Kenneth Howe has been named the 2016 recipient of the John Dewey Society’s Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement. The award honors a scholar-practitioner who exemplifies, over a lifetime of work, the Deweyan tradition of connecting the worlds of theory and practice in promoting the development of democratic citizens, and/or an exceptional explicator of the Dewey’ philosophy and educational theory.
Nominated by colleagues and advisees, Howe’s nomination letter details his more than four decades of outstanding contributions to educational philosophy and policy and his steadfast concern for democratic purposes and practices in educational research and policies.
“Professor Howe has continued Dewey’s tradition of bridging philosophical analysis and social action,” states the nomination letter by Kristen Davidson, Jarrod Hanson, Darrell Jackson, David Meens, Michele Moses, Kevin Murray, and Terri Wilson.
“Importantly—and for many of us writing this letter—he has mentored graduate students and younger scholars into the field. Many of us read Dewey for the first time with Professor Howe, and through his mentorship, we have come to appreciate the abiding commitments to democracy that have guided his scholarship, teaching and service. Professor Howe has not only explicated and interpreted Dewey’s philosophy, but embodied and extended his ideas in the context of pressing contemporary educational issues. .”
Howe has been with the School of Education at CU Boulder since 1987. In 2013, he was elected President of the Philosophy of Education Society, the highest honor for a philosopher of education. He is widely recognized for his analyses of education policy, professional ethics, and philosophy of education. In his now classic book, Understanding Equal Educational Opportunity: Social Justice, Democracy, and Schooling, Professor Howe draws on Dewey to make a compelling case for a participatory interpretation of equality of educational opportunity. His scholarship—through his own work and influence on others—has been a central voice in the fields of equal opportunity, ethics, and democratic education.
Professor Howe is set to retire later this year. Congratulate him or send us your memories here.