Educational Philosophy and Theory· 2026Q1
Progress and progressive education: A plea for domain specificity
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- 2026year
Short summary
Progressive education emerged not from a belief in universal progress, but from a reclamation of domain-specific progress, distinct from mere developmental improvement.
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Key points
- Progressive education emerged from a shift away from abstract universal progress towards domain-specific progress.
- The concept of progress is distinct from developmental improvement, absolute vs. relative progress, and progressivism.
- Progressive education should be viewed as a form of social transformation.
- Evaluating gains and losses within specific social sites is crucial for understanding progressive education.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
‘Education after progress’ is a historical argument because it declares the end to a period in which human beings believed in progress. On the question of origins, the discourse is right to locate the emergence of progress in eighteenth-century Enlightenment thought and, in particular, a philosophy of history of inexorable progress. On the question of endings, however, the discourse is fundamentally mistaken. ‘Education after progress,’ I argue, is as old as progressive education itself. Progressive education came into being when the concept of progress, after a brief hiatus in abstract universalism, reclaimed its former domain specificity. The article distinguishes progress from developmental improvement, absolute progress from relative progress, progress from progression and progressivism, all while elucidating the importance of approaching progressive education in domain-specific terms. A key feature of present-day progressivism is a confusion over its progressive intellectual inheritances. I call on progressive educationalists to regard progressive education as a form of social transformation and to identify the sites in the social world where gains can be evaluated alongside losses.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Philosophy
PhilosophyArts and Humanities