The Teacher and the Community, School

Module Culture and Organizational Leadership

Unit I Educational Philosophies

Intended Learning Outcomes: At the end of this chapter, the students are expected to:

1. Be able to discuss at least 6 philosophical thoughts on education.

Isolated Facts and the Banking Method

Depicted in the question and answer proceeding in class are a common classroom
scenario. Most lessons are devoted to teacher asking low-level questions and students
answering with what they memorized the night before. Teacher deposited these facts a
day before and withdraws them the next day. A perfect-example of the banking system
of education that Paulo Freire is very much against as it does not make the learner reflect
and connect what he/she was taught to real life.
We have nothing against facts. But isolated facts make no sense but become
meaningful when seen in relation to other facts. These facts when combined with other
facts (with further questioning from the teacher) help the learner see meaning and
connection to his/her life. Example: The pupil learned that food is broken down into small
pieces, which is digested by the stomach and is absorbed by the intestine. To connect the
facts, teacher should ask more questions like: "What if the food is not chewed in the
mouth, what happens to food in the stomach and to the stomach and to itself? What if
the stomach fails to digest food from the mouth, what happens to the food in the small
intestines? Will the small intestines be able to absorb food, etc.?...
Below are summaries of thoughts of education philosophers on what should be
taught and how learners should be taught.

1.1 John Locke (1632-1704): The Empiricist Educator

⚫ 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-the inductive method
⚫ Questioned the long traditional view that knowledge came exclusively from literary
sources, particularly the Greek and Latin classics
⚫ Opposed he "divine right of kings" theory which held that the monarch had the right
to be an unquestioned and absolute ruler over his subjects
⚫ 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 political leaders from among themselves; civic
education is necessary
⚫ People should be educated to govern themselves intelligently and responsibly
(Ornstein, 1984)
Comments:
⚫ For John Locke education is not acquisition of knowledge contained in the Great
Books. It is learners interacting with concrete experience, comparing and reflecting
on the same concrete experience, comparing. The learner is an active not a passive
agent of his/her own learning.
⚫ From the social dimension, education is seeing citizens participate actively and
intelligently in establishing their government and in choosing who will govern them
from among themselves because they are convinced that no one person is destined
to be ruler forever.

1.2 Herbert Spencer (1820-1903): Utilitarian Education

⚫ Spencer's concept of "survival of the fittest" means that human theory called
development had gone through an evolutionary series of stages from the simple to
the complex and from the 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 with humanistic and classical education.
⚫ Industrialized society require vocational and professional education based on-
scientific and practical (utilitarian) objectives rather than on the very general
educational goals associated with humanistic and classical education.
⚫ 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.
⚫ Curriculum must be arranged according to their contribution to human survival and
progress.
⚫ Science and other subjects that sustained human life and prosperity should have
curricular priority since it aids in the performance of life activities.
⚫ Individual competition leads to social progress. He who is fittest survives. (Ornstein,
1984)

Comments:
Specialized Education of Spencer vs. General Education
⚫ To survive in a complex society, Spencer favors specialized education over that of
general education. We are in need of social engineers who can combine
harmoniously the findings of specialized knowledge. This is particularly true in the
field of medicine.
⚫ The expert who concentrate on a limited field is useful, but if he loses sight of the
interdependence of things, he becomes a man who knows more and more about less
and less. We must be warned of the deadly peril of over specialism. Of course, we do
not prefer the other extreme, the superficial person who knows less and less about
more and more.

Spencer's Survival of the Fittest

⚫ He who is fittest survives. Individual competition leads to social progress. The
competition in class is what advocates of whole-child approach and Socio-emotional
Learning (SEL) atmosphere negate. The whole child approaches a powerful tool for
SELF-focused schools has as tenets - "each student learns in an environment that is

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physically and emotionally safe for students and adults "and" each student has access
to personalized learning and is supported by qualified and caring adults..." (Frey, N.
2019)
⚫ The highlighted words point to no competition for competition works against an
emotionally safe environment.

1.3 John Dewey (1859-1952): 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 over it.
⚫ Education is a social process by which the immature members of the group, especially
the children, are brought to participate in the society.
⚫ The school is a special environment established by members of society, for the
purpose of simplifying, purifying and integrating the social experience of the group
so that it can be understood, examined and used by its children.
⚫ The sole purpose of education is to contribute to the personal and social growth of
individuals.
⚫ The steps of the scientific or reflective method which are extremely important in
Dewey's educational theory are as follows.
◼ The learner has a "genuine situation of experience"- involvement in an activity
in which he/she is interested.
◼ Within this experience the learner has a "genuine problem” that stimulates
thinking.
◼ The learner possesses the information or does research to acquire the
information needed to solve the problem.
◼ The learner develops possible and tentative solutions that may solve the
problem.
◼ The learner tests the solutions by applying them to the problem. In this one
way one discovers their validity for oneself
◼ The fund of knowledge of the human race-past ideas, discoveries and
inventions was to be used as the material for dealing with problems. This
accumulated wisdom of cultural heritage has to be tested. If it served human
purposes, it becomes part of a reconstructed experience.
⚫ The school is social, scientific and democratic. The school introduces children to
society and their heritage. The school as a miniature society is a means of bringing
children into social participation.
⚫ The school is scientific in the sense that it is a social laboratory in which children and
youth could test their ideas and values. In here, the learner acquires the disposition
and procedures associated with scientific or reflective thinking and acting.
⚫ The school is democratic because the learner is free to test all ideas, beliefs and
values. Cultural heritage, customs and institutions are all subject to critical inquiry,
investigation and reconstruction.
⚫ School should be used by all, it being a democratic institution. No barrier of custom
or prejudice segregate people. People ought to work together to solve common
problems.
⚫ The authoritarian or coercive style of administration and teaching is out of place
because they block genuine inquiry and dialogue.

