WED 466 Unit 1

1. WED 466: Unit 1
Historical, Philosophical, and
Ethical Foundations
of Workforce Education
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 1

2. General Objective
 Understands the historical, philosophical,
and ethical foundations of workforce
education.
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 2

3. 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.
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 3

4. 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
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 4

5. Early Career and Technical
Education in America (con’t)
• Manual Training Movement
• Beginnings of Junior High and
Comprehensive High Schools
• Movements for Including Practical
Subjects into High Schools
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 5

6. Early Career and Technical
Education in America (con’t)
• Arts and Crafts Movement
• Correspondence Schools
• Manual Arts
• Agriculture Education Prior to 1917
• Home Economics Education Prior to 1917
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7. Early Career and Technical
Education in America (con’t)
• 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
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 7

8. 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.
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 8

9. 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.
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 9

10. 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.
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 10

11. Beginnings of Universal Education
(cont’d)
• 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.
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 11

12. Beginnings of Universal Education
(cont’d)
• 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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13. 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
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 13

14. 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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15. 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
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 15

16. Educational Reforms
in 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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17. 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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18. 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).
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 18

19. 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.
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 19

20. 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
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 20

21. 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.
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 21

22. 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
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 22

23. 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
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 23

24. 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.
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 24

25. 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.
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 25

26. 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
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 26

27. Status of Practical Art Programs in
1900 (cont’d)
• 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.
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 27

28. 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.
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 28

29. 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.
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 29

30. 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.
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 30

31. 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.
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 31

32. 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.
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 32

33. 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?
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 33

34. Schools of Philosophy
• Idealism
• Realism
• Pragmatism
• Existentialism
• Eastern Ways of Knowing
• Native North American Ways of Knowing
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35. 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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36. 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
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 36

37. 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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38. 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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39. 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.
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 39

40. 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.
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 40

41. 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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42. 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.
Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 1 42