Educational Philosophy Reflection

Deciding that I wanted to be a teacher didn’t take much effort; deciding what kind of teacher I want to be however, takes much more thought. There are numerous educational philosophies, most of which can be traced back to one of four major perspectives: idealism, realism, pragmatism, and existentialism. All of these philosophical systems have an impact on educational thought; however, I find it hard to choose

There are five main philosophies that describe education: Essentialism (the back-to-basics approach which strives to teach students the essentials), Progressivism (which stresses individuality), Perennialism (which is the teaching of philosophies that have been around for hundreds of years), Existentialism (which give the students the choice of when to study and when not to), and Behaviorism (which lets teachers use reinforcement to achieve the desired behaviors which need to be used in the class room). Essentialism was the main philosophy used in earlier classrooms, and should be adopted back into the classrooms of today.

Throughout education there are six main philosophies to take into consideration, and they are as followed. From a teacher centered classroom approach they include Essentialism, Behaviorism, and lastly Positivism. In a student centered classroom approach they are Progressivism, Humanism, and Constructivism. What do these terms mean? Essentialism is and educational philosophy that there is a common core of information and skills that an educated person must have. Behaviorism is a psychological theory and educational philosophy that asserts that behaviors represent the essence of a person and that all behaviors can be explained. A person acts the way they do for a reason. Finally positivism is a social theory and educational philosophy that limits truth and knowledge to what is observed and measured. These are all important for a teacher to take into consideration. Progressivism is an educational philosophy that emphasizes that ideas should be tested by experiments and that learning is better developed in questions developed by the learner. Humanism is an

As I progress through the module my knowledge of critical pedagogy continues to deepen, thus, my teacher led research continues to unfold. To a critical educator, knowledge acquired is never neutral or objective, but structured (McLaren, 2007). Onotologically speaking, critical educators view knowledge as historically and socially routed and this is reflected within a school setting. There are many different power relationships within a school setting, and this is an important factor in critical theory. To critical educators, problems are caused by the social interaction between the individual and society or through different power relationships (Scotland, 2012). Knowledge is socially constructed and I think this is the most prominent way my research project

In the education world, the topic of critical pedagogy will be introduced to many. Before one can discuss critical pedagogy, one must know the meaning of it. Critical pedagogy is known to many as the study of oppression in education. It includes how issues of sex, race, gender, culture, and other social factors shape education. Critical pedagogy is also known by many as how teaching and learning takes place. An example of critical pedagogy is when students are able to ask why and respond or challenge questions that are asked in a free manner. When thinking of critical pedagogy, one must think of going beyond the first level of the meaning of a word, topic, or issue.

There are two educational philosophies that influence the way I want to teach in my own classroom. Essentialism and progressivism correspond to my beliefs. They both represent the values that I hold important when coming to running my future class. These philosophies interconnect to form the view of the best educational philosophy for me.

Norms and values are a reflection of society’s standards of behavior. Since society evolves from each generational perspective, the “norm” is continuously changing. As a result, the rising adults have a grave influence on how the world will evolve into the next generation. What we teach our students today will reflect the success of our future. How we, as teachers, get our messages across will definitely influence the student’s ability to apply that knowledge. From my experiences and what I have encountered I intend to incorporate the Pragmatic and Idealistic philosophies into my classroom, based on my predictions on how to be a successful teacher.

Education is viewed differently for everyone, some think it is the easiest thing to accomplish, others cannot last more than half an hour in a classroom without feeling lost. In my own experience, I bit off more than I could chew when I decided to take AP Language. I went into my junior year thinking I was going to be an amazing student and stay on top of my assignments and once they started stacking my grade started falling. I thought the class wasn’t going to be a challenge for me because I left my sophomore honors class with an A. Boy was I wrong, half of the time the teacher would blow my mind with knowledge then leave me in a “what just happened” mental state. I wasn’t really grasping what the teacher was saying. It was not the teacher’s fault I just didn’t pick up what she was putting down it was like my mind was shutting down. I got to point where I wanted to drop the class. I would be in my room trying to think of ways I could drop the class and still stay on track for my honors diploma. I finally had the guts to go to my counselor to switch classes,but by that time it was too late. My idiotic prideful self didn’t want to go in and get help. until my grade dropped to a low C. Then I had to choose between life and pride, because my mom wouldn’t let me see the light of day if I brought home a C. When I left the counselor's office, I thought all hope was lost there was no way in hell I was going to get an A or B in the class. Until Mrs. Cannaday threw a rainbow into

