unit 1 historical, philosophical, and ethical foundations (2nd ed.)

Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 1

WED 466: Unit 1

Historical, Philosophical, and Ethical Foundations

of Workforce Education

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General Objective

Understands the historical, philosophical, and ethical foundations of workforce education.

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Early Career and Technical Education in America

• Colonial America– Education fell chiefly to the church and the

family.– Families served as the center for

apprenticeship training.– Wealthy families established private schools

and/or sent their children to Europe for schooling.

– Churches provided elementary instruction in reading, writing, and church doctrine.

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Early Career and Technical Education in America (con’t)

• American Apprenticeship

• Beginnings of Universal Education

• Early Educational Efforts for Adults

• Educational Reforms in the Common School

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• Manual Training Movement

• Beginnings of Junior High and Comprehensive High Schools

• Movements for Including Practical Subjects into High Schools

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• Arts and Crafts Movement

• Correspondence Schools

• Manual Arts

• Agriculture Education Prior to 1917

• Home Economics Education Prior to 1917

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• General Business Education Prior to 1917

• Status of Practical Arts Programs in 1900

• Douglas Commission of Massachusetts

• National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Arts

• Commission on National Aid to Vocational Education

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American Apprenticeship

• Two types:– Voluntary: individual agreed to be bound to a master

to learn a trade or craft.– Involuntary or compulsory: a master became

responsible for poor children orphans and provided a means of meeting their personal and occupational needs.

• Impacted by the factory system of the 19th century.

• Chief source of education and training of the masses for 150 years.

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Beginnings of Universal Education

• Universal education began with basic instruction in reading, writing, and math.

• Ben Franklin experimented with combining academics and practical arts.

• After the Revolutionary War, education was important in promoting nationalism and balancing freedom and order; was chiefly supported by the church or special charity schools.

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Beginnings of Universal Education (cont’d)

• Charity schools provided instruction to create moral character.

• Lancasterian system of instruction featured students seated in rows receiving instruction from monitors; the “manufactory of knowledge.”

• Common schools mixed children together from different social classes.

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• Education was considered a responsibility of the states.

• Three events were instrumental in establishing universal public education:– Establishment of primary public school

system in Boston in 1818– Establishment of public high school in Boston

in 1821– 1827 Massachusetts law that required towns

of 500+ to establish public schools.

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• Three distinct aspects:– Education all children in common

schoolhouse– Using schools to convey government policies– Creation of state agencies to control local

schools

• New York was the first to create the position of State Superintendent of Schools

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Early Educational Efforts for Adults

• Mechanics Institute Movement– Effort to improve the economic and social

conditions of industrial & agricultural workers and provide a pool of educated workers

• American Lyceum Movement– An organization in American towns to

increase the knowledge of the common person

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Early Educational Efforts for Adults (cont’d)

• Manual Labor Movement– Provided physical activity, reducing the cost of

education by selling student labor, promoting respect for all kinds of honest work, building character, promoting originality, stimulating intellectual development, and increasing wealth of the country

• Early American Technical Schools– Provided curriculum to prepare individuals with

advanced scientific knowledge in agriculture, the mechanical arts, and engineering

– Land Grant Act of 1862

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Early Educational Efforts for Adults (cont’d)

• Trade School Movement– Provided a workable system of industrial

education for all Americans– Provided specific trade training supplemented

with related academic subjects

• Corporate Schools– Established by large manufacturers in an

attempt to revise the old apprenticeship method of training high quality employees

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Educational Reformsin the Common School

• Reshaping of Elementary Education– Oswego Movement– Quincy Plan– American kindergarten

• Gap between working & non-working classes– Illiteracy– Crime

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Manual Training Movement

• Began with a 4-year high school in St. Louis that provided instruction in math, science, drawing, language, literature, and practical use of tools

• Believed that manual activity was a way to enhance general education.

• Expansion of programs led to comprehensive high schools and technical schools

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Junior High and Comprehensive High Schools

• Early high schools provided an academic track with few opportunities to develop practical skills.

• Business and industry supported the doctrine of social efficiency, wanting education to train individuals for specific roles and to work cooperatively in that role (reducing competition in that role).

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Junior High and Comprehensive High Schools (cont’d)

• Key elements in the development of the comprehensive high school– Vocational education– Vocational guidance– Establishment of the junior high school

• Social-efficiency movement led to vocational guidance movement.

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Movements for Including Practical Subjects into High Schools

• American Sloyd– Was a method of hand tool instruction

• Arts and Crafts Movement– Introduced artistic design and practical skill

development

• Correspondence Schools– Brought education and training to those who did not

live near schools, couldn’t attend because of work schedule, wished additional training, or did not have a wide selection of courses in their schools

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Movements for Including Practical Subjects into High Schools (cont’d)• Manual Arts

– Addressed the neglect of aesthetic principals in manual training; beautiful useful objects should be an outcome of the learning process

• Industrial Arts– Drew its content from industry; replaced

manual training and manual arts terms.

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Agricultural Education Prior to 1917

• Morrill Land-Grant College Act of 1862– Established colleges and universities that

provided programs combining practical applications of agriculture and industry with scientific knowledge

• Enhanced by:– Agricultural experiment stations– Farm journals– Mechanization of agriculture

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Home Economics Education Prior to 1917

• Difficult to establish because of prejudice against the education of women

• Morrill Act of 1982 established departments of domestic science to provide leadership for establishing home-making in the public schools of America,

• Enhanced by:– Conferences on economics and social aspects of the

home– Founding of the American Home Economics

Association– Opening the field to people from diverse backgrounds

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General Business Education Prior to 1917

• Private business schools emerged to prepare individuals for careers in business and commerce.

