104562922 philosophical perspectives on education

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ES 402

Philosophical Perspectives on Education

Introduction

With this assignment, I am going to discuss the meaning of education, the teacher and

the concepts of professionalism and teacher competence, and also I am going to be

discussing what type of teacher that I want to be. The educational philosophers that I

am going to discuss throughout the paper are those of Plato, Jean-Jacques Rousseau

and John Dewey. The elements of morality and reasoning will feature prominently

throughout the paper, they will be the elements that will guide the paper. I will keep

the introduction short as word count dictates.

Part 1: The Meaning of Education



“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire” (W.B. Yeats).

For the meaning of education to be discussed, we must first attempt to define

education. The first guideline in the assignment brief says that firstly, we should try to

define the subject matter of education; but I feel that to define something is to limit it,

and education must be limitless in its entirety. But for the sake of the assignment, I

shall try to illustrate and articulate what I believe to be the meaning of education.

This is not easily achieved as different people would see education as the learning of

a new skill, some might see education as training for a marathon, and others may see

it as the pursuit of science, or the pursuit of the moral ideal.

“Education is a social process. Education is growth. Education is, not a preparation

for life; education is life itself” (John Dewey).

For me, education is the pursuit of any type of knowledge, knowledge being any type

of facts, theory etc. It is also the pursuit of a superior moralistic society, or at least it

should be. The varied perspectives of education and the many facets of philosophy

make the philosophy of education not easily definable.

This is a very broad definition of education, but it’s a foundation from which we can

build in the paper. The meaning of education, for me, is simple. Education is the sole

purpose of any individual in the world. Education is what distinguishes us from the

thousands of other species on the planet. Education makes us more moral, reasonable,

and harmonious social beings, and this was the view for the theorists that I have

chosen to write about, as we will see presently. Education and schooling differ in a

number of areas but are infinitely synonymous with each other. Education, for me, is

an ongoing process that humans undertake throughout their lives. Education is the

pursuit of knowledge, while schooling is what happens when in the social institution



of a school. “Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned

in school” (Albert Einstein). This means that education teaches individuals how to

live morally and reasonably in a harmonious society, it teaches us how to conduct

ourselves and enhances our life skills. Schooling, for me, is what happens formally in

the classroom and, to some extent, on the playground. Both are equally as important

as the other.

I am now going to talk about the philosophy of education, in a broad sense, and I will

give an overview of the philosophical contributions made to education.

I am going to outline 3 of the major contributions from 3 great philosophers: Plato,

Rousseau and Dewey. I am going to focus on Plato’s moral contribution to education,

Rousseau’s contributions in the 18th century and John Dewey’s contribution in the late

20th and early 21st century.

Plato (428 – 348 BC)

“Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous”.

As this is a short essay, I will not go into detail about Plato’s academy which was a

school founded by Plato, and neither will I go into his life’s works or biography. I will

focus mainly on the contribution/aspect of education that I have chosen. According to

Plato, philosophy and education were of the same discipline. Plato’s contribution to

education is outweighed only by his contribution to politics. Plato wanted to produce

good, virtuous and moral characters. This was one of the bases of his educational

belief. Plato wanted to create and develop individuals (guardians) that would be

upstanding moral figures of reasoning in the state. “Any man may easily do harm, but

not every man can do good to another” (Plato).



Plato proposed that education be compulsory for individuals until the age of 20,

students would undertake studies in the areas of mathematics, science, politics and

philosophy. As was said earlier, Plato placed important emphasis on morality in

education. Plato saw that the ‘good’ of the individual was to be nurtured, and this in

turn contributed to the good of the hole.

I would be an advocate of Plato’s approach to education in regards to morality. I

believe that the child should be nurtured in a moralistic manner to produce moralistic

and reasoned beings. I will discuss this further in the final section of the paper.

Jean-Jacques-Rousseau (1712 – 1778)

“Make the citizen good by training and everything else will follow”.

