The Paradox of Progressive Education: A Frame Analysis

The term progressive education, although widely used, encompasses a broad and contradictory range of ideas and reforms. Historians dispute its definition, and many deem the term to be paradoxical On the basis of an analysis of three Canadian educational commissions from 1950, 1968, and 1995, the author argues that progressive education is better understood as highlighting the dual nature of policy frames. Progressive language offers appealing abstract sentiments that are well suited to schools' organizational realities and are adaptable to shifting political and cultural climates. This flexibility illustrates a key property of framing: how actors create contingent meanings by adaptin an inherent logic to changing social situations. This article shows how each commission invoked similar progressive ideals, but used those ideals to justify different, even opposed, reforms. It interprets progressivism as a loose but resonant language that is reused over time to express changing educational priorities in new cultural settings and to reconcile disparate interests.