Philosophy of Education - Essay Example

Role of education in light of Critical Pedagogy movement Education is the light of any society. Its main purpose is to bring awareness in the aspects of life we face. This role is achieved through in-depth analysis of educational role in our society. Critical Pedagogy is a philosophy in education. It highlights the need for education to be guided by enthusiasm and standard, in helping learners inculcate consciousness of freedom (Malott, 2011:156). The theory ensures that the learner recognizes any totalitarian predisposition and uses his knowledge to reach a practical action. Since the human brain learns through the immediate environment, the philosophy advocates for a fare acquisition of knowledge. The process and channels of learning should be non-aggressive, and in harmony with our consciousness of freedom. The applicability of the theory of critical pedagogy continues to receive new zones and expansions. This is due to daily growth and evolvement of culture. Today’s culture has been highly supportive of giving power to the culturally marginalized and economically disenfranchised students. This school of thought shapes the learners’ responsiveness in perceiving societal programming that is domineering. The culture of schooling should be aimed at shaping our societies positively. The philosophy emphasizes a social order that is founded through; social equality, understanding and accepting its members regardless of race, color, and religion. The role of education in this philosophy is to ensure that learners’ have access to dialogue, critique, and counter hegemony and praxis in the societies which they live in. Such a learner is empowered through his free thinking. This basis transforms the society right from the classroom level to impact the larger political scene. It is done by challenging and hopefully trying to change the unfair social environment (Darder, Baltodano and Torres, 2003:31). Critical pedagogy helps to transform our classroom society. This radical approach towards education seeks to transform oppressive structures in the society. The mostly common ways of doing this is by using liberated and activist approach to learning and teaching. Schools have been used to press on only the class benefit of economic elites in the neglect of non-capitalist classes (Malott and Porfilio, 2011:74). First, education in light of pedagogy should create non-class reproduction systems. The formal education in our schools is too concentrated on the mechanical out put the students. This is the area of controlling scholars through consent. The school of educational philosophy terms this as bourgeois hegemony. This principal dominates any social setting through its premeditated standards like schools, trade unions, churches and the family. As a learner, going through such a system will not lead to any transformation. These social standards tend to narrow scholars into a system of values, behaviors, believes, attitudes and morality (Monchinski, 2010:92). As a result learners reproduce the same social order and the class welfare that rule it. These are organized principles and established world standards that agents of ideology diffuse in every area of life. In a school setting, real transformation should be the emphasized. The instructor should aim at renovating the initial mindset of his learners. He should pass them through a process of learning and relearning to prepare them thoroughly for participation in a democratic society. The major goal of a teacher education is to prepare and mentor individuals into informed citizens in a democratic society. The classroom environment should not embark on re-establishing the existing social norms but its focus should be to prepare the learners for the role of transforming their societies. The education standards should lean towards a social change, which advocates for dynamic citizenship for both the learners and the educator. There should be a rapport between the teaching standards and the philosophical goal of critical pedagogy. The teacher should adhere to the philosophical norms set to empower those whose their voice are silenced as well as the marginalized. A change in learner’s way of perceiving and interpreting his world leads to effective revolution of his society. Successful change and transformation of the learners is dependent on the following system of belief (Darder, Baltodano and Torres, 2003:180). The tutor’s education to the learner should reflect upon the individual’s culture and his lived experience. This gives a clear light about the learner and what kind of society do they live in. The education should impart and develop voice in learners by critically examining the world and society. This empowers the learner to actively interact through a transformative dialogue in the society. As a result, the learner finally can participate in changing the society towards equality for everyone through egalitarian imperatives. Education should be a social transformation machine with the assumption that the existing social codes do not silence nor dominate the system. It should allow self and society examination to establish a worthy foundation of teacher education programme (Malott and Porfilio, 2011:114). Moreover, education enables learners to bring out their actual application of knowledge to the transforming of society. This is the praxis theory (Standish, 2006:163). This line of thought helps to spread the sociology curriculum beyond the classroom level. Critical pedagogy in education attaches decisive connections to the action in the community. In teaching these two philosophies, one cannot fail to realize that pedagogy and curricular policy is a reflection of true democratic goals. This brings clearly the role which education should be performing. The schools have the biggest stake when it comes to molding the society. Social change is triggered by idealistic schooling. The learners are a true reflection of the society and a transformation in them is a change in social stratification. Progressive teachers in our societies have adopted this policy. Their attempt is to inspire a surgical turnaround in the way their students become skilled at. The