Rousseau leaned heavily on Plato’s philosophy of education. Except he rejected

Plato’s ideal idea of the perfect society of moralistic beings, as he said that society

was in a decayed state and was too corrupt. Rousseau saw children as perfectly

designed beings with little or no extrinsic corruptness, and infinite intrinsic virtuosity

and curiosity, but he was aware that society is a majorly influencing factor in the

development of the child, and he was well aware that society was (and is) a corrupt

environment. In his book, Emile, he proposed an educational method that extracted

the child from society and educating him/her away from society. This method was

much like Plato’s. We can see similarities with the boarding schools of this day.

Where he and Plato were congruent was in the area of morality. Morality was again

the basis of Rousseau’s educational creed. “The noblest work in education is to make

a reasoning man, and we expect to train a young child by making him reason!”

(Rousseau, 1762). Morality and reasoning provided the basis of education.



Through the moral education of the child, we can excel towards a harmonious and

nature embracing society. Again, I would advocate Rousseau’s method, and would

advocate the theory that children should be taught to reason.

John Dewey (1859 – 1952)

“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”

John Dewey did a lot for modern education. He pioneered, along with others, the idea

of pragmatism. In his book, Democracy and Education, Dewey argued that students

should strive for self realisation and that the task of education was to help students

develop the virtues and character that would help them to attain self realisation. The

notable differentiation between the previous philosophers and that of Dewey was that

Dewey’s philosophy of education centred more on the teacher than the student. His

work centred more on the teacher’s ability to create an environment in which students

could interact. We will not go into specifics of how to create such an environment, as

word count does not permit. The meaning of education for Dewey was the goal of self

realisation. In his essay, my pedagogical creed, Dewey says that school is a social

institution, first and foremost. He says that “it (school) is a social necessity because

the home is the form of social life in which the child has been nurtured and in

connection with which he has had his moral training” (Dewey, 1897). `He goes on to

say that “it is the business of the school to deepen and extend his sense of the values

bound up in his home life”. Dewey felt that it was the schools job to ensure that the

child is educated in a way that enhances his/her moral nature, and I would be an

advocate of this.

Also, on another note, closely related I feel. I believe that education is not about

filling students heads with limitless amounts of information, but of awakening in



students a civil and harmonious nature that is inherit in every young child. I believe

that student’s interests and desires should be guided by educators. This view would be

advocated by Paulo Freire and John Dewey, who campaigned against the ‘banking’

concept in education. The banking concept saw children as empty bank accounts

waiting to be filled.



Part 2: The Teacher

Already we have had an overview of Plato, Rousseau and Dewey and their moral

contributions to education. Now we shall look at ‘the teacher’.

Teacher competency is the ability of the educator to be knowledgeable and to be able

to contribute to the development of the child, morally, reasonably, and thus socially. It

is the ability to be knowledgeable in your area of expertise, to be an expert in their

subject field. It is my belief that individuals that choose to go into teaching regard

knowledge and the thirst for knowledge as imperative, and this permeates into their

teaching. They must be able to deliver the curriculum effectively so that students can

benefit fully from lessons. It is also, for me, the ability of the educator to contribute to

the social development of the child, to nurture the student’s curiosity for knowledge

and to be able to empathise with the student. Teachers must ensure that he/she should

cultivate mutual respect and tolerance among his/her students.

Teachers are transmitters of morals in our society. In this way, to be teacher

competent means to be an example of the morals and ethics of society. Karl Menniger

once said that “What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches”.

Teaching competency also means that the teacher must be organised, co-operative,

possess good interpersonal skills, display patience, exhibit confidence, etc.

Being teacher competent means the combination of the above skills, with the ability to

contribute to the social development of the child and the distribution of the curriculum

somewhere in between! As we can see, being competent in the teaching profession is

extraordinarily demanding, but necessary.

