What's Next?: The Future of Progressivism as an "Infinite Succession of Presents"

Progressive education, though its meaning be contested, is the basic idea that schools should be agents of democracy. To reform society, we must reform the schools. The converse is also true: Change in schooling is realizable only to the extent that society progresses. Thus, progressive education entails not merely progressive methods for individual learners, but education for a progressive society. Howard Zinn‘s words, which could easily be pinned to progressive ideals, provide a meaningful framework for reading these contributions: "The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think humans should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory‖ (2004, para. 11). In their own way, and from far-flung diverse places such as Spain, Indonesia, China, the UK, and the US, each piece is simultaneously a story about the past, present and future. Each one is a link in this chain of "infinite successions.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe