Over the summer semester I took a class at Kennesaw State University called Learning, Power, and Pedagogy. During this class, I had to redraft my philosophy of education, a common occurrence for education majors. This time the process was different though. I completely rewrote my philosophy! I wasn’t planning to, but as I was introduced to new educational theories, practices, pedagogies, and philosophers, I had no choice. Below is my new philosophy of education:
I originally became an educator because a friend told me I would make a great teacher and because I had a love for social studies. I chose to teach ESOL because of my love for people and the diversity of their cultures. At one time I wanted to teach aboard, but by teaching ESOL, the world comes to my classroom. I am motivated as an educator to learn about my chosen profession because I am a life long learner, have a passion for Teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), and I am critical pedagogist. From my praxis as an educator I want my students to be critical questioners, develop higher levels of thinking, use their creativity, and to be active learners- discovering knowledge for themselves. As a teacher, I desire student relationships to be made up of caring, combined with the nurturing of empowerment, where I am involved in my student’s lives inside and outside of the classroom. I want to be vulnerable with my students and emotionally connected. Personally I believe my vocation as an educator is one of facilitator, guide, and co-learner (Gonzalez, 2006; North, 2009).The most important thing about knowledge is that it is not facts, but instead is the meaning that we assign to facts. Knowledge is a matter of interpretation for the teacher as much as it is for the students. Knowledge is best gathered through inquiry, reflection, and then action (Freire, 1994; Hinchey, 2010). In the classroom, language is the basic resource that students use to gain access to knowledge (Macedo, 2003). This is especially true in the ESOL classroom. Questioning by the student or the teacher is not wrong, rather it is essential to the learning environment.
According to my personal pedagogy the purpose of school is to engage students in problem-posing, where students become teachers and teachers become students (Freire, 1994).