“What Pragmatism can offer Educational Reform Debates: Method, Means, and Motive”

This paper advocates for reframing educational reform through the philosophical lens of pragmatism. After reviewing the problems that arise from the three dominant paradigms of school change suggested by Hord's 1992 review of the literature, we propose seven criteria for pragmatic thinking that can be useful in crafting reform efforts. Following the application of these criteria to a short case study of a failed educational reform in an urban school, the paper concludes with discussion of the benefits of pragmatism as a philosophical foundation for educational reform.