Teachers’ Professional Development in the Winnetka Plan, 1920s: A Case Study on the Scientific Curriculum-Making Movement

Abstract

This paper aims to reexamine the influence of Social Efficiency’s ideas on practices of teachers in Progressive Era.

Previous studies have showed that thoughts and theories of Social Efficiency, due to its highly administrative, bureaucratic and scientific nature, placed administrators and researchers at the center of curriculum-making rather than teachers. These conclusions, however, were not based on any narrative evidence that we could identify what teachers experienced, felt and thought. We should verify the actual influence of Social Efficiency on schools and teachers.

This study focuses on the Scientific Curriculum-Making Movement during 1920s that was stemmed from the ideas of Social Efficiency. Generally Speaking, the Denver Project started in 1922 is considered as the first case of this movement. In the Winnetka Plan, however, elementary and junior high school teachers and Superintendent, Carleton W. Washburne began curriculum-making in 1920. It was reformation of the entire public school curriculum in Winnetka and probably a pioneer case. Before 1920, teachers of the Winnetka schools were mechanically cramming the contents of curriculum made by the administrators or authorities into children’s heads. In the process of discussion with Washburne, they reconsidered their role as a teacher and felt the necessity to revise school curriculum scientifically by themselves. Teachers voluntarily organized the research seminar and studied principles of curriculum-making, particularly ideas of Franklin Bobbitt, Charles Judd and William Bagley. They eventually internalized thoughts of Social Efficiency as the criteria for curriculum decisions, namely “Common Essentials”. That brought about not only the renewal of school curriculum but also the change of teachers’ professionalism. Teachers began to design practices in a flexible manner while referring to the course of studies, so that they could adjust curriculum to the individual children.

The findings of this study substantiate that teachers of the Winnetka schools developed autonomy on curriculum decision throughout the Scientific Curriculum-Making based on Social efficiency’s thoughts and theories. In other worlds, it indicates that the ideas of Social efficiency placed teachers at the center of curriculum-making rather than administrators or researchers. Farther case studies are needed in order to reveal the whole relationship between Social Efficiency’s ideas and teachers’ practices.

As has been showed, the narrative approach focusing on actual experiences of teachers has possibility to offer different points of view on the Progressive educational ideas and movements.