Philosophy of Education
Erin O’Grady-Godbey
Central New Mexico Community College
The motivational author William Arthur Ward once said, “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” This statement begs the question, what separates the mediocre teachers from the superior or great ones? I would argue that most people do not aim to only be mediocre in whatever profession they pursue, especially not one so time consuming as teaching. That is not to say, however, that there is a shortage of less than inspiring teachers working throughout the nation’s schools. While there may be several factors that contribute to a teacher being labeled as merely “mediocre” versus “great”, I think that one factor that has the potential to prevent myself from falling into the mediocre zone is having a thoroughly examined, critically reflective, and well-articulated philosophy of education from which I can reference throughout my teaching career. At the root of any personal philosophy are one’s core beliefs and values. These beliefs and values, which I have come to hold as true, are a direct result of my own experiences in education both as a student and as a teacher. Although developed through careful reflection of my own experiences, this philosophy is largely based on ideals. This is not to say that I will be working in an ideal setting with ample support from administration and parents, or that every child in my class will be a model student. However, without some level of idealism in my personal philosophy of education, how could I strive to be a great teacher?
In an effort to articulate my educational philosophy in an approachable manner I have developed a set of belief statements. These statements will not only guide me as I explore the depths and complexities that shape my philosophy, but are also a direct reflection of the values I hold with regards to my role as a teacher. I feel that by organizing my philosophy of education in this manner, I will be able to easily reference these statements once I am working in the classroom and assess whether my everyday teaching adheres to my philosophy. Thus, my statement of beliefs and the subsequent reasoning behind those beliefs are as follows:
I believe in empowering students, that every student has a desire to acquire knowledge and that it is my duty to facilitate them on their educational journey.
I believe that learning is a lifelong endeavor and that the roles of “student” and “teacher” are never set in stone.
I believe that a learner cannot simply be defined by their race, gender, ethnicity or any other social or cultural differences and, that because the roles of “teacher” and “student” are interchangeable, that those differences can be an asset to their fellow students and community.
I believe that the school, its teachers and students are part of a larger community and therefore must draw from that community’s resources of knowledge and also contribute to the betterment of that community.
I believe that in order to become well rounded, critically thinking, productive members of society, a student’s curriculum needs to be rich in both traditional subjects, such as math and literacy, but also in subjects that affect their everyday life and that will ultimately help them navigate the world in which they live.
I believe in being accountable to my students, their families, the community and myself. This means continuously being guided by my core values and never giving up on or dismissing a student because they struggle to connect with other students or myself.
Before delving into my personal beliefs and the educational philosophy I hold that has been influenced by them, I must first address my socialization and how the personal experiences I have acquired have shaped my core values, beliefs, and ultimately the teacher I aspire to become. While the importance of education and schooling was always stressed in my family, I never saw the process or my almost effortless success in the educational system as anything but the norm. I now realize that because of my family’s socioeconomic status, the accessibility and comfortability both my parents held with the school system, as well as the community we lived in and the schools I attended, have played a major factor in the positive views I have come to hold towards schooling and the education system. I was raised in Albuquerque and attended schools that continue to be perceived as the “best” in the city. I have learned that what the term “best” actually means in this instance is that these schools consistently have high graduation rates, are comprised of students who come from privileged families and who are adequately supported and prepared to succeed in school. With this in mind, I recognize that my own experiences and successes are not a commonality among all students and that my future students will likely not share a similar socialization pattern with myself. As I have entered into the field of education through coaching swimming, I continue to be surrounded by children who come from privileged families, with parents who have the resources to express the importance they place on education in their children’s lives. I acknowledge that this is simply the nature of the sport. While swimming has provided me the opportunity to hone my interactions with children in the role of their coach or teacher, I must realize that this environment is not representative of the student population I will encounter as I will likely enter the education system through working at a public school. In defining my philosophy of education, it is important not only to address my set of beliefs but also realize that teaching is an extremely personal profession. Through the personal aspect of the profession I must develop an understanding of how my own background and socialization will ultimately impact how I teach my students knowing that those students will undoubtedly come from differing backgrounds. Having addressed issues of my socialization I can now progress onto exploring my set of core beliefs.