learner’s knowledge of what democracy is in a society is much helpful. It eliminates inequalities among social classes, drives away the stereotypes of anti-sexist, anti-racist and anti-homophobic classroom based curricular. This helps bring out a totally willed and self thinking student. Critical pedagogy examines on what knowledge is worthy teaching and which one is of no benefit to the transforming of our societies. Arguably, the purpose of our schooling system should be to ensure democracy rather than maintaining the status quo of our society. This is all what education has to do with changing our society. Therefore, teachers should help students be critical thinkers who can promote true democracy. This can be achieved by ensuring critical consciousness is given priority over commercial consciousness, desocialization replacing socialization, challenging student’s withdrawal through giving out participatory course, raising awareness about our thinking and analyzing the society language used daily and inviting learners to engage in breaking the scholastic approach of their life through critical literacy programme. This kind of education system distributes research skills to apply in daily life and it gives us censored information which is useful for investigating power and policy in society. The learners become of impact to the society they live in. critical pedagogy in education is thus about what it does to our life rather than what we should do (Darder, Baltodano and Torres, 2003:92). Furthermore, critical pedagogy in educational philosophy develops a critique perception of life upon the learner. This means whatever the learner perceives is subjected into an insightful approach rather than confessing naivety. In a society that flourishes in inequality, exploitation, oppression and domination, the learner has got an effective systematic analysis of both self and what happens around him. This saves the admission to ignorance and brings light on issues. It is argued that without critical pedagogy in toady’s education, it is a real challenge to reach the transformation required. The learner is well exposed into the world of self thinking and intervention. This helps a lot in unmasking the ideological world. Education which is acquired just for formality is simply a reproduction of the native society. Critical theory tries to allow a liberated and unrestricted approach. Teachers ought to understand that reproduction of the society is heavily catalyzed by power relations within a particular cultural setting. The leaner should be mentored not to subject into conformity nor submit into mediocrity (Malott, 2011:157). The basic reason why schooling came to our societies was to enlighten us and raise our social standards. This means that the existing social order is not rigid but subject to change through our transformed approaches. The uncertainty fatalistic nature of our future does not allow us to succumb to this conditioning. This theory does not call for radical criticism but craves for a top-notch consciousness. The student’s focus on his education should be to reach overtly transformative level of awareness. The learner focuses on solely to doing and seeing better things rather than just settling for doing things better. Our mind’s perception and standards reflect our feasible application of ideas. Critical pedagogy in education advocates for a fully and willing transformed brains. Our habits our minds should not be influenced by assumption that make up the codes of our indigenous societies. We should be the change we want to see and education is the itinerary for such level of transformation. The examination of class exploitation is critical and of equal importance is the consideration of race, ethnicity and gender based oppression if education is to rejuvenate and transform our societies. The area of dialogue (discourse) is another key zone in realizing a transformative education in our societies. Dialogue is the active participation. Critical pedagogy reiterates that dialogue rises above the unadventurous culture of silence. In a classroom setting where the blue print of transformation is traced, dialogue seeks to increase teacher student participation and develop critical social consciousness. Critical democratic hypothesis views education as an on-going, two-way, dialectical process that is assembled around the know-how of the scholar, permitting critical thinking and action to help students grow (Malott, 2011:161). This is where discourse plays the center role. In truly democratic learning institutions, learners are given the liberty, to express their opinions on any subject matter. This creates a conducive background to convey out the true make-up of a learner hence the tutor can be aware of the nature of his students. By expressing themselves, the learner is given an opportunity to build from previous experiences and interests and this helps him to learn and plan for his continuing growth. This acknowledges that teachers are also learners. What the student says should be synthesized by the tutor and help bring the learner into light or affirm his conclusions. A teacher should be conscious, for the exchange between him and the student is what makes up the outside society. To make dialogue effective in transforming our society, the tutor plays the role of a facilitator. There should be no tension between the two parties. As a value of openness, respectful dialogue transforms into a serious inquisition of issues, reason, and a desire for equity. This set of principles serve to guide processes in the field of classroom, school and the entire community in large (Kahn, 2010:56). A dialogue based on reason leads to communicative learning. It is the only medium of critical reflection of our life’s where experience is reflected upon and assumptions or beliefs are questioned. A learner having all this in practice impacts his own society in much a positive way (Kahn, 2010:114). Finally, teachers and learners are researchers, they should graph, put into practice and weigh up actions intended to generate a more sustainable world. Critical pedagogy advocates that dialogue in education is keeping an open mind which in-deed is a virtue. Critical pedagogy helps to transform our classroom society. This radical approach towards education seeks to transform oppressive structures in the society. The mostly common ways of doing this is by using liberated and activist approach to learning and teaching. Schools have been used to press on only the class benefit of economic elites in the neglect of non-capitalist classes. 