Page 9 - Šolsko polje, XXVIII, 2017, no. 3-4: Education and the American Dream, ed. Mitja Sardoč
P. 9
m. sardoč ■ education and the american dream
itself, a reductionist understanding of its nature and an impoverished un-
derstanding of its vitality can be primarily attributed to the ‘standard’ in-
terpretation best epitomized in Jennifer Hochschild’s introductory chap-
ter to her book Facing up to the American Dream [’What is the American
Dream’]. This substantive question came to define what the existing re-
search on the American Dream has been focusing on. Nevertheless, de-
spite much of its productivity, this approach – to a large extent – turns out
to ‘hit the target but miss the point’.
This journal special issue of the Šolsko polje journal entitled ‘Edu-
cation and the American Dream’ aims to move the discussion further. It
brings together 7 articles and an interview on some of the most pressing
issues associated with the American Dream and its relationship with edu-
cation. The article by Robert Hauhart, as he emphasizes, ‘attempts to lay
out some of the principal theoretical and empirical issues that bear on the
future potential for studies of the American Dream’. In his paper, Michael
Peters ‘describes the crafting of the American dream as a rhetorical device
that utilises narrative resources to tell and retell a story of America’s his-
tory as a philosophical reflection on the core value of social equality that
defines national identity and the future to which all Americans might as-
pire to’. Furthermore, it also examines the role of the American Dream in
Obama’s speeches that he contrasts with Trump’s slogan “Make America
Great Again!’. Cyril Ghosh examines various elements of university ad-
missions in the US and argues that the Percent Plans are the ‘most aligned
with the widely popular ideology of the American Dream and therefore
has the potential to have the broadest possible support from Americans
across the ideological spectrum’. In his interview Peter McLaren discus-
ses some of the persisting challenges associated with the American Dream
and its controversial historical legacy. In particular, he challenges straight
away the ‘standard’ interpretation of the American Dream and questions
its overall coherence. The concluding part of the interview is devoted to
the presentation of the relationship between education and the Ameri-
can Dream. In his essay, Srečo Dragoš analyses two separate questions lin-
ked with the local and global meaning of the American Dream, i.e. [i] the
resilience of the American Dream, which is strengthened in proportion
to the distance from its origin (why the above mentioned dreams are the
strongest on the global periphery in the case of Slovenia); and [ii] whether
such a development is more dependent on voluntaristic or more on deter-
ministic factors. Next, Igor Bijuklič ‘examines the subject of technocracy
in the Progressive era (1880-1920) focusing on the instrumental character
that was ascribed to communication for achieving social cohesiveness and
a perfected socialisation of men among the growing populations of immi-
7
itself, a reductionist understanding of its nature and an impoverished un-
derstanding of its vitality can be primarily attributed to the ‘standard’ in-
terpretation best epitomized in Jennifer Hochschild’s introductory chap-
ter to her book Facing up to the American Dream [’What is the American
Dream’]. This substantive question came to define what the existing re-
search on the American Dream has been focusing on. Nevertheless, de-
spite much of its productivity, this approach – to a large extent – turns out
to ‘hit the target but miss the point’.
This journal special issue of the Šolsko polje journal entitled ‘Edu-
cation and the American Dream’ aims to move the discussion further. It
brings together 7 articles and an interview on some of the most pressing
issues associated with the American Dream and its relationship with edu-
cation. The article by Robert Hauhart, as he emphasizes, ‘attempts to lay
out some of the principal theoretical and empirical issues that bear on the
future potential for studies of the American Dream’. In his paper, Michael
Peters ‘describes the crafting of the American dream as a rhetorical device
that utilises narrative resources to tell and retell a story of America’s his-
tory as a philosophical reflection on the core value of social equality that
defines national identity and the future to which all Americans might as-
pire to’. Furthermore, it also examines the role of the American Dream in
Obama’s speeches that he contrasts with Trump’s slogan “Make America
Great Again!’. Cyril Ghosh examines various elements of university ad-
missions in the US and argues that the Percent Plans are the ‘most aligned
with the widely popular ideology of the American Dream and therefore
has the potential to have the broadest possible support from Americans
across the ideological spectrum’. In his interview Peter McLaren discus-
ses some of the persisting challenges associated with the American Dream
and its controversial historical legacy. In particular, he challenges straight
away the ‘standard’ interpretation of the American Dream and questions
its overall coherence. The concluding part of the interview is devoted to
the presentation of the relationship between education and the Ameri-
can Dream. In his essay, Srečo Dragoš analyses two separate questions lin-
ked with the local and global meaning of the American Dream, i.e. [i] the
resilience of the American Dream, which is strengthened in proportion
to the distance from its origin (why the above mentioned dreams are the
strongest on the global periphery in the case of Slovenia); and [ii] whether
such a development is more dependent on voluntaristic or more on deter-
ministic factors. Next, Igor Bijuklič ‘examines the subject of technocracy
in the Progressive era (1880-1920) focusing on the instrumental character
that was ascribed to communication for achieving social cohesiveness and
a perfected socialisation of men among the growing populations of immi-
7
