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Critical analysis of philosophy of education

Bachelor of Education (University of Mumbai)

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Mandar Education Society’s,

Lt. Shashikant Gawde college of education, Pedhambe,
Tal. Chiplun, Dist. Ratnagiri

F.Y. [Link] (Semester First)

Name: Farhat Abdul Jabbar Shaikh

Subject: KNOWLEDGE AND CURRICULUM

Topic: Critical appraisal of philosophy and practice of education

advocated by Gandhi, Dewey and Freire.

Guide: Prof. Mrs. Sonam Neha V.

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Table of contents-

No. Name Page no.

1. INTRODUCTION 3
2. GANDHI'S MODEL OF EDUCATION 3
3. DEWEY’S MODEL OF EDUCATION 4
4. FREIRE’S MODEL OF EDUCATION 6
5. CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF PHILOSOPHY 8
OF EDUCATION

6. CONCLUSION 10
7. REFERENCES 10

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1. INTRODUCTION

Education is the building block of the life of an individual as it enables the person to
participate positively in developing him/herself and contribute to the nation. It provides a
strong foundation upon which people learn the ideals of citizenship, democracy, fraternity,
equality among others. Education has always been a theme of discussion in science,
psychology, philosophy etc. and these discussions have led to different kinds of state policies
catering to different kinds of education systems. A wide range of thinkers have discussed on
the theme of education in great depth. Among the thinkers who have discussed on education
in great depth are people like Gandhi, Dewey, Freire, Krishnamurthy, Tagore etc.
Philosophers like Paulo Freire, John Dewey and Mahatma Gandhi made an impact on the
educational system through their theories. While Friere introduced pedagogy of the
oppressed, Dewey favored education through experience and Gandhi focused on craft based
education. Education in today’s world tends to be very dynamic and flexible in the sense that
it can be shaped and changed according to the needs of the learner and therefore no one
theory can be applied to suit the demands of the students. Hence, it becomes extremely
important to keep in mind the various ideas propounded by these different ideologies and to
use them as and when the need arises.
Various ideas by Gandhi, Dewey and Freire are further described in details.
2. GANDHI'S MODEL OF EDUCATION [ACTIVITY METHOD]

Gandhi is known all over the world as the leader of political emancipation of the Indian
people. He is remembered as an apostle of peace and non-violence, and is given a god-like
status in India, where he is commonly known as the Mahatma and the Father of the
nation. Though primarily hailed as a political leader, he has written and reflected on
nearly every aspect of Indian life. His tryst with education began in South Africa itself,
where he experimented with bringing together children from different sections of
society into one group. On his return to India, when the British started repressing the
rising tide of nationalism, Gandhi's movement for withdrawal of voluntary cooperation
from the government, and Gandhi's scheme of national education spread apace. Institutions
such as the Gujarat Vidyapith, Jamia Millia Islamia and others were started, and the
movement for Indian national education assumed proportions as never before. His broad
educational plan for the country was called the Basic National Scheme.

Gandhi formulated a holistic education programme, within the formal education system
called the National Education Scheme which encompassed all age groups from pre-school
to adult learners. His model of Basic Education was implemented in his experiments in the
Wardha Scheme with children. However, the same principles of training, that is, basic
education, were advocated by him for university education.

The meaning and scope of basic education widened in its application over the years.
Initially, it was used to denote elementary education and the first stage in formal
education. From this narrow beginning, the concept grew to include all the stages of
education. Finally, the meaning expanded to envelop life itself. It has been interpreted as
that education which forms the basic of life itself, the foundation for a healthy physical,
mental and moral existence. It includes the knowledge, skills and the attitudes required by

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every citizen to perform efficiently in society (Ramanathan, 1962).

In addition to the principles stated in the earlier section, the following principles were also
emphasised (Prakasha, n.d.):
 Education must be imparted through the mother tongue; and
 Education should be based around teaching a craft relevant and useful in the
child's environment, like spinning, agriculture, and woodwork. He emphasised
'learning by doing' and strongly felt that there must be a strong balance of
manual work and intellectual stimulation.
 This concept of teaching around a central theme has been stated earlier by
Dewey, Herbart, Kilpatrick and others (cf. Prakasha, n.d.) when they had
emphasised the need for 'correlation' in school studies to create consistency in
the child's mental life. However, Gandhi saw other advantages too:
i. social — breaking down the prejudice between manual and intellectual
work.
ii. economic — increase productive capacity of workers; enable them to use
leisure constructively.
iii. educational — balance intellectual and practical elements of experience
— providing relevant knowledge.
 This teaching was also said to be similar to the Project Method, associated with
Kilpatrick and Dewey (cf. Prakasha, n.d.). Gandhi had never heard of the
Project Method, but when it was mentioned to him, he felt that there was an
very important difference between the Project Approach and his method of
basic education. In his method of education, the child was learning a real craft
and acquiring relevant knowledge directly linked to his/her life experiences,
while, in the Project Approach, the situation was essentially a simulated one
and the child was not necessarily dealing with real situations (Prakasha, n.d.).
 Gandhi was absolutely convinced that correlating through a craft was the best
educational approach for India, not only at the elementary stage, but at all other
stages too, including university education (Gandhi 1951, 1956).
 The schools/universities must be productive and self-supporting and free and
compulsory education through public awareness, removing obstacles in achieving
literacy. Since his education system was in opposition to the British education, he
felt that educational institutions must be self-supporting and not be coerced by
any State powers.
 Gandhi gave importance to cleanliness and physical exercises. The physical training
to be provided to the students also had to follow the old Indian system yoga,
including praanayams and asanas.