I believe in empowering students, that every student has a desire to acquire knowledge and that it is my duty to facilitate them on their educational journey.
I believe in every student, this is why I have a desire to teach. It is a simple statement but when it comes down to it, this is what motivates me to work with children. I believe that every student has the ability to set goals and achieve academically. I believe, like every other aspect in life, they are in complete control of their educational achievement. With this belief in mind, it is my job to guide them and teach them how to navigate through the environment of the school system.
I do not agree with people who say that some children simply do not have a desire to learn and acquire knowledge. That is not to say that I feel every student is interested in learning about long division, or the planets of the solar system. I think it is too easy to write off a student who shows lack of interest towards their school subjects as one who cannot, or has no desire to learn. I believe that everyone wants to learn something but that often times students face obstacles that either impede their abilities to learn, or the school system in place does not foster a broad enough curriculum to include their interests. Students from low socioeconomic status are often times not only distracted by stresses from their home life but also may find that their textbooks and perhaps curriculum do not relate directly to their life, as it is geared instead towards students from a different, more mainstreamed background. I think that enabling our students to be successful in school also means that, as teachers, we need to meet them where they are at. Whether that means helping to provide the services they need if they have a learning disability, or developing lessons which engage them and relate to the world in which they live. There is nothing more rewarding for a teacher, in my opinion, than when a child they have been working with has an “aha!” moment and their face lights up because they finally understand a concept. I do not think that there are students out there who are immune to this phenomenon; instead I think they just have not been reached yet. We, as teachers, have to help them be the student they can and want to be. If we do not give them the tools they need to be successful (i.e. meeting them where they are at) how can they be? This may be a far reaching analogy but my husband sometimes gets frustrated with our dog. She is two years old but sometimes still has puppy tendencies, especially if she does not get the attention she needs. My husband feels that she should just simply know how to act regardless of whether or not her needs (i.e. exercise) are being met. I have had many conversations with him about the fact those are her “needs” for a reason and if those needs are not met she is likely to act out. Similarly, children have basic needs to be successful students and if those needs are not met by teachers and other adults involved in their life, how can they be expected to succeed academically?
Every student is a unique individual and therefore will have unique academic interests. I believe that it is my job to facilitate students in discovering where their interests lie and help them in their pursuit of knowledge concerning those interests. For as much as my role is as a teacher, it is equally as a motivator. Because academic achievement in core subjects is a requirement for most teachers, motivation is the key to producing the desired level of achievement in all students. Some students are easily motivated by getting good grades and praise from teachers and parents; others require more creativity on the part of their educators. One such student I worked with last year was highly motivated by music. This student was a fifth grader at Acoma Elementary School, where I was employed as an Educational Assistant. He had an unstable home life that often resulted in him being passed back and forth between parents and grandparents. Although he was not very interested in school, it was the one constant force in his life. He was very smart and usually grasped new concepts quickly; however, they usually did not hold his interest. The one thing that did seem to hold his interest was music. Probably the best thing his (for lack of a better term) deadbeat dad ever did for his son was to buy him a guitar. He loved to play and would dedicate hours and hours to practicing, perfecting every single note and learning countless new songs. By allowing him to bring his guitar to school and incorporate music into his school day as much as possible, his teacher was able to make school bearable (and maybe sometimes enjoyable) for this student. It also gave a valid place within his education to his interest and life outside of school, showing him that the two did not have to exist separately. Music is clearly the force that motivates this student and upon discovering this, his teacher had a much easier time not only coaxing him to do his required schoolwork but also relating the work he produced at school directly to his music. I believe this is an ideal and practical example of blending required curriculum with broad and varying student interests.
I believe that learning is a lifelong endeavor and that the roles of “student” and “teacher” are never set in stone.