My path to the education field relied heavily on the context in which I grew up, and the demographic environment had a bigger hand in that decision than I probably considered at the time. Throughout my elementary years, I moved a few times. The schools I was attending were more or less similar to one another despite the fact that, as my dad got better the better jobs that were moving us around, we were living in somewhat increasingly better school districts. They were all rated somewhat well by their respective states, predominantly white, and governed by the concerns of upper-middle class school districts (i.e., flash over substance; the latest technology, new classroom equipment, impressive school productions and functions, etc.) By the time I was in fifth grade though, we had settled back into our hometown, and I was finally able to spend more than two years in a row at the same school even if most of the ones before had not been all that distinguishable from one another.

Education is indubitably vital to becoming a great person, who can articulate themselves efficiently. Having a plethora of intelligent family members, education is always a topic of discussion when both sides of my family is around. From report cards to GPA’s, words of excitement always fill the room with warm rays of compliments. Even with the notion of needing to keep my grades up, I sometimes make mistakes, causing me to get an earful from my mother and father. With my own self-motivation to be the best I can be, my grandfather plays a big key in wanting to keep my grades up and succeed. Throughout everything I do he's always been and is willing to give a helping hand. I reflect his traits to help become the best I can possibly be.

When I was younger and in elementary school, I did not care about my grades at all. My parents would try to get me to study and I just did not care anything about it. It wasn’t until I became a little older and realized how important an education is that I started trying to do better. Ban Ki-moon states that “Education promotes equality and lifts people out of poverty. It teaches children to become good citizens. Education is not just for a privileged few, it is for everyone. It is a fundamental human right” (qtd. In Brainy Quote). Devon Brown, in the film The Boys of Baraka, reminds me so much of myself in the way that he saw things in life and the time periods in his life that those views changed. My family has played a major role in encouraging me to succeed in school, they have motivated me to do my best, and taught me the things they think is the most important to helping me to become the best me possible.

Every since the start of high school, I have been following news articles. News about economics, political matters, terrorist movements etc. and it has started to make me see things in a different light. I choose Education Inequality as my research topic because lately I have noticed how much school and education has made an impact on my life. Education has led me down an advanced track for all my classes, it has provided me with an amazing group of intelligent friends that push me to do excel in everything that I do, it has also shown me that I am privileged.

I come from a country where houses are made by hand and people are made by their social class. Being born and raised in Uzbekistan, I have learned many life lessons. Growing up, I was the only child of my mother who raised me alone while she worked two jobs and studied to complete her doctorate in psychology. My mother lived every day with courage, strength, integrity, humility, and determination, paving the perfect example for her son. Being young, I did not understand the depravity with which people in Uzbekistan lived their daily lives; however, looking back I appreciate the hard work my mother put into every aspect of our lives to give me the opportunities I have today. Both disparity and hardship fall onto the hardest workers because of the injustices riddling the social infrastructure: some of the brightest minds were held to lower status jobs whereas less skilled individuals climbed the social ladder on their fathers’ backs. My mother fought through these inequities with me at her side to bring us into a better life.

Since taking my first few educational courses in education, I have realized that my philosophy on education changes as I learning more about the profession I have entered. Every time I think I have come to a final belief statement, I learn something new about teaching and sometimes the things I learn causes me to alter my philosophy. Therefore, I will share with you what I believe about teaching and what I’ve learned at this point.

To me education is a process in which one goes through to learn about the world and develop skills in which to utilize in future activities. These future activities may include work, but if we enter a jobless society, that isn’t necessarily the case.