Philosophy of Education
My Philosophy of Education Wordle
Download my Philosophy of Education (PDF).
Over the summer (2011) I took a class called Learning, Power, and Pedagogy. During this class I completely rewrote my personal philosophy of education. Here is the text of 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). My purpose as an educator is not to narrate or lecture understanding, where students are seen as containers to be filled; but I need to design experiences that give students the opportunity to develop their own understanding. The school and classroom environment should be one that fosters the questioning of assumptions and validates multiple realities (Freire, 1994; Hinchey, 2010). School should not be a place of hegemonic conformity where students are required to abandon their native language and culture. School and classroom should be places where the social order is reconstructed and the dominant ideology is rebuilt (Dewey, 1902; McLaren, 2007). School and classroom should be spaces of social and cultural production (Macedo, 2003). The purpose of schooling then becomes the avenue by which students learn that a code of power exists, gain access to the system, change the status-quo, and tackle forms of oppression through action (Delpit, 2006). Through this avenue of school, teacher and students become agents of change in the community, bridging the gap between social institution and the society through activism.
Themes that pervade my praxis include social justice issues and inquiry. The major educational philosophies with which I most identify are Progressivism, Social Reconstruction and Critical Theory. I want my students to address social questions through inquiry, dialogue, and value challenging. I also identify with the Existentialist view of helping students understand and appreciate themselves and others. I want my pedagogy to be one of inclusion built on social equity where people teach each other and everyone pursues their full humanity (Freire, 1994; Macedo, 2003). I want my praxis to be one that empowers others to action based on previous inquiry and reflection (Hinchey, 2010).
References
Antrop‐González, R., & De Jesús, A. (2006). Toward a theory of critical care in urban small school reform: examining structures and pedagogies of caring in two Latino community‐based schools 1. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 19(4), 409-433. doi: 10.1080/09518390600773148
Delpit, L. D. (2006). Other people’s children: cultural conflict in the classroom. New York, NY: New Press.
Dewey, J. (1902). The child and the curriculum. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Freire, P. (1994). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum.
Hinchey, P. H. (2010). Finding freedom in the classroom: a practical introduction to critical theory. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
Macedo, D. P., Dendrinos, B., & Gounari, P. (2003). The hegemony of English. Boulder, CO: Paradigm.
McLaren, P. (2007). Life in schools: an introduction to critical pedagogy in the foundations of education. Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.
North, C. E. (2009). Teaching for social justice?: Voices from the front lines. Boulder, CO: Paradigm.