Philosophical Foundations of Education

Modern realism was developed and popularized by a group of philosophers, the most popular of which were Francis Bacon and John Locke. This is based on the belief that all knowledge comes from ruminating over past experiences. This idea is founded on the understanding that we do not bring any ideas into this life when we are born. Our ideas and philosophies are picked up as we grow older and have more experiences.

As a consequence, it can be hard to distinguish our ideas from reality. Bacon decided that rather than using deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning would be a much more helpful approach. Inductive reasoning completely ignores preconceived notions and focuses on the observable reality.

This ideology was created by St. Thomas Aquinas, who suggested that God is the ultimate truth, and as such, operates based on pure reasoning. This belief that all truth can be found in God is known as religious realism.

Aquinas developed a distinct view by drawing upon Aristotle’s ideas and perspectives, in addition to using the Neoplatonic doctrines of the Church Fathers and St. Augustine. Aquinas treated human existence as the supreme act or divine attribute. He set aside the creative act to God alone and refuted the presence of matter in angels. This way, he differentiated between God and created beings by hypothesizing that it’s just in created beings where existence is different from essence. Another significant facet of Aquinas’s teaching was that the human soul is an inimitable subsistent form, substantially connected with matter to form human nature. He upheld his belief that the human soul’s immortality can be firmly displayed. He also maintained that there’s a genuine difference of principles between the soul and its powers of willing and knowing, and that the basis of human knowledge is the sensory experience, which triggers the reflective activity of the human mind. According to Aquinas, human beings and lower creatures possess an inherent tendency or love toward God. He viewed God as the supernatural grace that perfects and lifts up the natural abilities of humans, and involves that blessedness, which one gets by formally knowing God himself through knowledge accompanied by the love of God.

Through religious realism, Aquinas articulated a highly developed and sophisticated adaptation of classical theism. His views brought together the perceptions of the Abrahamic religious traditions and classical Greek metaphysics. Additionally, his realist, pluralist ontology defended an account of existence that blended the elements of Neoplatonic and Aristotelian thoughts. His work on religious realism was extremely systematic, as he deployed a basic set of distinctions that he used creatively across an extensive array of topics. It was his metaphysical system that paved the way to the postulation of the First Cause that considered God as the beginning of this world. It differed considerably from the rest of reality. Though his position came under tremendous criticism and pressure, Aquinas held onto his views related to the relationship of faith to reason and of philosophy to theology. He presented several arguments for God’s existence and put forward lengthy studies of the divine nature, all of which are relevant to the modern philosophy of religion.

Realism is based on the belief that reality exists outside of ideas and ideologies conjured up by humans. It attempts to teach students ways to unearth absolute reality via logical processes. Realism was popularized by Aristotle, who was Plato’s student. Aristotle adapted his philosophies from that of Plato. He believed that there was an absolute reality out there, irrespective of whether humans recognized it or not. Similar to idealism, realism has three branches: classical, religious, and modern.

In the field of education, realism refers to the belief that teachers should study critical thinking, logic, and scientific methods to teach students ways to identify and understand reality. Thus, educational realism lays heavy emphasis on science and mathematics, though the humanities too can be influenced by it.

Realist educators persuade students to draw their observations and derive conclusions from their surrounding environment, rather than confining themselves to examine their own ideas. But what does educational realism in a classroom involve? Say, a teacher, Dave, is trying to formulate his curriculum for the forthcoming school year. Since Dave is a realist, he’ll tend to include many opportunities to encourage his students to study the natural world. Realists consider that the job of schools is to teach students about their surrounding world. This means Dave is likely to teach his students ways to use logical processes to find truth in the natural world. For instance, instead of using a textbook to teach his students about gravity, Dave might take them out in the open and climb a tree to drop objects of varying masses to reconstruct Newton’s moment of clarity. This will let students understand how gravity and mass work together. To help his students learn math, Dave can again use nature. He can share a hill’s photo and have his students find out its slope. Thus, irrespective of what Dave is teaching, educational realism will focus on using logical processes in the natural world to help students perceive and understand reality to find the truth.

