Progressive Pioneer

Alexander James Inglis's (1879-1924) transformation from an academic traditionalist devoted to Latin pedagogy to an influential progressive-experimentalist and advocate of the comprehensive high school has received insufficient attention from educational and curriculum historians. Inglis's career manifests important characteristics of the progressive era in American history. As an attempt to generate organizing principles upon which to construct a new, responsive social institution, his book, Principles of Secondary Education, stands as a quintessential manifestation of progressive values. This fine-grained profile of Inglis's work reveals nuances in the historic record that are otherwise obscured by high-level historical interpretations. An assessment of the utility of these interpretations for explaining Inglis's career leads to a discussion of the implications of the record of Inglis's work for understanding the progressive period and its prevailing interpretations, as well as to a consideration of the role of biography in historical research.

Autorentext

The Author: William G. Wraga is Professor in the Department of Lifelong Education, Administration, and Policy, at the College of Education, University of Georgia, where he teaches courses in curriculum theory, development, policy, and history. He received his master's degree from the University of Chicago and his doctorate in social and philosophical foundations of education from the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University. He served as president of the Society for the Study of Curriculum History and as Factotum for the Professors of Curriculum. He is author of Democracy's High School: The Comprehensive High School and Educational Reform in the United States (1994).