3. DEWEY’S MODEL OF EDUCATION [DISCOVERY METHOD]

John Dewey is credited as founding a philosophical approach to life called ‘pragmatism’, and
his approaches to education and learning have been influential internationally and endured
over time. He saw the purpose of education to be the cultivation of thoughtful, critically
reflective, socially engaged individuals rather than passive recipients of established
knowledge. He rejected the rote-learning approach driven by predetermined curriculum
which was the standard teaching method at the time. However, importantly, he also rejected
child-centred approaches that followed children’s uninformed interests and impulses
uncritically. While he used the term ‘progressive education’, this has since been
misappropriated to describe, in some cases, a hands-off approach to children’s learning
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which was not what Dewey proposed. Dewey believed that traditional subject matter was
important, but should be integrated with the strengths and interests of the learner.

He developed a concept of inquiry, prompted by a sense of need and followed by intellectual

work such as defining problems, testing hypotheses, and finding satisfactory solutions, as the
central activity of such an educational approach. This organic cycle of
doubt, inquiry, reflection and the reestablishment of sense or understanding contrasted
with the ‘reflex arc’ model of learning popular in his time. The reflex arc model thought of
learning as a mechanical process, measurable by standardised tests, without reference to the
role of emotion or experience in learning. Dewey was critical of the reductionism of
educational approaches which assume that all the big questions and ideas are already
answered, and need only to be transmitted to students. He believed that all concepts and
meanings could be open to reinvention and improvement, and all disciplines could be
expanded with new knowledge, concepts and understandings.

The main features of Dewey’s theory of education:

Dewey suggested that individuals learn and grow as a result of experiences and interactions
with the world. These interactions and experiences lead individuals to continually develop
new concepts, ideas, practices and understandings, which, in turn, are refined through and
continue to mediate the learner’s life experiences and social interactions. According to
Dewey:

Interactions and communications focused on enhancing and deepening shared

meanings increase potential for learning and development. When students communicate
ideas and meanings within a group, they have the opportunity to consider, take on and work
with the perspectives, ideas and experiences of other students.

Shared activities are an important context for learning and development. Dewey
valued real-life contexts and problems as educative experiences. If students only passively
perceive a problem and do not experience the consequences in a meaningful, emotional and
reflective way, then they are unlikely to adapt and revise their habits or construct new habits,
or will do so only superficially.

Students learn best when their interests are engaged. It is important to

develop ideas, activities and events that stimulate students’ interest and to which teaching can
be geared. Teaching and lecturing can be highly appropriate as long as they are geared
towards helping students to analyse or develop an intellectual insight into a specific and
meaningful situation.

Learning always begins with a student’s emotional response, which spurs further
inquiry. Dewey advocated for what he called ‘aesthetic’ experiences: dramatic, compelling,
unifying or transforming experiences in which students feel enlivened and absorbed.

Students should be engaged in active learning and inquiry. Rather than teach students to
accept any seemingly valid explanations, education ought to give students opportunities to

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discover information and ideas by their own effort in a teacher-structured environment, and to
put knowledge to functional use by defining and solving problems, and determining the
validity and worth of ideas and theories. As noted above, this does not preclude explicit
instruction where appropriate.

Inquiry involves students in reflecting intelligently on their experiences in order to

adapt their habits of action. Experience should involve what Dewey called ‘transaction’: an
active phase, in which the student does something, as well as a phase of ‘undergoing’, where
the student receives or observes the effect that their action has had. This might be as simple
as noticing patterns when adding numbers, or experimenting to determine the correct
proportions for papier mâché.

Education is a key way of developing skills for democratic activity. Dewey was positive
about the value of recognising and appreciating differences as a vehicle through which
students can expand their experiences, and open up to new ways of thinking rather than
closing off to their own beliefs and habits.