The role of today’s teachers, which is a blend of a systematizer, organizer, and promoter of critical thinking, is mainly based on realist principles. Realist educators believe in a methodical approach to gaining classified knowledge while building on the information learned earlier. They are less inclined to encourage their students to seek the truth in ideas and literature. Instead, they encourage them to seek it by analyzing learned principles in their surroundings.  

These educational philosophies believe that students should be educated according to the need, requirements, and ideals of society so that once they are fully educated, they can contribute meaningfully to the growth and preservation of society. Thus, society-centered philosophies go beyond focusing on the student. Their emphasis is on a group or a population instead. Such educational philosophies focus on educating a group of people, which could be a minority group or the entire world, rather than a solitary student. Critical theory and globalization are two types of society-centered philosophies.

Critical theory is an educational philosophy that examines organizations, institutions, and instructions with respect to power relationships. Proponents of critical theory say that schools are controlled by the wealthy and powerful upper-class, which marginalizes the lower classes by using their power to uphold or reproduce their favored position on a subject. In contrast, the supporters of critical theory focus on empowering the subordinate classes by evaluating educational and social circumstances in schools and society. They highlight exploitative power relationships, like marginalization or determination to promote change.

Advocates of critical theory maintain that the existing curriculum in schools has two components – an official curriculum and a hidden curriculum. The latter is the unspoken, yet apparently widespread inclusion of views, which is likely to support the continued dominance of the upper class. To prevent the spread of the hidden curriculum to the disadvantage of the lower-class, critical theory proponents believe that schools should use officially sanctioned textbooks that are based on unbiased views and won’t promote or help maintain the dominance of the upper-class. Additionally, teachers are expected to persuade students to voice their ideas about their own values instead of those that are popular. 

The scope of globalization is much broader than the educational landscape, as it involves processes that encourage global participation and relationships between people of different cultures, countries, and languages. Four key processes that encourage globalization are economic, communication, educational, and political processes.

In the domain of education, an example of globalization can be the familiarity of teachers with technology. Though teachers in developed countries with reasonably priced access to technology are expected to integrate technology into every aspect of their teaching, the same won’t essentially be expected of a teacher in an underdeveloped country’s rural school. But irrespective of expectations or where they live, all students will come into contact with technology at some point and start dialogues on an international level. This makes it important for teachers from all countries to make their students aware of technological advancements, at the least, if not familiar with them.

These philosophies are based on the conviction that students play the most important role in education, and teachers and society serve as support systems to help students develop their individuality through education. These philosophies believe that students should work together with teachers to decide what should be learned and taught, and how these can best be achieved.

The emphasis of student-centered philosophies is on training individual students. These philosophies focus on the individuality of students and help them to realize their potential. A student-centered classroom is likely to be less structured or rigid. It may also be less concerned about drilling academics and past teaching practices while focusing more on getting the students trained for success in a rapidly changing world. Student-centered philosophies don’t see the school as an institution to control and direct the students, or one that functions to transmit and preserve the core culture. Rather, it’s viewed as an institution that functions with the students to help them realize their individuality or improve society. Progressivism and existentialism are two good examples of student-centered philosophies.

Progressivism organizes schools around the curiosity, concerns, abilities, interests, and real-world experiences of students.  Progressive educators are focused on the outcomes and don’t just impart learned facts. They are less concerned with passing on the existing culture and do their best to let students develop an individual approach to handle tasks allotted to them. Thus, they facilitate learning by helping students create meaningful questions and work out strategies to answer those questions. In a progressivist classroom, educators feel no compulsion to focus their students’ attention on a solitary discrete discipline at a time. Instead, they encourage students to work in groups on a wide array of topics that ignite their interest.

Existentialism puts the primary focus on students’ directing their own learning. The goal of this educational philosophy is to train students to develop their own exclusive understanding of life. Thus, students search for their own direction in and meaning of life, and define what’s accurate and what’s false, what’s satisfying and what’s disagreeable, and what’s enjoyable and what’s unpleasant, among others. In an existentialist classroom, the teachers typically outline what they feel is important and let the students select what they study. All students work on diverse, self-selected assignments at a pace of their own. The teachers play the role of facilitators, as they guide students in finding the most suitable methods, resources, or materials of study. 

