Pedagogische participatie en de noodzaak van herinstitutionalisering - De verwante visies van John Dewey en Janusz Korczak

Abstract

There is a growing need for pedagogical views that move away from objectivism and passivity towards views that stress interaction, communication and participation. In this article pupil participation in schools and youth-work is examined in relation to the pedagogical views of John Dewey and Janusz Korczak. These pedagogues present the kind of paradigm that makes this shift possible. The article reconstructs both pedagogues' views on communal life in schools and in youth-work, based upon an activist view of the child. Childhood is seen as a phase in a human's life with an intrinsic value, which is not to be measured against an idealized adult life. Both pedagogues, Korczak in an even more radical way than Dewey, stress the need for respect for the child and its way of life. Dewey's laboratory school in Chicago (1896-1904) and Korczak's orphanages in Warsaw (Poland) (1912-1942) are regarded as pedagogical workplaces, intended to bring about human interactions and learning. Both distance themselves from an industrial metaphor of schooling. Their work is regarded as attempts to re-institutionalize schools and youthwork, on the basis of a democratic, participative view of education.