Teacher Professionalism

Professional teachers, described by Wise (1989) are those “who have a firm grasp of

the subjects they teach…they are able to analyse the needs of their students for whom



they are responsible. They know the standards of practice in their profession. They

know that they are accountable for meeting the needs of their students”.

Kramer (2003) says that there are 3 elements of teacher professionalism that can be

recognised: behaviour, attitude, and communication. These 3 elements cover a broad

range of areas that relate back to teacher professionalism, from being on time to

dressing neatly to co-operating with your colleagues. What always comes to mind

when thinking of teacher professionalism are appearance and punctuality.

Professionals in the teaching sector must ensure that they present themselves neatly

and should be in work continuously and on time. To be professional is to strive for

excellence and continuous improvement, to form relationships beyond the classroom,

to be courageous and display patience.

Part 3: My Personal Philosophy

What type of Teacher do I want to be?

This paper has centred around the element of morality in the teaching profession. I

have chosen morality for a number of reasons. Firstly it is my belief, as it was of Plato

and Rousseau and to a lesser extent Dewey, that education should aim to develop the

child morally and reasonably. These great thinkers and educational enthusiasts put

morality and reasoning at the forefront of their pedagogical doctrine. And with good

reason. These philosophers saw that morality and reasoning were key to developing

individuals that could contribute to the development of a harmonious society.

The type of teacher that I will strive to be is the type of teacher that ingrains in

students a deep conscious and moral high ground, with good reasoning skills. It is my

view that the current educational system oppresses educators in the sense that their

creativity is smothered and they are told to teach just the curriculum and nothing else.



I want to be an inspirational teacher. A teacher that ignites in students a thirst for

knowledge and a moral high ground. This is the reason why I am striving to become

an educator. The one teacher that stood out for me in all my years in public schools

was the teacher that ignited in me a love for literature, he was passionate about the

subject and he was determined and knowledgeable and approachable. He could

empathise with the students, he was never degrading, he respected the students, and

everybody admired him for it. Much of the literature and poetry and everything that

we did in the classroom I have forgotten, but the feeling that I got when I was in his

class I will never forget. The two quotes that stick out in this paper are the quotes

from WB Yeats and Karl Menniger which correspond to this educator.

When speaking of morality and reasoning, it is pertinent that values be discussed.

What type of values do I want to impart to my students? The values that I will seek to

impart would be equality, open mindedness, inclusion, imagination. I want my

students to enter and leave my class with a thirst for knowledge and a thirst for the

pursuit of high morals and reasoning. Another element of the type of teacher tha I

want to be is that of the lifelong learner. From my 3 years in this degree, I realise that

educators must be continuously improving their skills and practice. As an educator I

will strive for this continuous improvement. Plato was also and advocate of lifelong

learning.

To sum up, my personal philosophy of education corresponds closely with that of the

philosophers that I have discussed and to a certain extent other philosophers such as

Socrates. Socrates believed that real learning came through the constant questioning

and analysis of our beliefs through dialogue and as a future educator I will seek to

work through a dialogue with my students. I digress, word count stifles.



Conclusion

With this paper, I was asked to attempt to respond to a number of questions regarding

the philosophy of education, questions such as what does it mean to be educated, is

there a difference between schooling and education, questions about teacher

competency and professionalism, and finally what type of teacher that I want to be. I

believe that I have responded to these questions adequately and that the sections were

seamless and linked in with each other and flowed. The paper centred around morality

in education, as it is my personal belief that educators should seek to cultivate

morality and reasoning in the child, as we have seen.



Reference and Bibliography

Dewey, J (1897). My Pedagogic Creed. School Journal vol. 54.

Kramer (2003) through Tichenor et Tichenor (2004). Understanding Teachers

Perspectives on Professionalism. Professional Educator, 27, 89 – 95.

Rousseau, J.J. (1979). Émile. New York: Basic Books.

Wise (1989) through Tichenor et Tichenor (2004). Understanding Teachers

Perspectives on Professionalism. Professional Educator, 27, 89 – 95.

104562922 philosophical perspectives on education

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