Experience and democracy: the contributions of dewey’s philosophy of education to the school

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the concept of experience for John Dewey, considering the author’s contributions to this concept and his contributions to the thinking about school education. With the guidance of the Philosophy of Education, we defend the need for a reflected posture by the educator, who in the relational situation of the school can create experience. Biographical aspects of Dewey’s works were analyzed; of these, especially Art as Experience and Experience and Education, and from them we ponder the term experience, from Dewey’s point of view, and the forms by which experience takes place. The author will show us that the experience happens in a conscious and continuous way, through the interaction, which is the central condition. We also consider the importance of democracy for social construction, in the principle of school education. From Dewey, we can demystify the issues that link education with the misconceptions that lead us to think of education as the “becoming”. We relate Dewey’s thinking to the ideas of current authors, who work on the concept of experience in education and the participation of such a concept for the reinvention of school education, contemplating contemporary social life and the importance of interaction to make it happen.