2. Philosophy of Education The vision of education in terms of its definitions, goals and meaning is in real essence the philosophy of education. It is the academic field of applied philosophy. Its thinking and applicability in the field of education is to give an empirical and scientific approach to educational problems (Pring, 2005:154). Philosophy of education is both part of field of education and field of applied philosophy. This field tries to study what constitutes upbringing and education by drawing its conclusions such as speculative, prescriptive and analytic approaches. Philosophy of education is a normative educational theory that infuses together pedagogy, curriculum, learning theory and the purpose of education. The purpose of schooling, the teacher’s role, and what should be taught and by what methods are the answers that this school of thought answers. Educational learning occurs in classroom setting where two factors have to ply part; the teacher and the student. The beliefs of every school and those of the teacher influence greatly on how students are taught. Educational approach is shaped by four main philosophies, which are embedded largely in the learner as well as in the teacher. These include; perennialism, progressivism, social reconstructionists and essentialism (Darder, 2003:198). The student centered philosophies and those of the teacher, though different, they work together in a classroom setting to determine pedagogically what should be learned and how best should it be learnt. First, perennialism is one of the key philosophies which have greatly influenced our education systems. It is a teacher centered philosophy which is controlling in nature. This concept emphasizes the values and knowledge of education which have lasted in educational history (Darder, 2003:140). As the perennialists emphasize on this concept, the aim of this educational approach is to inform students about archaic facts about education. The teacher has to emphasize upon the students the relevance of these truths in education and the role that play even today. It is a conservative approach as the learners only heed to what history has to offer. The pioneers of this concept claim that the purpose of education is to guarantee that the learners get hold of and comprehend the grand thoughts of education from western evolution. These ideas are universal truths in any approach towards education and have withstood the test of time. They are acknowledged due to the belief that they can solve any challenging educational concept in our today’s era. These great archaic manuscripts carry vast knowledge. Learners are expected to develop their understanding in order to comprehend what underlies the human knowledge (Blake, 2006:195). Periodically, this methodology of learning is one sided since learners play the role of passive listeners because of the little they can question. Education ground for this concept of perennialism is the fact that these ideas are considered as everlasting enduring truths which learners should be drilled through (Darder, 2003:157). The perrennialists argue that human beings are perennial being and these unchanging concepts are critical to pass them through educational system. By inculcating them in our understanding of education, we develop our minds since we are rational beings. The schooling system helps us acquire knowledge through cultivation of these concepts. This is the most worthwhile concern in educational philosophy. The educational benefit of approach on education towards learners is that its center of attention is attaining universal cultural literacy. In this, the decent human kind accomplishments are brought into light. Educationists tend to trace educational philosophies back in times of great men like Socrates and Plato. Educational perennialism teaches things that are everlasting and are universally coded. This is because the most important concepts development our human capacity. Absorbing these concepts in today’s education sector carries the teaching of principals rather than facts. The main focus is purely teaching the act of reasoning, wisdom and liberal arts (Darder, 2003:165). Moreover, educational philosophy stresses on the principle of progressivism. This approach is purely student centered. The learner here is at the center of the educational process. The philosophy banks on the concept that whatever is being passed on to the students’ should be relevant. The significance of the information helps the learner to comprehend and grasp the content (Baltodano, 2003:206). This curriculum which is taught in schools revolves around the learner’s personal experiences, interests and their needs. While delivering, the teacher’s focus is entirely on the child. This isolates the learners’ away from the content or the teacher and they feel the whole process is made for them hence it becomes easy to figure out the content. Since humans are social animals, this theory embarks on involving learners into real life situations as the teacher tries to pass on knowledge. The practical applicability of this philosophy is observing the way a small child learns. The maturing of the child seems to follow a certain process. Unless these processes are keenly mastered by the child, a development and growth disorder may accrue. This analogy is closely related on the way we learn in classroom situations. During delivery of the content, the teacher ought to observe some processes which aids the learner to have a grip of the content (Pring, 2005:112). This is realistic through the following processes: The teacher should create an awareness of the problem to the learners. The teacher follows by defining and elaborating the question of study to learners. With the students’, they should propose a hypothesis to try solve the problem. The teacher and the