Teacher-driven philosophies include philosophies about education that emphasize and support the teacher’s role in education as being the most important one. They are vital for the longevity of education and the sustained influence of teachers in the classroom. Such philosophies involve the transfer of knowledge from one generation of teachers to the next. In teacher-centered philosophies, the teacher’s responsibility is to impart determination, compassion for others, respect for authority, a strong work ethic, and sensibility. Teachers and schools are successful when students prove, usually by taking tests, that they have mastered the intended learning objectives.

Essentialism and perennialism are two good examples of teacher-centered philosophies. Essentialism stresses core knowledge in writing, reading, science, math, technology, foreign language, and history. The tools include memorization, lecturing, practice, repetition, and assessment. Today, U.S. public schools have essentialism as a standard model. In an essentialist school, a typical day might have seven periods, where every period makes the students attend a different class. The teachers teach primarily by conducting lectures, during which students are likely to take notes. Then, the students are given practice worksheets or provided with hands-on projects. This is followed by an evaluation of the learning material covered during the entire process. This routine continues for a semester or a year. When the students’ test results show adequate competence, they are promoted to the next class or grade to learn more complex material.

Perennialism is called “culturally conservative,” at times, because it doesn’t integrate multiculturalism, challenge gender stereotypes, or advocate and expose students to technology, as would be expected of contemporary literature. According to perennialists, education should symbolize a prepared effort to make ideas available to students that encourage them to think critically and rationally. It should also direct their thought processes toward the understanding and appreciation of the great works by history’s finest thinkers that surpass time and never become obsolete.

Perennialism is mainly concerned with the significance of mastery of the content and the development of reasoning skills. The perennialists’ viewpoint on education is aptly reflected by the adage that says the more things alter, the more they remain the same. In a perennilaist classroom, skills are developed in a sequential way. For instance, reading, speaking, listening, and writing are focused upon in the early grades to get students in later grades ready to study history, literature, and philosophy.

For teachers, understanding essentialism will help them know and improve their basic teaching skills, while perennialism will let them continue operating in the success of concepts, methods, and best practices that have been used in education over time.

This is a set of beliefs and ideologies commonly held by educators concerning the construction and application of educational systems. Educational philosophies are usually sourced from philosophies from the past that are still valuable in the present day. The information sourced from the past then goes through a process, where it is filtered through reality in order to produce theories and philosophies that are most appropriate for education today. These philosophies can be categorized into three groups, student-driven, society-driven, and teacher-driven philosophies.

There’s another type of classification, according to which four main types of educational philosophies are:

·         Perennialism: This subject-centered philosophy focuses on knowledge that surpasses time. A perennialist educator teaches students to think reasonably and critically while helping them master the content taught. The goal of a perennialist classroom is to develop a well-disciplined and closely organized setting, which helps encourage a lifelong quest for the truth in students.

·         Essentialism: Though this too is a subject-centered philosophy, it’s concerned with teaching basic skills. This philosophy is all about training the mind. The focus of essentialist educators is on teaching a series of progressively complex topics and helping the students move onto the next level. In an essentialist classroom, subjects are focused on the historical perspective of the material world and culture, and move in sequence to help students acquire a solid understanding of contemporary times.

·         Romanticism: This student-centered philosophy’s focus is on differentiation to meet the students’ learning readiness needs. Its five essential characteristics are intuition, imagination, individuality, inspiration, and idealism. Since this philosophy believes knowledge is acquired through intuition rather than deduction, schools founded on romanticism don’t have any set curricula, formal classes, or tests. Instead, students are allowed to decide what they desire to learn. In some cases, they are even expected to take complete responsibility for their learning.

·         Progressivism: According to progressivists, education should focus on the whole student rather than the teacher or content. Progressivism stresses that students should examine ideas by active experimentation. This educational philosophy promotes active learning and believes it to be rooted in the learners’ questions that crop up through their experiences with the world. In a progressive classroom, the students are thinkers and problem-solvers who find meaning through their individual experiences in the physical and cultural context. The content for such classes is based on and derived from students’ questions and interests. Progressive teachers in these classes provide experiences to help their students learn by doing.