4. FREIRE’S MODEL OF EDUCATION [DIALOGUE METHOD]

Paulo Freire, the Brazilian educator, is today considered one of the greatest in the field of
education, all over the world. His work and writings have not only made a tremendous
impact in the field of education, but also in the struggle for national development. His
pedagogy is supposed to have influenced the revolutions in Nicaragua, Africa and Chile
(Schelling, 1988).
Freire popularized the concepts of praxis and conscientization in the process of education
and liberation, though both terms were not coined by him. According to Freire, praxis,
which is the continuous process of reflection and action upon the world in order to
transform it, is the means by which one can be free from oppression and act towards
change. He identifies two distinct stages of his pedagogy:
• the oppressed became aware of the world of oppression and through the praxis,
commit themselves to its transformation; and
• in the second stage, the reality of transformation has already been transformed.
Then the pedagogy ceases to belong to the oppressed and becomes a pedagogy for all
human beings. In both the stages, it is through action that the culture of domination is
culturally confronted.

Conscientisation is another term closely associated with Freire. Conscientisation is a

movement towards humanisation through praxis. The term means 'raising consciousness'
of the people, and Freire uses terms like critical consciousness, critical perception and
critical thinking, to describe this process. This term has been used very liberally by
different professionals and organisations and has also been interpreted and criticised by
intellectuals. Freire himself says (1979:1):
Since about 7 years I have not used this word. I stopped using this word because the
word was so corrupted in Latin America and in the States, that I felt at a certain
moment never more to use the word 'conscientious'.

Berger (1974) claims that Freire himself subscribes to the hierarchical view of

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consciousness with the term 'consciousness raising'. This implies that someone, whose
consciousness is on a less than human level, is raised to the level of humanity by
someone else — who, by definition is more human already. However, in spite of its
different usages, this term is now a part of social action terminology. As opposed to the
narrative form of education, Freire suggests 'dialogue' as means of conscientisation. He
does not see this method as a mere technique, rather, as a tactic to make students our
friends.

Dialogue requires:
• a profound love for the world and people;
• humility; and
• an intense faith in the person and the power of the individual to make and remake.
He feels that without dialogue, there is no communication, and without communication
there is no true education (Freire, 1972: Shor and Freire, 1987). Freire worked out a
methodology for adult illiterates by which they could attain literacy in six weeks. His
methodology is divided into five phases (Sanders, 1968).

Phase 1
Participant observation of educators 'turning in' to the vocabular universe of the people.
The educator establishes contact and builds up a relationship with the learners. He/She
understands the context, vocabulary and other significant parameters.
Phase 2
Search for generative words at two levels: syllabic richness and a high charge of
experiential involvement. The educator selects key words from the learners' vocabulary.
Freire believed that no text book was sufficiently contextual and that all were
paternalistic, such that, themes and vocabulary that authors consider significant, but are
not based on the learner's needs and significant to their daily lives.
Phase 3
A first codification of these words into visual images which stimulate people"
'submerged' in the culture of silence to 'emerge' as conscious makers of their own
'culture'. The educator develops teaching materials.
Phase 4
The decodification by a 'culture circle' under the self-effacing stimulus of a coordinator
who is no 'teacher' in the conventional sense. The learners meet in groups called 'culture
circles' and begin the process of learning together. The teacher promotes self-discovery
through dialogue.

Phase 5
A creative new codification, this one is explicitly critical and aimed at action. The former
illiterates now begin to reject their role as mere 'objects' and undertake to become
'subjects' of their own destiny.

Freire's method does not provide answers, but facilitates learners in creating their own
solutions.

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5. CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF EDUCATION

ADVOCATED BY GANDHI, DEWEY AND FREIRE.