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⚫ Education is a social 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 encouraged by schools. (Ornstein, A. 1984)

Comments:
The Fund of Knowledge of the Human Race
⚫ Dewey does not disregard the accumulated wisdom of the past. These past ideas,
discoveries and inventions, our cultural heritage, will be used as the material for
dealing with problems and so will be tested. If they are of help, they become part of
a reconstructed experience. If they are not totally accurate, they will still be part of a
reconstructed experience. This means that the ideal learner for Dewey is not just one
who can learn by doing, e.g., conduct an experiment but one who can connect
accumulated wisdom of the past to the present.

Schools are For the People and By the People

Schools are democratic institutions where everyone regardless of age, ethnicity,
social status is welcome and is encouraged to participate in the democratic process of
decision-making Learners and stakeholders practice and experience democracy in
schools.

1.4 George Counts (1889-1974): Building a New Social Order

⚫ Education is not based on eternal truths but is relative to a particular society living at
a given time and place.
⚫ By allying themselves with groups that want to change society 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. Students are encouraged to work on problems that have social
significance.
⚫ Schools become 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.
⚫ Teachers are called on to make important choices in the controversial areas of
economics, politics and morality because they failed to do so, others would make the
decisions for them.
⚫ Schools ought to provide an education that afford equal learning opportunities to all
students. (Ornstein, A. 1984)

Comments:
Schools and Teachers as Agents of Change
⚫ For George Counts, schools and teachers should be agents of change. Schools are
considered instruments for social improvement rather than as agencies for
preserving the status quo. Whatever change we work for should always be change
for the better not just change for the sake of change.

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⚫ Teachers are called to make decisions on controversial issues Not to make a decision
is to actually making a decision.
⚫ Like Dewey, problem solving, should be the dominant method for instruction.

Lag Between Material Progress and Ethical Values

Counts asserts that "there is a cultural lag between material progress and social
institutions and ethical values. "Material progress of humankind is very evident but moral
and ethical development seem to have lagged behind. A friend once wrote: "The
Egyptians had their horses. Modern man has his jets but today it is still the same moral
problems that plague humankind. "Indeed with science and technology, we have become
very. powerful and yet powerless. We have conquered a number of diseases and even
postponed death for many, we have conquered aging, the planets, the seas but we have
not conquered ourselves.

1.5 Theodore Brameld (1904-1987) - Social Reconstructionism

⚫ As the name implies, social reconstructionism is a philosophy that emphasizes the

reformation of society. The social reconstructionists 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)

⚫ So the social reconstructionist asserts that schools should: critically examine present
culture and resolve inconsistencies, controversies and conflicts to build a new society
not just change society... do more than reform the social and educational status quo.
It should seek to create a new society… Humankind is in a state of profound cultural
crisis. If schools reflect the dominant social values... then organized education will
merely transmit the social ills that are symptoms of the pervasive problems and
afflictions that beset humankind...The only legitimate goal of a truly human
education is to create a world order in which people are in control of their own
destiny. In an era of nuclear weapons, the social reconstructionists see an urgent
need for society to reconstruct itself before it destroys itself. (Ornstein, A. 1984)
⚫ 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)
⚫ Social reconstructionists are firmly committed to equality or equity in both society
and education. Barriers of socio-economic class and racial discrimination should be
eradicated.
⚫ They also emphasize the idea of an interdependent world. The quality of life needs
to be considered and enhanced on a global basis. (Ornstein, A. 1984)

Comments:

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⚫ Like John Dewey and George Counts,social reconstructionist Brameld believe in
active problem-solving as the method of teaching and learning.
⚫ Social reconstructionists are convinced that education is not a privilege of the few
but a right to be enjoyed by all.
⚫ Education is a right that all citizens regardless of race and social status must enjoy.

