1899–2024

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1899

Dewey, School and Society

In 1899. Dewey proposed in School and Society  that “if our education is to have any meaning for life, it must pass through an equally complete transformation” and that with this transformation “we shall have the deepest and best guarantee of a larger society which is worthy, lovely, and harmonious” (Dewey, 1899).

1916

Dewey, Democracy and Education

In 1916. Dewey’s Democracy and Education “orchestrated the many diverse strands of pedagogical progressivism into a single inclusive theory and gave them unity and direction” (Cremin, 1962).

1919

Progressive Education Association (PEA) Formed

Marietta Pierce Johnson and other self-identified progressive educators founded the Progressive Education Association and launched its seminal quarterly publication, Progressive Education, to promote its newly adopted tenets of progressive education. “For three decades, these principles and the progressive education movement would fundamentally alter the course of American education” (Little, 2013).]

1930s

Challenges to PEA’s Vision

Education leaders including George Counts (1932) and Horace Mann Bond (1935) begged fundamental questions about the progressive education movement’s commitment to social transformation, particularly as concerns race and class in American education and society: if progressive education “is to fulfill its promise, it must lose some of its easy optimism and prepare to deal more fundamentally, realistically, and positively with the American social situation than it has done up to the present moment” (Counts, 1932).

1950s

PEA Activities Subside

Progressive education as a movement struggled amidst the prevailing political conservatism of the post-WWII years and the development of Cold War anxieties about U.S. preeminence in the global order. This led to a resurgence in American schools of a preoccupation with how schools should be run, and what should be taught (Fallace, 2018). The activities of the Progressive Education Association subsided.

1987

NPE Assumes the PEA Mantle

In 1987, the newly founded Network of Progressive Educators assumed the mantle of the defunct PEA and adopted a new version of “The Principles of Progressive Education” for the late 20th century.

1990s

NPE Activities Subside

In the early 1990s, the Network of Progressive Educators became inactive, in part owing to a wave of pedagogical neoliberalism and political conservatism.

2005

PEN Assumes the NPE Mantle

In 2005, progressive educators formed a committee to revive the activities of the Network of Progressive Educators, which had been inactive since the early 1990s. The group formed the Progressive Education Network [PEN], which held its first national conference on “Revitalizing our Educational Vision for America” in 2007. In 2009, PEN was incorporated as a 501(c)3 charitable non-profit organization.

2014

PEN Launches NIPEN

In 2014, PEN held its first “National Institute of the Progressive Education Network” (“NIPEN”), a multi-day, twice-annual gathering of a cohort of progressive educators from the public and private sectors, to engage in shared inquiry and reflection to refine their practice.

2016

PEN Revises “The Principles of Progressive Education”

In 2016, following its 2015 conference on “Access, Equity, and Activism,” PEN adopted revised “Principles of Progressive Education” to foreground the movement’s commitment to racial and social justice not only in educational theory but also in pedagogical practice. PEN also released an explicit “Statement on Progressive Education and Racial Justice.”

2017

PEN Introduces its Journal

In 2017, PEN published its first Journal of the Progressive Education Network to encourage continued dialogue and inquiry about progressive educational principles and practices.

2021

PEN Initiates NewPEN Program

In 2021, PEN assembled its first cohort of educators who are new to progressive education or progressive schools, in order to support their enculturation, inquiry, and practice in a year-long series of online workshop sessions.

2023-2024

PEN Organizes 2024 Conference

While it continues to advance its programming through NIPEN, NewPEN, its Journal, and outreach to its partner schools and educators, PEN is preparing for its October 2024 national conference in Columbus, Ohio, on “The Space Between: How Progressive Education Fosters Curiosity, Creativity, Community, and Connection.”

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