While it is my role to educate the students in my class that does not mean that I am immune from the learning process myself, particularly from them. As an aspiring teacher, I have put a high value on education and therefore believe that it is a lifelong endeavor. I feel that continuing my education is vitally important to ensuring that I am the best teacher I can possibly be. I believe that it is also important to discover what my students have to offer in ways of teaching both myself and their fellow students. I believe that because every student has a unique background, they have unique experiences to share. These experiences serve to enrich the classroom environment and the class’ experience as a whole, as everyone in the learning community will ultimately benefit from the sharing of these experiences.
I believe that by giving my students the freedom not only to learn but also to share information and teach their fellow students, they will be able to recognize that they have a valid voice and a stake in their education and community. It is vitally important that students take an active role in their education and I believe that they must be engaged and feel a level of ownership towards the information being exchanged in the classroom in order to do so. Throughout my experiences working in schools, particularly elementary schools, I have been in several classrooms where teachers are utilizing a “student of the week” program. Each week the teacher selects a student who has been consistently working hard, staying on task, or otherwise had a notable week at school. The selected student takes a blank poster board-sized paper home over the weekend which is laid out to look like the front page of a newspaper. There are various questions and sections on the poster for them to fill out, ranging from “favorite food” and “favorite movie” to “who is a hero to you and why?”. Not only is this program an incentive for good behavior but also allows students to share personal aspects of their lives with their classmates. I plan to utilize a similar program in my own classroom. The poster I envision using will also include questions like “what is your favorite family tradition?” and possibly a section for a brief family tree or history so that the poster becomes more like an autobiography. While this will not be the only way in which I incorporate students working in the role of an educator in the classroom, I feel that this is one example of how I will strive to make it a collaborative learning environment for everyone involved.
I believe that a learner cannot simply be defined by their race, gender, ethnicity or any other social or cultural differences and that because the roles of “teacher” and “student” are interchangeable, those differences can be an asset to their fellow students and community.
In today’s society, a multicultural classroom is not just an ideal, it is reality. The term “multicultural education” meant something entirely different when I was in elementary school than what it means today. My multicultural education consisted of celebrating minority members through holidays and specific school days dedicated to honoring other cultures. While I did ultimately learn about minority cultures and their members, it was very impersonal and the process was one of observation and examination, not inclusion. The reality is that we live in a multicultural society and our nation’s schools should be representative of that. As is the case with other subjects, a textbook cannot convey the reality of the various cultures that comprise our society and hence a multicultural education should engage students in a meaningful way.
As I mentioned earlier, I strongly believe that every student has something to offer their classmates and community in terms of their own life experiences. I feel that nowhere is this truer than when discussing a multicultural curriculum. I have come to find that the best representatives of any particular culture are members of that specific culture themselves. In the Journal of Teacher Education article “Preparing For Culturally Responsive Teaching”, Gay (2002) notes that when it comes to teachers’ knowledge on multiculturalism, “What they think they know about the field is often based on superficial or distorted information conveyed through popular culture, mass media, and critics.” (107). I realize that I know very little when it comes to the subject of cultures different than my own because they are simply that, not mine. Culture is deeply personal and therefore best represented by members who truly understand it. It would not be in my students’ best interest for me to stand in front of them and lecture on a culture for which I have limited knowledge or experience with. Instead, I intend to focus my multicultural curriculum on what knowledge and experiences my students have and can use to enrich the classroom environment. By doing so, I aim not only to provide my students with a truer multicultural education but also bridge the gap between students’ culture and the school environment.
As I strive to be a multicultural teacher, I will do my best to always listen to my students and their families, reach out to those families, include them in as much of their child’s education as possible, and be open to every student sharing aspects of their culture and home life in the classroom. Because of the fashion in which I was “multiculturally” educated and socialized, I feel that this will be an area of my teaching in need of constant critical reflection. The idea of viewing students from various cultural backgrounds from a cultural difference perspective versus a cultural deficit perspective I believe to be paramount in my ability to successfully bridge the cultural gap I may face with my students and their families. Because I realize that I am not equipped to adequately teach my students about various cultures and will be relying on students and their families to step in where I fall short, I hope that through their involvement in their student’s multicultural education, an understanding of the high value I place on their cultural perspectives and experiences will arise. If this understanding is achieved, the inevitable cultural gap between students, their families, and myself will be lessened.
