Educational Philosophies: Idealism

Educational Philosophies

• After studying the lesson, you will be able to:
  • Describe the manifestations of various educational philosophies and applications of sociological theories in practical classroom situations in response to community context
  • Explain the importance of the different educational philosophies and sociological theories to education and how they change the educational landscape in response to the needs of the society and the community

Classical Philosophies: Idealism

• Idealism was founded by Plato around 400 BC, as described in his book, The Republic
• Plato posited the existence of two worlds:
  • The spiritual or mental world: eternal, permanent, orderly, regular, and universal
  • The world of appearance: experienced through sight, touch, smell, taste, and sound
• These two worlds are often referred to as the duality of mind and body
• As a philosophical view, idealism emphasizes the importance of the role of the ideal or the spiritual
• According to this view, reality exists as spirit or consciousness and abstraction and laws are more fundamental than sensory things

Key Term Definitions

• Reality is nonfictional prose and provides basis for agreement and argumentation
• Consciousness is a psychological condition defined by John Locke as the perception of what passes in a man's mind
• Abstraction is the cognitive process of isolating a common feature or relationship observed in a number of things, such as electrical conductivity from bodies or the relation of "being longer than" from observing lines

Idealism in the context of Education

• The aim of education in idealism is to discover and develop each individual's abilities and full moral excellence in order to better serve society
• Curricular emphasis is subject matter of mind, literature, history, philosophy and religion
• Teaching methods focus on handling ideas through lecture, discussion, and Socratic dialogue
• Introspection, intuition, insight, and whole-part logic are used to bring consciousness
• Character is developed through imitating examples and heroes

Classical Philosophies: Realism

• Aristotle, a student of Plato, is considered the father of realism
• Aristotle believed that understanding an object required understanding its ultimate form
• For example, a rose exists independently of whether a person is aware of it
• In philosophy, realism is a viewpoint where things known or perceived have an existence or nature independent of anyone thinking about or perceiving them
• Key aspects of realism include existence of objects and independence of those objects from human perception
  • Tables, rocks, and the moon all exist, and there are facts that support that
  • The moon exists and it is spherical

Realism in the context of Education

• The realist curriculum emphasizes the physical world, particularly science and mathematics
• Content is organized and presented systematically within a discipline, demonstrating use of criteria in making decisions
• Teaching methods focus on mastery of facts and basic skills through demonstration and recitation
• Students must also demonstrate the ability to think critically and scientifically, using observation and experimentation
• The curriculum is scientifically approached, standardized, and distinct-discipline based
• Character is developed through training in the rules of conduct

Classical Philosophies: Existentialism

• Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) is considered the founder of existentialism which was a Christian orientation
• Jean-Paul Sartre explicitly adopted the term existentialism calling is self-descriptive
• Existentialism was most influential in continental Europe from 1930 to the mid-20th century
• European existentialists emphasizes recognition of the finiteness of life rather than a belief in salvation through God
• American existentialists focused more on human potential and the quest for personal meaning

Key Tenets of Existentialism

• Existence is always particular and individual, always my existence, your existence, his existence
• Existence is primarily the problem of existence and the investigation of the meaning of Being
• Investigation is continually faced with diverse possibilities, from among which the existent (the human individual) must make a selection, to which he must then commit himself
• Because those possibilities are constituted by the individual's relationships with things and with other humans, existence is always a being-in-the-world

Existentialism in the context of Education

• Educators start with the student, rather than the curriculum
• The subject matter of existentialist classrooms should be a matter of personal choice
• Teachers view the individual as an entity within a social context in which the learner must confront others' views to clarify his or her own
• Character development emphasizes individual responsibility for decisions
• Real answers come from within the individual, not from outside authority
• Authentic thinking involves students in genuine learning experiences
• Existentialists are opposed to thinking about students as objects to be measured, tracked or standardized

Classical Philosophies: Pragmatism

• Pragmatism originated in the United States during the 19th century from the teaching of Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914)
• Key tenet for pragmatism is that thought must produce action, rather than linger in the mind and lead to indecisiveness
• The term is derived from the Greek pragma, meaning action or affair

Six Fundamental Theses of Pragmatism

• Pragmatists emphasized the “plastic” nature of reality and the practical function of knowledge as an instrument for adapting to reality and controlling it
• Pragmatism emphasized the priority of actual experience over fixed principles and a priori (nonexistential) reasoning in critical investigation
• The pragmatic meaning of an idea, belief, or proposition resides in the distinct class of specific experimental or practical consequences that result from the use, application, or entertainment of the nation
• Pragmatism generally holds that truth, like meaning, is to be found in the process of verification
• Pragmatists interpreted ideas as instruments and plans of action
• Pragmatism was a broad philosophical attitude toward the formation of concepts, hypothesis, and theories and their justification

Pragmatism in the context of Education

• Teaching methods focus on hands-on problem solving, experimenting, and projects, often having students work in groups
• Curriculum should bring the disciplines together to focus on solving problems in an interdisciplinary way
• Rather than passing down organized bodies of knowledge to new learners, pragmatists believe that learners should apply their knowledge to real situations through experimental inquiry which prepares students for citizenship, daily living, and future careers

Modern Philosophies: Perennialism

• Advocates of perennialism include Robert Maynard Hutchins and Mortimer Adler
• These men developed a Great Books program and promoted a curriculum based on 100 great books of Western civilization
• Perennialists believe that the importance of certain work transcends time

