By Amber Strong Makaiau

“All human beings tend to have moral senses, which is the categorical imperative for them to act.”
— Immanuel Kant

John Goodlad is a giant in the history of the progressive education movement. He lived with strong moral convictions and had the incredible ability to turn his ideas into action. A devotee of John Dewey, Goodlad envisioned schools “where accomplished teachers could lead their peers, where students are not grouped by age, and where the ability to discuss and assess ideas matter more than test scores” (Woo, 2014). Author of the highly influential book, A Place Called School (1984), Goodlad documented the now classic eight-year study of 38 schools in 13 communities, which laid the foundation for his Professional Development School (PDS) partnership model. Built on reciprocal relationships between partner institutions like universities and schools, PDS partnerships ensure the “simultaneous renewal of schools” and the “education of educators” (1984). Goodlad asserted that “an ethic of collaboration and collaborative inquiry and action, more than anything else, [should] characterize the processes that go on in a school-university partnership” (1994, p. 110). He believed that this spirit of collaboration–also valued in the democratic underpinnings of the progressive education tradition–needed to be “modeled every step of the way” (p. 110). He famously stated that in order to create better teachers, we need better schools and committed his life’s work to doing just that. 

Two decades after conducting influential studies of public schools and the education of educators, Dr. Goodlad initiated a national effort to support educational quality and renewal. Unlike other reform initiatives that looked more narrowly at academic standards and test scores, Dr. Goodlad’s focus was on the essential role of education in sustaining the social and institutional underpinnings of democratic life, as reflected in a four-part mission for schools: (a) providing equal access to quality, school-based learning for the young; (b) promoting responsible stewardship of schools and universities; (c) improving teaching and learning through pedagogy that nurtures and challenges all learners; and (d) providing students with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to become fully engaged participants in a democratic society (John I. Goodlad Institute for Educational Renewal, 2022).

It is John Goodlad’s PDS model that serves as the foundation for the formal partnership between Hanahau‘oli School and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Education (UHM COE). With a mutual desire to build a PDS that emphasizes progressive, interdisciplinary, and inquiry-based approaches to learning, I (Amber Strong Makaiau, a faculty member at the UHM COE) serve as a bridge between Hanahau‘oli School and the UHM COE as Hanahau‘oli School’s Professional Development Center (PDC) Director. In this unique role, I am able to leverage the assets, resources, and strengths of each institution to strengthen the school and college and build our collective capacity for developing and maintaining school communities that both meet the needs of our current society and strive to create a better future society for today’s children. This includes a wide range of educative experiences--aligned to the school’s one hundred year-old progressive philosophy and tradition--for educators, researchers, scholars, parents, and community members in the State of Hawai‘i and beyond. 

Although this recognized PDS partnership is new (officially established in 2018), the relationship between the school and university is not. As early as 1922, Hanahau‘oli began to serve as an on-site observation center for the University, which facilitated teachers and administrators from Hawaii’s public, charter, and independent schools coming to the school to learn more about Hanahau‘oli’s progressive philosophy and pedagogy. Dr. Robert G. Peters recounts this important aspect of the school’s history in his book, Hanahau‘oli School, 100 Years of Progressive Education:

As the progressive education pioneer in the Islands, Hanahau‘oli quickly became a demonstration site.  In 1919, Sophie Judd Cooke received a letter from Vaughan MacCaughey (Superintendent of Public Instruction, Territory of Hawaii) which stated: “I heartily and fully endorse the educational creed therein (school bulletin, 1919).  One of the dangers to our democracy is the lock-step and effacement of individuality in the public system. . . . It is my hope, next fall, to arrange to have some of our better teachers visit Hanahau‘oli School, one by one, and to catch something of its spirit.” (Letter, SJC File).  In 1921, the Territorial Normal School approached Mrs. Cooke with the possibility of creating an affiliation to give the “cadets the opportunity of observing and participating in educational work of an advanced character.”  (SJC File).  Following a visit from Professor Simonds from the University of Hawaii in 1922, during which he expressed the desire to use Hanahau‘oli as an observation site, the Board of Advisors passed a motion to inform the University and the Department of Public Instruction that school policy would be to cooperate in “all educational matters” and that “we are glad to extend an invitation to any of their classes in Education to visit our School for the purpose of observation.” (Advisory Board Minutes, 9/27/22).  Thus, was launched what today is called the “public purpose” of independent schools.  Hanahau‘oli accepted its role in the community as a school that would share its theory and practice with the community—-both local and national—-and engage in the broader conversation about best practices to promote learning for a democratic society and an ever-changing world.