The educational discourse offered by three philosophers: Gandhi, Dewey and Freire are as
follows-
a. The Agency of Children-The idea of the agency of children is very different in the
three authors. Freire focused on education of the children through the process of
problem posing education and gave emphasis on dialogue. According to him,
dialogue is the process through which the teachers coming from different
backgrounds/experiential milieus and children coming from different backgrounds
come together and engage in positive dialogue. Freire did not support banking model
of education which was based on the belief that students know nothing. (Freire, 1968)
Dewey on the other hand focused on providing education through experience. He
believed in education as a process. His idea was that education should be progressive
but should not lack structure and should take some ideas from traditional form of
education. According to him, progressive education was accepted more by the people
because it was in accordance to the democratic ideals and that its methods were more
humane in comparison to traditional education. However, he did not target any
community in his theory of education. (Dewey, 1938) Gandhi focused his theory on
the education of children in the age group of 7-14 years. His primary focus was on
educating the children through some kind of craft not only to make education self-
sufficient but also to ensure self-employment to children after they complete their
education. His primary focus was on education of the children in villages. (Sykes,
1988).
b. Target Society-The three philosophers focused on different sections of the society.
Paulo Freire focused on the oppressed section of the society as he believed that they
need to be liberated and humanised from the oppression of the oppressors. He
emphasised on the fact that there should not be one section of society (oppressor)
which has access to everything at the expense of the other (oppressed). Therefore, he
started advocating the idea of liberalisation and humanisation through education.
(Freire, 1968) Dewey’s idea of education was through experience, however, he did
not specify any target society for his idea of education and therefore it can be assumed
that his theory was open to every community(Dewey, 1938). Gandhi’s target societies
were the downtrodden sections, also known in the Indian society as untouchables or
Harijans (by Gandhi himself) (Sykes, 1988).
c. Ideas of Education-The ideas of education of these authors are quite different. Paulo
Freire’s idea of education was pedagogy of oppressed. In it he focused on
humanisation of those who were oppressed into doing various tasks for the oppressor.
(Freire, 1968) Dewey’s idea of education was to find a balance between traditional
and progressive education, that is, he wanted the education to be progressive which
should have some structure derived from traditional education. He also emphasised on
the fact that educators should always look into the type of experience their students
have had. (Dewey, 1938) Gandhi on the other hand, focused on education through the
mother tongue. He also emphasised that teachers and students should work together
and teachers should not give any task to the students which they themselves won’t do.
(Sykes, 1988)
d. Significance of experience in Learning- Experience in learning was something
which was advocated by John Dewey. He believed that experiences help children
learn better. He however was of the view that not all experiences were educative.

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Here, it can be pointed out that there was no particular method given which could help
the educator differentiate between experiences which were educative from those
which were non-educative. (Dewey, 1938) Gandhi also believed in experiential
learning. According to him, children learned better through their eyes that through
their ears and therefore, he decided to base his education on some form of crafts so as
to engage the children as well to help them to make the schools self-sufficient.
(Sykes, 1988). The stand of Paulo Freire is not very clear on experiential learning
through the readings. However, it may be inferred that he did took into account the
importance of experience in education as he emphasized on dialogue, which was
essentially the various experiences of the teachers and the students. (Freire, 1968)
e. Education and Freedom- Paulo Freire believed in the system of education, which
would help in the liberation of both the oppressor and the oppressed. He was of the
opinion that only the oppressed could liberate themselves and their oppressor and help
them in humanizing. On the basis of this idea, he formulated the pedagogy of the
oppressed. (Freire, 1968) Gandhi also believed in education to be a source of
freedom. According to him, education can be used for transmitting the ideas of
cultural heritage which would eventually help the people to internalize the idea of
citizenship and help in the attainment of freedom, not only from the British, but also
from the shackles of illiteracy. (Sykes, 1988). Dewey’s ideas of education and
freedom are not very clear, but it can be inferred that he too supported freedom
through education because he laid emphasis on different experiences to be brought
into education which could help in attainment of freedom. (Dewey, 1938)
f. Organization of Subject Matter- Subject matter was something which can be found
in Gandhi’s theory of education. He laid stress on education through experience so
much so that there were literally no text books in his school. He believed that good
subject material can transform the lives of the children. Further he was of the opinion
that education should be in mother tongue so that the children understand what is
being taught and can express themselves clearly. He laid special emphasis on neat and
tidy handwriting of the students. The subject taught in his school included language,
history, geography, arithmetic, GK and many others. (Sykes, 1988). Paulo Freire as
well as John Dewey did not specify the subjects to be taught however it can drawn-
out from their writings that they wanted their subject matter to be such that it can help
the students to participate in education actively through dialogue and problem solving
education and to engage themselves to learning through experience(Freire, 1968)
(Dewey, 1938).

6. CONCLUSION:

From the discussion held above we can certainly find some similarities and differences
amongst the three philosophers. The most common point of similarity is that all of them

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supported some form of mass education and saw it as a way towards freedom. They also
emphasized on the fact that both the teacher and the student should engage together in the
process of learning. However one stark difference which can be derived is the type of theory
they propounded. While Freire focused his theory on liberating and humanizing the
oppressed, Dewey focused on proving education through experience and progressive
education based on the some structure which can be derived from the traditional form of
education. Gandhi’s educational theory focused on education through craft, mother tongue
and experience. His basic aim was to make primary education compulsory for children so that
they can become independent and start earning after completing their schooling. His other
aim was to make schools self-sufficient.

7. REFERENCES:

Websites-

[Link]
and-deweys-perspective/

[Link]

Ebooks-

[Link]

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