• Clerical workers employed for specialized tasks as a result of the application of Frederick Taylor’s scientific management.

• Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 created the Federal Board for Vocation Education of which business education was a part.

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Status of Practical Art Programs in 1900

• Practical subjects were added to school curricula as a supplement to academic content to hold the interests of students.

• Industrialization led to a hands-off policy by the government; big business exploited workers.

• Workers experienced removal of thought and creativity from their work.

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Status of Practical Art Programs in 1900 (cont’d)

• Managers wanted:– Increased output without wage increases– Reduced labor turnover– Reduced labor/management conflict– Increased worker loyalty– Workers who respected authority– Workers who valued the work ethic

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• Business and industry wanted educated citizenry for their economic self interests.

• Skilled workers were coming from Europe due to relaxed immigration laws.

• Schools through vocational education programs produced workers with specific skills and a good work attitude.

Status of Practical Art Programs in 1900 (cont’d)

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Douglas Commission of Massachusetts

• Massachusetts led the way for universal public education due to educators like Horace Mann.

• Report concluded that the lack of industrial training for workers increased the cost of production; workers with general intelligence, technical knowledge, and skill would command the world market.

• Report brought to the nation’s attention that vocational education programs in high school could prepare workers for America’s growing industries.

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National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education

• Its mission was the promotion of industrial education by focusing public attention on the value of an educational system that could prepare young men and women to enter industrial pursuits.

• Industrial education referred to… that area of education between manual training and engineering.

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Commission on National Aid to Vocational Education

• Recommendations included:– Grants for vocational teacher salaries– Grants for public schools less than college grade– Instruction limited to youth over age 14 and designed

for employment in agriculture & the trades– Vocation programs including day school, part-time,

and evening classes.– A federal board to oversee grants.– State boards created to administer grants.

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Educational Philosophies of John Dewey and Charles Prosser

• Dewey’s progressive movement advocated the education accommodate the natural traits of children.

• Prosser’s philosophy of existentialism was grounded in meeting the needs of industry.

• Their differences were in the manner in which vocational education programs were infused into the curriculum.

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Dewey and Prosser Differences

• Their differences were in the manner in which vocational education programs were infused into the curriculum.– Prosser contended that public education in a

democracy was not intended for individual fulfillment, but to prepare its citizens to serve society.

– Dewey placed emphasis on human development in order to stabilize and improve American society.

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The GI Bill: Educational Opportunities for Veterans

• What are the basic concepts?

• What is the impact of this law?

• What types of education and training does the law support?

• What is the GI Bill legacy?

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Schools of Philosophy

• Idealism

• Realism

• Pragmatism

• Existentialism

• Eastern Ways of Knowing

• Native North American Ways of Knowing

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Idealism

• Idealism is the school of philosophy that holds that ideas or concepts are the essence of all that is worth knowing.

• Educational Implications:– Idea centered vs. subject-centered or child-

centered– The study of great leaders as examples

• Idealists: Plato, Socrates, Kant, Martin

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Realism

• Realism is the school of philosophy that holds that reality, knowledge, and value exist independent of the human mind (metaphysics).

• Educational Implications:– Subject-centered curriculum– Employs experimental and observational

techniques

• Realists: Aristotle, Locke, Whitehead

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Pragmatism

• Pragmatism is the late 19th-century U.S. philosophy that holds the belief of an open universe that is dynamic, evolving, and in a state of becoming (metaphysics).

• Educational Implications:– Learn best through experience– Use ideas as instruments for problem-solving

• Pragmatists: Peirce, Dewey, Rorty

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Existentialism

• Existentialism holds that reality is lived existence and the final reality resides within the individual (metaphysics).

• Educational implications:– Proper education starts with human individual.– Education fills the gaps in understanding so

that an individual can fulfill their purpose.

• Existentialists: Sartre, Nietzsche, Greene

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Eastern Ways of Knowing

• Eastern thinkers emphasize the illusory quality of the physical world; stress inner peace, tranquility, attitudinal development, and mysticism.

• Includes: Indian, Chinese, & Japanese thought• Educational Implications:

– Emphasizes teacher-student relationship– Transforms individuals to face life.– Puts humanity in tune with nature.

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Native North American Ways of Knowing

• Native North American ways of knowing include a varied set of beliefs, positions and customs that span different tribes.

• Includes: Navajo, Lakota, Hopi

• Educational Implications:– Emphasizes the importance of nature– Pursuit of knowledge & happiness must be

subordinate to respect for the whole universe.

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Professionalism and Ethics

• Four ethical obligations– Promote learning.– Ensure health and safety.– Protect the public or private trust.– Promote the transfer of learning.

• How can ethical standards guide educational practice and policy making?

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Summary

• Historical foundations of workforce development includes two systems (a) public education and (b) business and industry.

• The study of philosophical thought provides a basis for establishing a personal educational perspective.

• A true professional exhibits behavior that is consistent with the four ethical obligations.

unit 1 historical, philosophical, and ethical foundations (2nd ed.)

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