Without a Meaningful Educational Philosophy Teachers Are Floundering

Philosophy of Education

When the discussion turns to what is a proper philosophy of education -- in order to provide clarity and coherence to the profession of teaching -- one name stands out in the history of American education. That name is John Dewey. There are others too, that have made contributions to the philosophy of education, including Karl Popper, and this paper will review the topic and provide insights into a progressive philosophy of education as well.

John Dewey

Dewey didn't say that unless there is a workable, creative philosophy of education, teachers' work will " ... lack coherence and conviction" and be "vulnerable to a wide range of unwelcome pressures," many of which are not helpful in an educational setting. That was Paula Kinnarney in ED621A (December, 2015), raising very pertinent questions in the context of making the teaching profession relevant to children in today's fast-changing and challenging world. What Dewey did say in his book Experience and Education is that simply imposing " ... adult standards" and adult "subject matter, and methods," in schools is not adequate in terms of stimulating interest among young people (Dewey, 1998).

Teaching the tradition way is "essentially static," Dewey wrote, and a better way is to help students learn through experience; moreover, Dewey's philosophy of education rejected the idea of making students learn from books -- as though books can be a "finished product" -- simply because society cannot put forward the notion that "... the future would be much like the past" (Dewey, 7). On the other hand, Dewey writes on page 12, simply departing from the old way "solves no problems," and while it is not likely that drilling information into students does not help they acquire "special skills," if a more progressive philosophy of education entails giving students experience (rather than books and lecturing teachers), then there should be "clear conceptions of what experience is" (Dewey, 16-17).

Meanwhile, Dewey's theories don't match Karl Popper's somewhat shrill attack on an outdated, boring, and unenlightened educational philosophy, but Dewey and Popper are basically saying the same things. Popper simply had a more dramatic way to attack old theories: " ... attitudes like arrogance, complacency, assumed superiority over others, deference to conformist teaching routines, or any hint of 'know-all' mentality, are enemies of the search for knowledge and truth" (Magee, 1974).

When a teacher is searching for a better way to help students achieve knowledge and truth, that teacher can peruse several philosophical approaches. For example, in Kinnarney's November 12 presentation, there are four approaches: executive, humanist, classicist, and informationist approaches. The executive approach emphasizes efficiency, structure and motivation; the classicist approach obsesses about content, and sophistication, in an ancient Greek context; the informationist approach focuses on community and communication; and the humanist approach emphasizes the role of the learner and provides students with "multiple resources" so a sense of "self-actualization and exploration" can be achieved (Kinnarney, 2015).