Functionalism and Interpretivism

Last week, when reading Dewey I thought that there seemed to be an anti-functionalist theme in his writing. Now that I have had a chance to look back over my notes, I believe I was mistaken and must have been thinking about the metaphor of the factory, where students practice boring, repetitive tasks in school to prepare for boring, repetitive tasks in the workforce. After reviewing, I see many common threads between Dewey’s view and that of the functionalist, as well as that of the interpretivist. Like interpretivism, Dewey uses the metaphor of a game, stating that “the games involve rules, and these rules order their [the children’s] conduct” (p. 52). He also admonishes that the rules must be fair. The functionalist would agree that the rules must be fair; you should advance in the game based on achieved, not ascribed, characteristics. In this way, Dewey brings functionalism and interpretivism together. He seems to add his own touch to this combination as well. It seems that not only are we playing a game according to rules which must be fair, but that it is the job of the teacher to establish these fair rules in such a way as to encourage students to govern themselves and each other. In this manner, the teacher can lead the class without dictating to the class (thereby bringing traditionalist and progressive views together as well). I agree with many of John Dewey’s ideas and somehow he seems to make a place for most views in his writing. However, it seems that this is another prescription for what society should be like. Are Dewey’s goals, like those of functionalism, only geared toward the middle class? Also, what would Dewey say about the functionalist view that one of the purposes of schools is to sort students based on skill and ability?