Perennialism in the context of Education

• Perennialists are primarily concerned with the importance of the mastery of the content and development of reasoning skills
• The goal of perennialist education is to teach students to think rationally and develop minds that think critically
• A perennialist classroom aims to be a closely organized and well-disciplined environment, which develops in students a lifelong quest for the truth
• Education should epitomize a prepared effort to make ideas available to students and to guide their thought processes toward the understanding and appreciation of the great works
• The aim of education among perennialists is to ensure that students acquire understandings about the great ideas of Western civilization and teach ideas that are consistent over time
• It is important to teach unchanging principles

Modern Philosophies: Progressivism

• The progressive education philosophy was established in America from the mid-1920s through the mid-1950s.
• John Dewey was its foremost proponent
• One of its tenets was that the school should improve the way of life of our citizens through experiencing freedom and democracy in schools
• Shared decision making, planning of teachers with students, and student selected topics are all aspects of progressivism

Progressivism in the context of Education

• Progressivists believe that education should focus on the whole child, rather than on the content or the teacher
• It stresses that students should test ideas by active experimentation.
• Learning is rooted in the questions of learners that arise through experiencing the world. It is active, not passive
• The learner is a problem solver and thinker who makes meaning through his or her individual experience in the physical and cultural context
• Effective teachers provide experiences so that students can learn by doing
• Curriculum content is derived from student interests and questions
• The scientific method is used by progressivist educators so that students can study matter and events systematically and first hand
• The emphasis is on process-how one comes to know

Modern Philosophies: Humanism

• Humanism was developed as an educational philosophy by Rousseau (1712-1778) and Pestalozzi
• Key values of humanism:
  • Emphasize nature
  • Basic goodness of humans
  • Understanding through the senses
  • Viewing education as a gradual and unhurried process in which the development of human character follows the unfolding of nature

Humanism in the context of Education

• Humanists believe that the leaner should be in control of his or her own destiny, hence personal freedom, choice, and responsibility should be the focused of his or her education
• Key tenets of humanistic education:
  • Students should be able to choose what they want to learn. Humanistic teachers believe that students will be motivated to learn a subject if it is something they need and want to know
  • The goal of education should be to foster students' desire to learn and teach them how to learn. Students should be self- motivated in their studies and desire to learn on their own
  • Humanistic educators believe that grades are irrelevant and that only self-evaluation is meaningful. Grading encourages students to work for a grade and not for personal satisfaction
  • Humanistic educators are opposed to objective tests because they test a student's ability to memorize and do not provide sufficient educational feedback to the teacher and student
  • Feelings and knowledge are important to the learning process
  • Schools need to provide students with a non-threatening environment so that they will feel secure to learn

Sociological Perspectives: Social Dimensions of Education: Consensus and conflict theories

• Consensus theory seeks to determine what all people in a society have in common relating to culture
• Conflict theory seeks to determine who, why and how those with power have imposed specific aspects of culture on a society
• According to conflict theory, culture is the means by which the powerful, those with wealth or social status, impose their will on the society

Conflict theory in the context of Education

• Fulfillment of education is closely linked to social class
• Students of low socioeconomic status are generally not afforded the same opportunities as students of higher status
• The education system reinforces and perpetuates social inequalities that arise from differences in class, gender, race, and ethnicity
• Education promotes social inequality through the use of tracking and standardized testing and the impact of its "hidden curriculum"
• Schools differ widely in their funding and learning conditions, and this type of inequality leads to learning disparities that reinforce social inequality

Sociological Perspectives: Social Dimensions of Education: Structural Functionalism

• Emile Durkheim and Talcott Parsons are two major theorists
• According to Durkheim, for society to function, there must exists an unwritten moral code that people follow as a common set of values and morals
• Structural functionalism therefore is a body of theories that understand the world as a large system of interrelated parts that all work together

Structural functionalism in the context of Education

• The role of education in society is to instill society's morals in the minds (or actions) of young people and forge a commitment to an underlying set of common beliefs and values
• Schools exist to socialize students through assessments that are standardized without considering social background
• The University of Minnesota summarized the functions of education according to structural functionalism
  • Socialization
  • Social integration
  • Social placement
  • Social and cultural innovation
• Latent functions include:
  • Child care
  • The establishment of peer relationship
  • Lowering unemployment by keeping high school students out of full-time labor force

Sociological Perspectives: Social Dimensions of Education: Symbolic Interactionism

• Founder of symbolic interactionism is George Herbert Mead
• The term “symbolic interactionism” was coined by Herbert Blumer who outlined the basic premises:
  • Humans interact with things based on meanings ascribed (assigned) to those things
  • The ascribed meaning of things comes from our interactions with others and society
  • The meanings of things are interpreted by circumstances
• Symbolic interactionism is a micro-level theory that focuses on the relationships among individuals within a society

Symbolic interactionism in the context of Education

• Symbolic interactionism focuses on social interaction in the classroom, on the playground, and in other school venues
• Social interaction in school affects the development of gender roles
• Teachers' expectations of pupils' intellectual abilities affect how much pupils learn

Schools and Social Institutions

• Contemporary sociologists use the term “social institutions” to refer to complex social forms that reproduce themselves:
  • Governments
  • Family
  • Human languages
  • Universities
  • Hospitals
  • Business corporations
  • Legal systems
• Five basic institutions:
  • Family
  • Government
  • Economy
  • Education
  • Religion
• These institutions are found among all human groups and exist everywhere due to being rooted in human nature