Beyond Colonial Miseducation: Internationalism and Deweyan Pedagogy in the American-era Philippines

Abstract

This article maps early–twentieth-century Philippine pedagogy and nationalism through an intellectual biography of educator Camilo Osias (1889–1976). It examines Osias’s thinking as informed by three theoretical movements: gradualist Philippine nationalism (“Filipinism”), nationalist internationalism, and the pragmatist philosophy of John Dewey. The synthesis of these three movements allowed Osias to sketch a pluralist, democratic, and deliberative philosophy of public engagement, which was mainstreamed through classrooms and educational institutions. Such ideas, although foreign to contemporary anti-imperial intellectuals, may serve as alternatives to inward-looking forms of nationalism.

KEYWORDS: CAMILO OSIAS, JOHN DEWEY, PRAGMATISM, INTERNATIONALISM, PEDAGOGY, FILIPINISM, NATIONALISM