contradictory reforms were labeled progressive. effort to incorporate the perspectives of the revisionists into Cremin's failure to provide a definition of what he meant by a more balanced history of urban education (see Tyack, 1976). progressive education anywhere within The Transformation For Tyack, progressive education was fraught with accom- of the School is evidence of the confusion implicit in plishments as well as failures, good intentions alongside framing the movement as a whole. ill-conceived plans, as urban school systems searched for His greatest contribution to the historiography of solutions to problems created by the "sheer numbers and education was his enlarged perspective of education, a view chaotic conditions" (p. 30) of city schools. He portrayed the that opened up the history of education to events within the progressive reform movement as a complex endeavor which broader intellectual and social framework of the commu- carried with it different meanings for its various participants. nity, the state, and the nation. The Transformation of the For "administrative progressives," the progressive movement School established the social, intellectual, and political was one toward bureaucratic centralization, foundations upon which a historiography of progressive professionalization of school governance, and application of education would develop. Some 35 years later, it is still scientific principles to the education of America's youth. For considered one of the most comprehensive histories of the "pedagogical progressives" or "libertarians," as he calls them, progressive era in education (Zilversmit, 1993). it was a movement to bring curriculum and instruction into The 1970s brought significant change in interpretations greater conformity with the developmental stages and inter- of progressive education. Among academic historians,3 ests of the individual child; and for the social Progressive, New Left, Women's, African American, reconstructionists, it was educators assuming the responsi- Latino(a), Asian American, Jewish American, and "critical bility for teaching children the habits and attitudes necessary liberal" historians planted the seeds for more complex for creating a more collectivist-oriented society. By analyz- historical interpretations generated from a variety of histori- ing progressive reforms from a variety of perspectives, Tyack cal perspectives (Appleby, etal., 1994; Breisach, 1983). This concluded the political processes of education had resulted was reflected in education with the appearance of revision- in persistent tensions between: professional autonomy and ist histories written by historians committed to social community control, the order and the confusion created by action. Revisionists, fired by their witness of Vietnam War large bureaucracies, Americanization and support for cultur- protests, civil rights activism, and reports of school dysfunc- ally diverse communities, and occupational opportunity and tion in books like Death at an Early Age (Kozol, 1972), vocational/academic tracking. believed education functioned primarily to serve the inter- Tyack's contributions to the historiography of ests of the dominant class (Cohen, 1976). In their critique, progressive education have left an indelible mark on 4 revisionist historians as exemplified by Katz (1971),

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