The purpose of the SIG is to foster the presence of inquiry in education related in letter and in spirit to the American philosopher, John Dewey. Such inquiry may be discipline based as in philosophy, history, or curriculum studies or interdisciplinary. Non-empirical scholarship is typical but empirical studies are also welcome.
The SIG is a Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association established to facilitate the formation of research specialties of an intra- or cross-divisional nature and to increase the exchange of knowledge within research arenas of special interest, and for other purposes in keeping with achieving the mission and objectives of the Association.
The JDS Centennial Conference on Democracy and Education
SIG members are currently working with The John Dewey Society in order to help plan and organize the centennial celebration of Democracy and Education, which will take place in Washington, D. C. on April 7th and 8th 2016, just prior to and then overlapping with the beginning of AERA. The April 7th sessions will take place at the historic Thurgood Marshall Center in Washington, the building where Marshall and the NAACP legal staff developed the strategies to defeat official school segregation, which culminated in Brown v. Board of Education.
The SIG Call for Participation and Proposals – Dewey and Civil Rights
The Dewey Studies SIG is responsible for planning for one 90 minute breakout session during the centenniacl celebration. Given that the first day of the conference will take place in the Thurgood Marshall Center and in response to the challenges that entrenched inequities continue to pose to democratic societies, the SIG executive proposes that we organize deliberation and discussion on the topic of Dewey and civil rights.
If you have any thoughts about how to structure this session and/or areas of Democracy and Education upon which the discussion might focus, we invite you to be in touch. Also, if you have written a paper or know of a paper that in some manner treats the intersection of Dewey and civil rights, we would love to hear about it and possibly to include it in a bibliography that we would assemble and make available.
Please send all thoughts, references, and offers to participate as a group leader to our SIG communications chair, Susan Jean Mayer, [email protected], just as soon as you are able, but by November 15, 2015 at the latest. In the subject line of your email write: Dewey SIG Centennial Session. Be sure to include your name, position and institution (if applicable), email address, and phone number.