<b>Democracy and Education in the Chilean Educational Reforms of the past 100 years

Abstract

On the occasion of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the publication of the work of John Dewey, Democracy and education, we sought to show how the democratization effort driven by the American educator has been present in the most outstanding landmarks in the educational development of the past 100 years in Chile, especially in its reforms. Actually, in the process of enactment of the law on compulsory primary education from 1920, they were at the debate, the ideas of Dewey, and the same thing will occur in reforms of 1927 and 1945; the first, oriented to the primary education and, the second, to the high school education. They postulated the main educational approaches of the educator commented. More explicitly, the desire for democratization in the Reform of 1965 was present as the school coverage significantly extended, reaching at the beginning of the 1990s 98% of the primary level and 80% of the high school demand; to a greater education, greater democracy was the postulate of Dewey and that Chile put into practice.