Democracy and the intersection of religion: The reading of John Dewey's understanding of democracy and education

Abstract

How are ideas about education and democracy configured and reconfigured as they travel? Democracy and the Intersection of Religion and Traditions looks at the work of John Dewey, the renowned philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer, and the ways in which his educational ideas and democratic ideals have been configured and reconfigured, adopted, and interpreted in different historical and cultural spaces. Using case studies of China, Spain, and the American Interdenominational Committee on Cooperation in Latin America, authors explore the ways in which each alternative reading of Dewey's ideas was nested in the regionally dominant ideologies that preceded the arrival of his work and show that interpretations of his work developed differently in each setting, as a means of adapting to local needs. Democracy and the Intersection of Religion and Traditions challenges us to think in new ways about how ideas are configured in historical contexts and how their interpretation is mediated by specific beliefs and historical circumstances.