dEwEy lEcturE: Making MEaning togEthEr BEyond thEory and PracticE

Educators frequently fret over how to bridge the gap between theory and practice. In an important sense, it is a false problem. Theory is simply the thoughtful, reflective phase of good practice. We will approach Dewey’s philosophy as one of continuous creation and re-creation or even more precisely, social co-creation, that requires making meaning, knowledge, and value together. We will look at each one of these three in some detail along with the ways they transact with one another. Fundamentally, we can only distinguish them for some purposes, but never fully separate them. Everywhere we look, we will see we cannot entirely pull theory and practice apart. Therefore, the paper will conclude that if we unify theory with practice, we may use the same paradigm for the intelligent production of meaning, knowing, and valuing, thereby obviating the functional independencies among them. The reason the title of my paper is not Making Meaning Together Bridging Theory and Practice is that there is nothing to bridge. Theory and practice are simply subfunctions within the larger function of making meaning, knowledge, and value in our lives, although few thinkers have ever conceived it as such. The philosophy of John Dewey is a striking exception. Theory and practice unite within his account of production, or if you prefer, his account of construction and reconstruction. It indicates a constructivism far beyond anything found in the contemporary educational conversation. In “Construction and Criticism,” Dewey writes, “I have used the word construction rather than creation because it seems less pretentious. But what I mean by it is the creative mind, the mind that is genuinely productive in its operations.”1 It is not too much to call Dewey’s philosophy one of continuous creation and re-creation, or even more precisely, social co-creation. We make meaning, knowledge, and value together. We begin with a discussion of the role of theory before turning to practice and production in that order. Admittedly, it is something of a disjointed mechanical treatment, since the proper relation of theory, practice, and production constitutes a mutually interdependent functional relationship. Significantly, the word theory derives from the classical Greek theoria, meaning “viewing, speculation, contemplation, the contemplative life.”2 It is associated