1.6 Paulo Freire (1921-1997) - Critical Pedagogy

Critical Pedagogy and Dialogue vs. the Banking Model of Education

⚫ Paulo Freire,d critical theorist,like social reconstructionists, believed that systems
must be changed to overcome oppression and improve human conditions.
⚫ Education and literacy are the vehicle for social change. In his view, humans must
learn to resist oppression and not become its victims, nor oppress others. To do so
requires dialogue and critical consciousness, the development of awareness to
overcome domination and oppression.
⚫ Rather than"teaching as banking, "in which the educator deposits information into
students 'heads, Freire saw teaching and learning as a process of inquiry in which the
child must invent and reinvent the world.
⚫ Teachers must not see themselves as the sole possessors of knowledge and their
students as empty receptacles. He calls this pedagogical approach the "banking
method" of education.
⚫ A democratic relationship between the teacher and her students is necessary in order
for the conscientization process to take place.
⚫ Freire's critical pedagogy is problem-posing education.
⚫ A central element of Freire's pedagogy is dialogue. It is love and respect that allow us
to engage people in dialogue and to discover ourselves in the process and learn from
one another. By its nature, dialogue is not something that can be imposed. Instead,
genuine dialogue is characterized by respect of the parties involved toward one
another. We develop a tolerant sensibility during the dialogue process and it is only
when we come to tolerate the points of view and ways of being of others that we
might be able to learn from them and about ourselves in the process. Dialogue means
the presence of equality, mutual recognition, affirmation of people, a sense of
solidarity with people, and remaining open to questions.
⚫ Dialogue is the basis for critical and problem-posing pedagogy, as opposed to banking
education, where there is no discussion, only the imposition of the teacher's ideas on
the students. (Ornstein,1984)

Comment:
All of these education philosophers, point to the need of interacting with others
and of creating a "community of inquiry" as Charles Sanders Peirce put it. The community
of inquiry is" a group of persons involved in inquiry, investigating more or less the same
question or problem, and developing through their exchanges a better understanding
both of the question as well as the probable solutions." (Lee,2010) A community of inquiry
will engage learners in active problem solving.

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TAKEAWAYS
John Locke － the empiricist
⚫ Education is not acquisition of knowledge contained in the Classics. It is learners
interacting with concrete experience. The learner is an active not a passive agent of
his/her own learning.
⚫ From the social dimension, education is seeing citizens participate actively and
intelligently in establishing their government and in choosing who will govern them
from among themselves. They are of the thinking that no one person is destined to
be ruler forever. This is in keeping with the Anti-Political Dynasty Bill.

Spencer － the utilitarianist

⚫ To survive in a complex society, Spencer favors specialized education over that of
general education.
⚫ The expert who concentrates on a limited field is useful, but if he loses sight of the
interdependence of things he becomes a man who knows more and more about less
and less. We, must be warned of the early peril of over-specialism. Of course, we do
not prefer the other extreme, the superficial person who every day knows less and
less about more and more.
⚫ Who is fittest survives. Individual competition leads to social progress.
⚫ The competition in class is what advocates of whole-child approach and Socio-
emotional Learning (SEL)atmosphere approach and Socio-emotional Learning (SEL)
atmosphere and Socio-emotional Learning (SEI) atmosphere negate. The whole child
approach, a powerful tool for SEI focused schools has as tenets- "each student learns
in an environment that is physically and emotionally safe for students and adults”
and “each student has access to personalized learning and is supported by qualified
and caring adults..."(Frey, N. 2019)
⚫ The highlighted words-emotionally safe and caring adults point to no competition for
competition works against an emotionally safe environment.

John Dewey － experience

⚫ Dewey does not disregard the accumulated wisdom of the past. These past ideas,
discoveries and inventions, our cultural heritage, will be used as the material for
dealing with problems and so will be tested. If they are of help, they become part of
a reconstructed experience. If they are not totally accurate, they will still be part of a
reconstructed experience. This means that the ideal learner for Dewey is not just one
who can learn by doing, (e.g. conduct an experiment but one who can connect
accumulated wisdom of the past to the present).
⚫ Schools are for the people and by the people. Schools are a democratic institution
where everyone regardless of age, ethnicity, social status is welcome and is
encouraged to participate in the democratic process of decision-making. Learners
and stakeholders practice and experience democracy in schools.

George Counts － Building a new social order

⚫ Schools and teachers should be agents of change. Schools are considered instruments
for social improvement rather than as agencies for preserving the status quo.
Whatever change we work for should always be change for the better not just change
for the sake of change.
⚫ Problem-solving, like Dewey, should be the dominant method for instruction.

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Organizational Leadership Page 8 of 9
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⚫ “There is a cultural lag between material progress and social institutions and ethical
values." Material progress of humankind is very evident but moral and ethical
development seem to have lagged behind.
⚫ Is very evident but moral and ethical development seem to have lagged behind.

Theodore Brameld － the Social Reconstructionist

⚫ Social reconstructionists critically examine present culture and resolve

inconsistencies, controversies and conflicts to build a new society not just change
society.
⚫ Technological era is an era of interdependence and.so education must be
international in scope for global citizenship.

Paulo Freire － Critical pedagogy vs. Banking method

⚫ Employ critical pedagogy and dialogue in contrast to the banking system of
education.
⚫ Learners are not empty receptacles to be filled.

Prof Ed 312- The Teacher and the Community, School Culture and
Organizational Leadership Page 9 of 9
UNIT I

USMKCC-COL-F-050