With a commitment to serving a public purpose, the Professional Development Center (PDC) at Hanahau‘oli was established to serve as the institutional bridge between the school, broader community, and university. Today, the PDC is central to supporting both Hanahau’oli School and the UHM COE in carrying out their unique missions and aims.

For those who believe in the potential and promise of the progressive education movement–to purposefully educate whole individuals, improve society, promote the common good, and take on global challenges like climate change, COVID-19, misinformation, government corruption, and social inequalities–creating PDS partnerships is a moral imperative. In other words, if collaboration between institutions allows us to strengthen and grow the reach of our efforts, we must find ways to partner on achieving our collective vision for a better world. The progressive education tradition is built upon “principles of justice, fairness, liberty, honesty, respect, dignity and truth. The integrity and credibility of [progressive] schools depend on if and how they meet these principles” (Goens, 2016, p.1). 

So what might be good measures to determine whether progressive schools are living up to their established principles? In relationship to the school-university PDS partnerships, we might consider the degree to which progressive schools are able to:

1. Function as living laboratories that take measured risks, experiment and innovate for the purpose of betterment, and use educational research and self-study to improve on the ways in which schools can ensure a better future for humans and the natural world;

2. Grow their impact by contributing to the development of more progressive education teachers, leaders, administrators, counselors, auxiliary staff, scholars, researchers and schools; and 

3. Disseminate empirical data and documented qualitative experience to dismantle and shift problematic, unethical, and inhumane approaches to education and schooling that are pervasive locally and globally.

In sum: a strong school-university partnership has the potential to elevate the work of progressive education schools and universities to create meaningful and lasting change.

In 2015, Tom Little and Katherine Ellison published, Loving Learning: How Progressive Education Can Save America's Schools. In this book, the authors describe their tour of 43 progressive schools across the country and assert that a more broad adoption of progressive philosophies and pedagogies in today’s schools would ensure a better future for more children and communities. The effort to translate their proposal from a dream to reality is most definitely multifaceted, however, it also seems dependent on the creation of more PDS partnerships between progressive schools and universities. When schools and universities work together in a close, renewing relationship, continuously examining institutional purpose, roles, and responsibilities (Goodlad, 1994) then they each become better equipped to translate their progressive moral principles–diversity, democracy, justice, fairness, liberty, honesty, respect, dignity and truth–into action. This is why collaboration between progressive schools and universities as Goodlad envisioned is not only an ideal progressive education practice and important pathway forward for supporting both institutions in meeting their unique missions, but it is also the right thing to do.

Works Cited:

Goens, G.A. (2016, April 19). The Moral Imperative to Educate Children. https://www.georgegoens.com/the-moral-imperative-to-educate-children/

Goodlad, J. I. (1994). Educational Renewal: Better Teachers, Better Schools. Jossey-Bass.

Goodlad, J. I. (1994). What schools are for. Bloomington, Ind: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation.

Goodlad, J. I. (1984). A place called school: Prospects for the future.

John I. Goodlad Institute for Educational Renewal (2022). Retrieved from: https://uwbdr.uwb.edu/getattachment/research/centers/goodladinstitute/about-us/goodlad-legacy-brief.pdf

Peters R. G. (2019) Hanahau‘oli School: 100 Years of Progressive Education. Honolulu: Mutual Publishing.

Woo, E. (2014, December 28).John Goodlad dies at 94; led research on how schools fail to educate. The Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-john-goodlad-20141228-story.html

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dr. Amber Strong Makaiau is a Specialist at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Director of Curriculum and Research at the Uehiro Academy for Philosophy and Ethics in Education, Director of the Hanahau‘oli School Professional Development Center, and Co-Director of the Progressive Philosophy and Pedagogy MEd Interdisciplinary Education, Curriculum Studies program. A former Hawai‘i State Department of Education high school social studies teacher, her work in education is focused around promoting a more just and equitable democracy for today’s children. Dr. Makaiau lives in Honolulu where she enjoys spending time in the ocean with her husband and two children.