The Teacher and the Community,
School Culture and
Organizational Leadership in Phil.
TVTET System
ED 104
Chapter 1. Philosophical
Thoughts on Education
A. John Locke (1632-1704): The Empiricist Educator
B. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903): Utilitarian Education
C. John Dewey (1859-1952): Learning through Experience
D. George Counts (1889-1974): Building a New Social
Order
E. Theodore Brameld (1904-1987): Social
Reconstructionism
F. Paulo Freire (1921-1997): Critical Pedagogy
A. The Empiricist Educator (John
Locke)
Acquire knowledge about the world through the senses. – Learning by doing and by
interacting with the environment
Simple ideas become more complex through comparison, reflection and generalization
Questioned the long traditional view that knowledge came exclusively from literary
sources, particularly the Greek and Latin classics
Political order should be based upon a contract between the people and the government
Aristocrats are not destined by birth to be rulers. People were to establish their own
government and select their own leaders from among themselves; civic education is
necessary
People should be educated to govern themselves intelligently and responsibly (Ornstein,
1984)
B. Herbert Spencer (Utilitarian
Education)
“survival of the fittest” means human development had gone through an
evolutionary series of stages from simple to complex and from uniform to the more
specialized kind of activity.
Social development had taken place according to an evolutionary process by which
simple homogeneous societies had evolved to more complex societal systems
characterized by humanistic and classical education.
Industrialized society require vocational and professional education based on
scientific and practical (utilitarian) objectives.
Curriculum should emphasize the practical, utilitarian and scientific subjects that
helped human kind master the environment.
Was not inclined to rote learning; schooling must be related to life and to the
activities needed to earn a living.
B. Herbert Spencer (Utilitarian
Education)
Science and other subjects that sustained human life and prosperity should have
curricular priority.
Individual competition leads to social progress. He who is fittest survives.
(Ornstein, 1984)
C. John Dewey : Learning
through Experience
Education is a social process and so school is intimately related to the society that
it serves.
Children are socially active human beings who want to explore their environment
and gain control ver it.
Education is a social process by which immature members of the group,
especially the children, are brought to participate in the society.
The school is a special environment for the purpose of simplifying, purifying and
integrating the social experience of the group.
The sole purpose of education is to contribute to the personal and social growth of
individuals.
C. John Dewey : Learning
through Experience
the fund of knowledge of the human race-past ideas, discoveries and inventions
was to be used as the material of dealing with problems.
The school is social, scientific and democratic.
School should be used by all, it being a democratic institution.
The authoritarian or coercive style of administration and teaching is out of place.
Education is the societal activity and the school is a social agency that helps shape
human character and behavior.
Values are relative but sharing, cooperation, and democracy are significant human
values that should be encourage by schools. (Ornstein, 1984)
E. George Counts : Building a
New Social Order
Education is not based on eternal truths but is relative to a particular society living as a
given time and space.
Schools should cope with social change that arises from technology.
There is a cultural lag between material progress and social institutions and ethical
values.
Instruction should incorporate a content of a socially useful nature and a problem-solving
methodology.
Schools became instrument for social improvement rather than an agency for preserving
the status quo.
Teachers should lead society rather than follow it. Teachers are agents of change.
Schools ought to provide an education that afford equal learning opportunities to all
students. (Ornstein, 1984)
E. Theodore Brameld : Social
Reconstructionism
Is a philosophy that emphasizes the reformation of society. The social
reconstructionist contend that:
…humankind has moved from an agricultural and rural society to an urban and
technological society… there is a serious lag in cultural adaptation to the realities
of a technological society. Humankind has yet to reconstruct its values in order to
catch up with the changes in the technological order, and organized education has
a major role to play in reducing the gap between the values of the culture and
technology. (Ornstein, 1984)
Asserts that schools should: critically examine present culture and resolve
inconsistencies, controversies and conflicts to build a new society not just change
society.
E. Theodore Brameld : Social
Reconstructionism
Technological era is an era of interdependence and so education must be
international in scope for global citizenship.
For the social reconstructionists, education is designed “to awaken students’
consciousness about social problems and to engage them actively in problem
solving”. (Ornstein, 1984)
F. Paulo Freire : Critical Pedagogy
Critical Pedagogy and Dialogue vs. the Banking Model of Education
Paulo Freire believed that systems must be changed to overcome oppression and improve
human conditions.
Education and literacy are the vehicle for social change.
Rather than “teaching a banking,” in which the educator deposits information into
students’ heads, Freire saw teaching and learning as a process of inquiry in which the child
invent and reinvent the world.
Teachers must not see themselves as the sole possessors of knowledge and their students
as empty receptacles.
Freire’s critical pedagogy is problem-posing education.
A central element of Freire’s pedagogy is dialogue.
Dialogue is the basis for critical and problem-posing pedagogy, as oppose to banking
education, where there is no discussion, only the imposition of the teacher’s ideas on the
students.