How Evidence-Based Teaching Practices Are Challenged By A Deweyan Approach to Education

Source: Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, Volume 37, Issue 2,
pages 215 - 227 (May 2009)

The claim is made in this article that the discourse of education offers a challenge to evidence-based practices because this latter approach is embedded in the discourse of management. Although claiming the status of being 'scientific', this latter development is drawn upon problematically by policy makers to provide the warrant for stipulating rules and procedures for 'best practices' to which educators are being held accountable. This article shall draw mostly upon Dewey and is structured into three sections.
The first section will attempt to explain the flaw in this evidence-based approach by providing a comparison between empiricism and science. Second, a review of Dewey's recommendation for educators to become more scientific in attitude will then follow. This review will lead to the final section, in which the case will be made that educational practice needs to become as scientific, philosophical and democratic as possible in order for educators to resist being de-professionalized.