I believe that the school, its teachers and students are part of a larger community and therefore must draw from that community’s resources of knowledge and also contribute to the betterment of that community.
Students and their families live within the community and, as such, are an integral part of it. Likewise, I believe that the school is part of the community in which it is located and not a separate institution. Therefore, I believe it is important to facilitate connections between the school and the surrounding community. Just as students have valuable experiences to contribute to the learning environment, so do surrounding community members. Because students live and interact in the community on a daily basis, they must learn to pull from its resources of knowledge. A truly valuable education does not start and stop at the school’s door but instead is enriched by incorporating experiences from the world they live in. In his work My Pedagogic Creed Dewey (1897) states, “I believe that education…is the process of living and not a preparation for future living…the school must represent present life- life as real and vital to the child as that which he carries on in the home, in the neighborhood, or on the playground.”(7). In my opinion, there is no better way to represent present life than to expand the classroom beyond the school’s walls and take learning out into the community.
In turn, I also feel it is important for students to positively contribute to their surrounding community. By positively contributing they are not only serving to better that community but also come to realize that they are an integral part of it. This idea lends itself to the use of project based learning in my classroom. I believe that the use of project based learning, in which students identify a problem or issue in their community for which they have an interest in researching and attempting to find and/or implement a solution, is an opportunity for students to connect with their surrounding community in a concrete way. Again, I believe that in order to be successful in the real world, students have more to learn than what is presented to them in their textbooks. There are so many present day issues that face our society, from global warming and allocation of limited resources to the struggle of socially interacting with people from different cultures in a peaceful manner as communities continue to become less homogenous. I do not believe a textbook can teach them to be the creative, critical thinkers that such pressing issues require them to be. I do, however, believe that project based learning can aid them in this journey.
Due to the nature of my degree program, my undergraduate work was rich in project based learning and through those experiences I have come to hold this type of learning in high regard. My undergraduate degree is in Community and Regional Planning, so the very nature of that field requires close interactions with the surrounding community. Much of the work necessary for that discipline implies collecting data and information from community members and because of that I have come to value the perspective those community members can provide. Because students today spend so much time focusing on in-classroom, textbook work, it seems to me that many students leave the school system without an understanding of what role and responsibilities they hold to their community. My hope is that by incorporating project based learning into my classroom my students will feel more of a connectedness that is necessary for them to be successful in their communities beyond school.
Ultimately, I will let my students guide the direction that project based learning takes in my classroom but I can see possible student interest in areas such as environmental and social issues facing their community, youth and after-school programs, etc.
I believe that in order to become well rounded, critically thinking, productive members of society, a student’s curriculum needs to be rich in both traditional subjects, such as math and literacy, but also in subjects that affect their everyday life and that will ultimately help them navigate the world in which they live.
As previously mentioned, children do not live in a two dimensional world and therefore a two dimensional textbook cannot give them the complete education they need to navigate the world in which they live. Dewey (1897) claims, “…it is impossible to prepare the child for any precise set of conditions. To prepare him for the future life means to give him command of himself…” (6). Hence a student’s curriculum needs to be both applicable to today’s world and enriching in the sense that it will provide them with the tools to critically reflect and develop solutions for the unique issues and problems that they will face in their lifetime. This is not to say that traditional subjects, such as math and reading, do not have a place in today’s classroom. I believe children need a solid base in those subjects from which they can build upon. For example, without a solid base, in addition or subtraction, it may be difficult for them to grasp the concept of the monetary system and how acts such as purchasing food products from the grocery store are necessary for everyday life. In this way I seem to subscribe to the constructivist theory of learning. I believe that students need a solid foundation of knowledge from which they can expand upon through the exploration of a variety of subjects. Just as he asserts that education must be an extension of everyday life, Dewey (1897) also claims, “…that we violate the child’s nature and render difficult the best ethical results, by introducing the child too abruptly to a number of special studies, of reading, writing, geography, etc., out of relation to this social life.” (10). I find truth in Dewey’s statement and believe that for a true understanding of the subjects students are expected to learn in school, we must approach their existing bank of knowledge from the perspective of using it as a foundation from which to build upon. By building upon the existing knowledge they have acquired through their early childhood socialization with a curriculum rich in both traditional subjects and subjects more broadly applicable in today’s society, students will be better equipped to successfully transition from the environment of schooling to that of the real world.
