Personal Philosophy of Education - Essay Example

Personal Philosophy of Education Education means empowerment through spread of knowledge and awareness. This paper discusses my philosophyof education. Various theories and philosophies of education have been discussed, followed by a discussion of which I find most appealing. The philosophy of education is inspired from the worldview and philosophy of life. Understanding of the philosophy of education boosts an individual’s efficiency as a teacher and optimizes the potential to contribute positively to the society. Keywords: neoscholasticism, perennialism, essentialism, progressivism, reconstructionism, metaphysics, axiology, diversity. Personal Philosophy of Education I have been associated with the profession of teaching for quite some time now. Over the years, I have developed myself as a teacher. Today, when I reflect back at my teaching experience, I see a radical improvement not only in my style of teaching, but also in my overall persona. I attribute this to the development and refinement of my philosophy of education that has happened as a result of my years of teaching. I see teaching as a way of spreading information, awareness, and enlightenment in the society with a view to contributing positively to the development of the nation, and getting spiritual, psychological, and emotional satisfaction and gratification from it. Worldview or Philosophy of Life People’s worldviews are influenced primarily by their religious beliefs. The worldview of an atheist is fundamentally different from that of a monotheist. While the worldviews of monotheists and polytheists are also substantially different from each other, yet they are similar at least to the extent that both believe in the existence of an other world that is beyond the reach and sight of the human beings for a certain time. Religion happens to be the main source of guidance and influence in terms of worldview because it provides the most radical and sensible explanation of what life is all about. Metaphysics Since I believe in God, I believe that whatever I do in this world will have an impact on what I get in the world hereafter. My future in the world hereafter depends upon my performance in this world; the extent to which I remain noble, just, and fair will depict whether I deserve reward or punishment as a result of my deeds in the world hereafter. The concept of the impact of the deeds performed in this world upon the life hereafter motivates me to be good to others and sacrifice many pleasures in this world. The profession of teaching in this perspective is a very noble profession in that it provides me with the opportunity to spread knowledge and light in the society, to empower the society by empowering the students and particularly the young generation from the standpoint of knowledge as well as morally. This is a just and respectable way of earning money because an individual gets to contribute positively to the society in compensation. My worldview implies that I do my duty with uttermost honesty and sincerity. This requires delivering as much knowledge to the students as I can without differentiating among the students on the basis of their factors of diversity. Some teachers teach for spiritual purposes. “This spirituality – evident in their teaching behaviors, their values, and their beliefs – often bore themes of transcendence and transformation” (Irvine, 2003, p. 13). I also approach my profession as a way of spiritual rejuvenation and personal enhancement, identifying my weaknesses and trying to transform them into strengths. Although I am a teacher, yet I am a human being also. My knowledge might be more in the subject I am teaching compared to that of my students, but there is also a limit to my knowledge. Occasionally, students ask such brilliant questions that even I do not know their answers. At those times, my perception of having a more powerful status as a teacher compared to the status of my students and my desire to maintain that status inculcates a desire in me to downplay those questions, but honesty implies that I confess before the students when I do not know the answer and rather make effort to find out the answer for their as well as my own learning and benefit. My worldview also requires me to try to do the most rational, sensible, and detailed checking and analysis of the students’ papers and their performance while preparing their results even if that takes longer than otherwise. Axiology The thing that I value the most in teaching is my emotional bonding with the students. Teaching can be a very fulfilling experience psychologically and emotionally if it is done with honesty and sincerity. It is hard to find good friends in life because an individual’s exposure to the world is limited. However, teaching is such a profession in which an individual gets to meet new people every semester, and in large numbers. Besides, after interacting with the students on a daily basis, and sharing personal life experiences in addition to the subject-related knowledge with the students and providing guidance to the students in matters both related to school and otherwise helps the teachers and the students understand each other good enough to be good friends life-long. I have made many good friends from among my students. After I have taught the students and the day of their graduation ceremony, the thing that pleases me the most is that I have played my part in helping them reach where they stand that day. In return of my best efforts, one thing that I want my students to value the most is the time they shared with me. I want them to acknowledge that I have done my duty with complete honesty. This is why I await students’ evaluation of the teachers’ performance the most. Our school takes this evaluation twice from the students. I am particularly interested in reading the students’ comments upon me and my style of teaching. I welcome critical comments just as much as I welcome the good comments. Those