Looking Back to Move Forward: Understanding Progressive Education in the 21st Century

In recent decades, pedagogical techniques reestablishing the relevance of higher education to communities, students, and potential employers—particularly those with an experiential or applied focus—are increasingly popular. Yet, the discourse in higher education seems to isolate pedagogic approaches, and subsequently, the concept of progressive education remains unclear. The purpose of this paper is to offer a thematic organizing framework for synthesizing pedagogies that characterize progressive education in the 21st century. The identification of five major themes of contemporary pedagogies bounds the many pedagogical approaches that exist in today’s educational landscape. Definitions of such pedagogical approaches will be included, and implications of the framework will be discussed.