There is no denying that technology plays an ever increasing role in our society. While I agree with Dewey, in that we cannot predict what subjects will benefit our students most in their adult lives, I do believe that enabling them to become technologically literate will serve to benefit them in their futures. Incorporating technology into my classroom will require an ever evolving enrichment of technology on my part. This may prove challenging but I feel the benefits will be immeasurable and is absolutely necessary to enabling my students for success in their futures. Through research, I have discovered that resources exist for creatively incorporating technology in my classroom. Some examples for a technology rich curriculum in the everyday classroom could include, setting up individual student blogs to chronicle their experiences with daily lessons, updating the traditional pen-pal model with video chatting software like Skype, as well as using the internet to draw ideas from and collaborate with other teachers on practitioner research and classroom best practices.
I believe that classrooms, in which students are asked to ignore the technologically rich world they live in, are disconnecting the educational process from the social reality that the students are familiar with and inarguably a part of. This not only negates Dewey’s belief of incorporating a student’s social reality with their schooling but also does not adequately prepare them to navigate the world in which they live, which in my opinion, is one of the foremost reasons we educate our children.
I believe in being accountable to my students, their families, the community and myself. This means continuously being guided by my core values and never giving up on or dismissing a student because they struggle to connect with other students or myself.
Just as no one aims to only be mediocre in their line of work, I also believe that everyone wants to be proud of the work that they do. In order to ensure I can be proud of the work that I will do and the teacher that I will become, I must be accountable. Accountability is necessary to ensure that I am producing the best possible results in my classroom. As a teacher, I believe I owe it to my students, their families, the community, and myself to provide the most conducive environment for learning. This means that every single one of my students has an equal opportunity to learn and achieve academically to the best of their abilities. This also means that it is of vital importance that I am guided by the core values that I have laid out in this philosophy of education. In the first belief statement I made I said that I believe in all students and their ability to learn. This means that I cannot dismiss a student because they are more difficult to work with than their peers. If I am to truly stand by what I say, I must have the endurance to work with children who are struggling. As I mentioned earlier, not every student who walks into my classroom will be a model student who is easily motivated to produce work. Again, students are unique including the challenges that they face and the subsequent challenges they pose to me as I attempt to connect with and teach them. However, those challenges will not be impossible to overcome, particularly if I strive to adhere to my personal philosophy and the belief statements I have laid out. I must also remember that at the very core of my philosophy is the simple statement that I believe in every single student and it is because of that simple belief that I will be able to enable them to be successful.
Another reason I have chosen to pursue teaching is because it is meaningful. Teachers are entrusted with the tremendously important job of shaping our youth. In my opinion, those are high stakes. However, with high stakes come great rewards in the form of personal fulfillment when that job is done well. As previously mentioned, no one aims to simply be mediocre in their profession, I am hopeful that with the philosophy of education I have laid out I will enable myself to not only be accountable for the job that I will be doing but that I will continue to aspire to do my job well.
References
Dewey, J. (1897). My pedagogic creed. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=gZq6NB6R-P8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2), 106-116.
Ward, W. A. (n.d.) Teacher quotes. Retrieved from http://www.great-inspirational-quotes.com/teacher-quotes.html