anonymous comments come straight from the hearts of the students and help me identify and understand my weaknesses. I work upon them so as to eradicate them and make my teaching experience even more fulfilling for the students as well as for myself. Ethical principles that guide me and determine what I value are commitment and loyalty to one’s profession and addressing the needs of the clients to the best, which in this case happen to be the students. Philosophy of Schools and Learning Adams (1928) commented upon the epistemological basis of educational theory saying that “at the stage that has now been reached in the evolution of educational theory it is necessary to see it as part of the more general evolution of the various schools of philosophical thought” (Adams, 1928, p 32). Learners come to know truth because they consent with what is being taught to them. Students cannot understand a concept until it makes sense to them. Learners have not necessarily encountered such experiences where they have witnessed the application of a new concept, but new concepts are deemed sensible because they are consistent with the concepts and outlook learners already have of the world. Foundationalism is a concept related to epistemic justification according to which, a belief is only justified when it is a foundational belief that justifies itself or when it is eventually based on a foundational belief (Audi, 2003). “Facts are not the sort of thing one observes independently of a particular way of describing the world … what we observe depends on the concepts and beliefs we bring to these observations” (Pring, 2000, pp. 74-76). While the consistency of a new concept with the already existing sense of the world plays a pivotal role in the occurrence of learning, there is a host of other factors that depict the extent to which learning can occur. These factors include but are not limited to the tranquility in the classroom environment, mental presence of the learners, and their connection with the teacher psychologically, emotionally, and socially. Instructional Practices There are four fundamental philosophies of education within the epistemological frame that considers the way knowledge is acquired; perennialism, essentialism, progressivism, and reconstructionism (Cohen, 1999). These approaches toward the philosophy of education are used in the classrooms almost everywhere, and heavily focus on the content of teaching and the curriculum aspect. Perennialism Robert Maynard Hutchins, founder of the Great Books Program in the year 1963 is the advocate of perennialism followed by Mortimer Adler, who developed the curriculum (Ebert, 2012, p. 275). Perennialists believe that the purpose of education is to promote the understanding of the Western civilization and the ideas it encompasses among the students. This is grounded in their belief that Western civilization can offer solutions to all problems of any age. Perennialists teach everlasting ideas in an attempt to find constant and enduring truths since the natural world does not change at its most essential level. Owing to the importance of development of human mind, cultivation of intellect is prioritized in a worthwhile education. Essentialism The approach of essentialism surfaced as a response to the progressivist approaches that existed during the 1920s and 1930s as William Bagley reacted to those approaches in his journal (Ellis, 2013, p. 123). According to the essentialists, the common knowledge core should be transmitted systematically to the students. This conservative perspective places emphasis on the moral and intellectual standards taught in the schools. The core of essentialism is academic rigor and essential skills and knowledge. Essentialists consent that there is possibility of change in the core curriculum. There is need to make the schooling practical to help the learners become positive contributors in the society. Rather than trying to establish policies, schools should teach the students respect for authority, hard work, and discipline. Teachers should engage in minimizing the non-productive instincts of the students such as mindlessness and aggression. Progressivism Progressivism was established between mid-1920s and mid-1950s in America and its foremost proponent was John Dewey (Campbell, 1995, p. 213). Progressivism thinks that education should place focus over the whole child instead of the teacher or the content. Progressivism encourages students to actively experiment in order to test their ideas. Progressivism proposes that learning is grounded in the learners’ questions which are influenced from their world experiences and considers learning to be active rather than passive. The learner plays the role of a thinker and a problem solver who derives meaning using the cultural and physical context. Teachers make teaching effective by providing students with experiences so that learning is preceded by actions. Besides, the curriculum content is based on the questions and interests of the students. Reconstructionism Social reconstructionism was founded by Theodore Brameld in reaction to the Second World War’s realities (Chambliss, 2013). Social reconstructionism places emphasis on addressing the social questions and development of a worldwide democracy and a better society. Reconstructionist educators consider social reform as the basic purpose of education and develop the curriculum accordingly. Reconstructionists believe in bringing a radical change in the society for the better by changing the systems. Education is the major means of getting people prepared for a new social order. Social reconstructionists and critical theorists are of the view that the focus of curriculum is on the student experience and execution of a social action to counter such problems of the society as hunger, poverty, violence, inequality, and inflation. Accordingly, reconstructionists teach the strategies using which controversial issues can be resolved. Such strategies include dialogue, research, and