This paper stems out of a broader PhD research project that considers the role teachers could play in Libya’s efforts to stabilise a society in flux after the 2011 uprising against the 42-year old Col Gaddafi regime.  It highlights that public school teachers are part of the public – be it hidden or unformed – and that teaching is a “relational practice” (Orchard et al., 2016, p. 42). Here, we will draw upon the pragmatist philosopher John Dewey’s conception of ‘the public’ in his book The Public and its Problems (1927) to help draw a path towards teachers’ agency in activating themselves, and other communities, to become conscious publics interacting to make up the public on the road to a fledging and floundering democratic Libya. To elucidate what Dewey means by ‘a/the public’ in a democracy to better see how, in practice, Libyan teachers could become one, it will be necessary to take a closer look at his notions of ‘individual’ and ‘community’ and how they too develop through relational ‘transaction’ – interactive experience and consequence. 

Published in 1927, Dewey’s The Public and Its Problems describes what democracies are now, but also how they came about, to suggest a better way to conceptualise democracies. In this historical approach, he re-conceptualises the individual not as a separate entity or being that can be studied and known, or that can grow and act in isolation, free and sovereign. Rather, Dewey argues, an individual forms in relation to a social group; individuals develop by observing the direct consequences of their interactions with others. Then they decide which thoughts and behaviours bring about the best connections and consequences, the best potentialities; these desired consequences are then called our ‘interests.’

Once these interests are formed in an individual, through transaction with the immediate group of family, friends, classmates etc, the individual joins a community of common interests as it is here where these interests, in communitarian solidarity and communication, are best developed and cared for.  However, a community is not yet a public. A public, in the Deweyan sense, emerges out of a community that has perceived “an indirect consequence” between other interacting entities (be they individuals or communities), one that needs to be regulated and controlled; a consequence that affects communities’ interests who are not directly involved in the original interaction. A public, if you will, is an organised and politicised community – one that has clear aims, methods and activities to take care of its interests. For Dewey, a public, although beginning on the outside of established state structures, does not merely attempt to influence from the outside, like an Interest Group or a Lobby. Rather, a public elects officials or representatives out of the community who will dedicate time and effort to inquire into and communicate on the issue affecting the community’s interests.

How can teachers become such an agentic public, such “supreme artists” (Lowery & Jenlink, 2019, p. 249) when there is a need for public thinking and associated living? Koopman (2009) highlights pragmatism’s most fruitful concepts, temporarlity and historicity, when he posits that transaction between all things (i.e teachers and students and curriculum etc) is always happening; to know how to proceed towards something better, the actors’ temporality and historicity must play a part. Biesta et al. consider teachers’ agency an “ecological” concept and argue that teacher communication, the vocabulary they use to make sense of their experiences and to shape potential progressive ideas and action (Biesta et al., 2017) matters. In Dewey’s words, teachers need to inquire into and communicate on the interests that need to be pursued.

The paper will draw upon primary writings by John Dewey (1859-1952), including The Public and Its Problems (1927), Democracy and Education (1916), and Experience and Education (1939). The ideas presented are also informed by secondary sources like Biesta and Burbules’ (2003) Pragmatism and Educational Research, Koopman’s (2009) Pragmatism as Transitionalism and Hildrebrand’s (2021) “John Dewey” as they examine pragmatism in general and Dewey’s theory of knowledge / experience. In addition, a search through the literature on Dewey’s concepts of the ‘public’ in combination with teaching, schooling or education using Google Scholar and the bibliographic databases Scopus and Web of Science will highlight the gap in conceptual and empirical research that explores the connections between this important dimension of Dewey’s political philosophy with his educational philosophy.

The conclusion we come to after this review of Dewey’s ‘public’ can only be a hypothesis that needs to be examined further (empirically, through my thesis). The literature indicates that combining Dewey’s idea on the public as an issue-focused community with representatives that will inquire into problems affecting them, has not often been linked to the conception of teachers as free intellectual and moral agents leading a social process (Dewey, 1938/2015, p. 61). Furthermore, having outlined Dewey’s concept of the public, it seems worth asking whether Libyan teachers: 1) See themselves as a community in the Deweyan sense of the word? 2) Not only feel, but also perceive indirect consequences affecting their interests? 3) Have the voice and common language to articulate their interests? 4) Can imagine a path to action and secure the desired consequences for this action? Interviews with Libyan teachers across Libya so far are beginning to show that teachers may indeed sense some indirect consequences that are affecting their understanding of professionalism. However, there is an uneasy isolation and powerlessness in the struggle against these consequences indicating that the consequences are felt but not yet thought about and worked on. Furthermore, an interesting theme emerging from the data so far is that teachers struggle with articulating ideas on the links between school and society, or the aims of teaching their subjects. To further explore this absence of a ‘common language,’ or communication, necessary for building both community and public (Dewey, 1927/2012, p. 178), Reem will be conducting a Focus Group Discussion to gain richer insights into why this might be and how Libyan teachers could come to see themselves as professionals or agents capable of bringing about any transformation in their students or society.

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