learners should aid each other in evaluating the consequences of the proposed hypothesis citing fro past experiences and experimentations. Testing the likeliest outcomes. This process is the required active experimentation which should happen in a classroom setting. Progressivism makes the learner a problem solver and an autonomous thinker in dealing with educational course work. Through this participatory learning procedure, the learners’ dig out for relevance in their cases of study by relying on their own experiences in the substantial and literary contexts. Educationists press that the curriculum should be derived from student’s interests and questions. This philosophy of education is vastly applicable in fields of education that deal with the study of matter and events at first hand (Baltodano, 2003:176). A lasting impression and understanding is mastered on how one came to know about the case study as compared to other philosophies in educational approach. The line of thought for this school was to ensure freedom and democracy in educational institutions. They aimed at reaching a shared decision making forum, teacher-student planning together sand freedom of students to choose the content of study Essentialism is the other approach in the philosophical process of learning. This concept focuses on teaching the essential elements of academics. It also revolves around teaching on knowledge. Majority of schools believe in towering academic standards and a strong core curriculum. This is thesis of essentialism in approaching the education system. The philosophical ground of these pioneers is the universal foundation of awareness that ought to be passed on to the students in such a disciplined mode (Baltodano, 2003:106). It is a strictly a conformist approach that leaves the learner as a passive receiver of knowledge. The learning areas surrounds upon the intellectual standards that the earner should target his schooling. This means that only academic triumph is the core virtue in such a system. The learner students are taught a fully confined content and are subjected to a certain standard through internal assessments. It is an inflexible program though it is subject to change. Hard work, respect for authority and discipline are the philosophies which essentialism advocates. Students are taught basics such as reading, writing, speaking, and how to figure out clearly. The learners develop their instincts through this process where the teacher’s role is to monitor the gradual growth in the process of learning. The non-productive instincts in a student are examined so as the teacher can help his learners overcome them. This ensures gradual development in the learning though the process is too mechanical. This philosophy builds out scholars who are taught on moral standards expected of them in the society and the intellectual heights they should reach. Schooling is geared towards making the learners valuable members of the society (Dhawan, 2005:210). In conclusion, educational philosophy also aims at creating a revolutionalised society. Addressing social questions and the need for creating a better society through education is the Reconstructionism theory in educational viewpoint (Barrow, 2006: pg 94). The curriculum aims at achieving a social change through the learners who graduate and initiate the required social reforms. Just like the path taken by critical pedagogy, the reconstructionism theory believes the school process of acquiring education leads to self awareness among the people. This in turn changes people’s perception and thus they work towards creating a new social order that can suit them. Feasible aspects in our society today like poverty, crime, and classism are some of the social imbalances that led to launching of this philosophical theory (Pring, 2005:48). They believed that if the society is to be changed, education would be at the fore-front in enlightening people. This theory is the most functional and successful approaches educationists had established. Today, education is still the vehicle through which human nature applies to alter the social status we live in. In this line of thought, the learner must acquire knowledge to invent and re-invent their world. Educational course should not be a process of banking knowledge to learner’s mind but it should be a tool for dialogue and social consciousness (Barrow and Wood, 2007:72). Reconstructionists believe that the curriculum ought to concentrate on student experience. It also helps to address the social problems the world faces today. This philosophy of education theory is the mechanism through which hunger, inequality, international terrorism, and other social vices can be addressed. In a classroom setting, the students if well guided will construct their own understanding of the world. Hence, education in the light of this philosophical approach is geared towards empowering learners to apply practically what they learn and be the change for their societies. Bibliography Barrow, R and Wood, R., 2007. An Introduction to Philosophy of Education. London: Routledge. Barrow, R., and Woods, G., 2006. Introduction to Philosophy of Education. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis. Blake, N., 2006. The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Education. Oxford: Blackwell Publication. Carr, W., 2007. The RoutledgeFalmer Reader in Philosophy of Education. London: Routledge. Darder, A. Baltodano, M. and Torres, R., 2003. The Critical Pedagogy Reader. RoutledgeFalmer: London. Dhawan, M., 2005.Philosophy Of Education. New Delhi India: Gyan Publishing House. Kahn, R., 2010. Critical Pedagogy, Ecoliteracy, & Planetary Crisis: The Ecopedagogy Movement. Peter Lang. Malott, C. S., 2011. Critical Pedagogy and Cognition: An Introduction to a Postformal Educational Psychology. London: Springer. Malott, S., and Porfilio, B., 2011. Critical Pedagogy in the Twenty-First Century: A New Generation of Scholars. North Carolina: IAP. Monchinski, T., 2010. Education in Hope: Critical Pedagogies and the Ethic of Care. Newyork: Peter Lang. Pring, R., 2005. Philosophy of Education: Aims, Theory, Common Sense and Research. New york: International Publishing Group. Read More