multiple perspectives. Other common strategies include bringing the world into classroom and community-based learning. Teacher-Learner Relationships The role of a learner is presumably of a seeker whereas the role of a teacher is that of a provider. It is knowledge that learners seek and teachers provide. Since teachers already have it and have an authority over what extent of knowledge to provide and how to provide that to the learners, they are understandably more resourceful and powerful than the students. Another factor that particularly empowers the teachers is the fact that they are, in a vast majority of cases, the sole graders and assessors of the students’ performance. While the criteria of evaluation of the students’ performance do exist, it is mostly up to the discretion of the teachers how to grade the students. Bad behavior of a student leaves unpleasant memories in the mind of the teacher that may reflect in the evaluation of the very student’s performance subsequently on the part of the teacher. Understanding this, most students tend to build good terms with the teachers. Teachers personally tend to have good relationships with the students for a variety of reasons. Firstly, in order to get respect from the students, it is imperative that a teacher deals with the students with love, care, and affection. Secondly, good relationship with the students makes the experience of teaching pleasant and memorable for the teacher. A teacher not only interacts with the students verbally, but also on many other levels including emotionally and psychologically. Students gauge the teachers’ personality as the teachers speak on the stage. Their body language gives the students an accurate description of how knowledgeable the teachers are, how strong their own concepts are, and what is their overall persona. In order to develop the best relationship with the learners, it is imperative that a teacher deals with the learners with respect, tries to identify and address their concerns, and takes measures to make the environment of learning interesting and engaging. Such an interaction and relationship promotes a psychologically healthy and emotionally fulfilling learning environment. Diversity Factors of student diversity impact instruction in a variety of ways. Some diversity factors that a teacher needs to take into consideration are age, gender, and race. Teachers should typically be prudent in their dealing with learners who differ from them on the basis of the factors of diversity because of their susceptibility to being perceived as ageist, sexist, or racist whether or not the teacher intended to exhibit such behaviors in the first place. A male teacher complimenting a female student might be perceived in a different light as compared to a male teacher complimenting a male student. In more conservative societies, women’s representation in the classrooms is lesser than men’s. While teachers may freely ask questions from the male students, there is a fragile stigma associated with questioning the female students both because of their lesser representation and their gender differences from the male majority. In order to establish the most rational and justified system that caters for the needs of the educational settings of the contemporary age, it is imperative that teachers give equal attention to students of all ages, races, and genders, and approach students as learners without giving any importance to their factors of diversity. However, there is nothing objectionable in considering the factors of diversity for good. In fact, with some effort and creativity, teachers can use diversity as an opportunity. “Beliefs are not what you think about but what you think with and it is only in the space provided by their articulation that …the activity of theorising goes on’ (Fish, 1989, p. 326). For example, teachers can encourage older and more experienced learners to share their practical and professional experiences with the young learners. Likewise, female learners’ feminist perspectives can be particularly helpful in the gender and social studies. Racial diversity in the classroom not only promotes harmony and understanding among the learners belonging to different races, but also signals that the school is anti-racist and welcomes learners from all sorts of backgrounds. Conclusion Education is empowerment. This makes teaching one of the most respectable professions. Since I believe that I am accountable for everything I do in this world, I try to do my best as a teacher. I find the progressivism philosophy of education the most appealing, so I encourage students to question because that is how they learn. I use diversity to provide the students with a variety of cultural contexts to boost their thinking and problem solving skills. I encourage learners from a variety of backgrounds to share their experiences and also select the curriculum according to the interests of the learners. I see teaching as a way to do social work and derive moral and psychological satisfaction from it. References Adams, J. (1928). The Evolution of Educational Theory. London, Macmillan. Ausi, R. (2003). Epistemology: A Contemporary Introduction. London, Routledge. Campbell, J. (1995). Understanding John Dewey: Nature and Cooperative Intelligence. Open Court Publishing. Chambliss, J. J. (2013). Philosophy of Education: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. Cohen, L. M. (1999). Educational Philosophies. Oregon State University. Retrieved from http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/ed416/PP3.html. Ebert, E. S. (2012). School: An Introduction to Education, 3rd edition. Cengage Learning. Ellis, A. K. (2013). Exemplars of Curriculum Theory. Routledge. Fish, S. (1989). Doing What Comes Naturally. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Irvine, J. J. (2013). Educating Teachers for Diversity: Seeing with a Cultural Eye. Teachers College Press. Pring, R. (2000). Philosophy of Educational Research. London, Continuum. Read More