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My Philosophy of Education

Alana Walker

Wesleyan College

EDU 201
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When a person first knows they want to become a teacher, they have already begun to

calculate their own teaching philosophy. In many cases, this philosophy is their initial motivation

to become a teacher. This viewpoint may be based on their own school experience, or their own

moral compass instilled by their home life; however, more often than not, their philosophy is

based on a combination of both. My own philosophy can be arbitrated to both these factors, as

well as outside factors of my own growth. Because of these experiences, I identify the most with

the postmodern view on the education system. At my core, and as a future high school English

teacher, I believe school be a safe place of learning, and should encourage individuality and free

thinking at all costs.

Post-modernism hinges on the belief that there are no universal truths, but that all knowledge

is created by an individual through their own experience (Webb, et al. 2010). This definition

matches the literary version of post-modernism, which is a literary movement where authors

decided to deconstruct the formal novel and abandon grand literary theories (All About Post-

Modernism, 2017). With my passion for reading, and my own English major, I have always

been drawn to this era of literature. The questioning of reality which lies within post-modern

novels such as Woolfs Mrs. Dalloway and the unreliable narrator of Atwoods The Handmaids

Tale have always enticed me. What I think is interesting, though, is the impact this era had on

schools. Officially, the post-modern era of literature began in the mid-1900s, with most critics

citing World War II as the final break from modernity (Felluga, 2011). World War II had a

lasting impact on society and the literature depicting this new world. The war was a turning point
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for mankind; it ushered in the first real threat of world inhalation with the use of nuclear

weapons, the horrors of Nazism were unlike any war crimes civilians had ever seen, and it was

also the first war where planes were used as weapons. These horrors bled into the minds of

authors at the time, and a resurgence of the Icarus myth came into the forefront of society: were

humans overstepping their boundaries and becoming too god-like? These new ideas lead people

to question the authority structures in their own life. This is why the late 1900s saw movements

such as the civil rights movement, first wave feminism, and the protests of the Vietnam War.

People began to lose faith in the toxic power structures around, and the social norms of a

poisonous society began to crumble. This is important to education because the shift in literary

ideas forced a shift in academic ideals. Schools started teaching social reformation as opposed to

bare essentialism. I believe this movement was a spark of a new kind of teacher; a teacher I

strive to become.

The postmodern philosophy of education enforces these beliefs of social reform by allowing

students to be free, independent thinkers. Webb describes a postmodern approach to education

by stating, postmodernist perceive the purpose of schooling to be to prepare students for critical

citizenship and critical inquiry (2010). Meaning, the purpose of schooling should be to create

the base for students to understand the world around them, and give them space to create

opinions and views on their own. I agree with this, and I plan on utilizing this ideal in my

classroom by implementing active learning when teaching. This means I will not regurgitate

facts back to my schools, but rather I will challenge them to think for themselves. I believe these

abilities will be particularly critical in my classroom because it will be a secondary level English
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classroom. I plan on tackling difficult, and sometimes controversial, books in my classroom, and

I will expect my students to form their own experiences by reading these books. It is true that a

book can change a persons life, and my goal as a teacher is to change most of my students lives

through reading. However, in order for this growing to occur, they must first gain the skill of

critical thinking.

I believe that the ability to think critically cannot be taught, but it is rather a nature ability

which must be regularly practiced. I reject Piagets idea that devolvement works as steps toward

an end goal (Ojose, 2008), but rather believe that a persons development works more as a wheel

on a pendulum, constantly spinning and constantly moving forward. In my classroom, I plan on

practicing different ways of critical thinking and allowing my students opportunities for trial and

error. In this aspect, I can pull philosophies from cognitivism, and branch of educational

philosophy which goes hand and hand with postmodernism. At its core, this school believes the

learner actively constructs his or her own understands of reality through acting upon and

reflecting on experiences in the world (Cohen, 1999). I will show these ideals in my classroom

by allowing my students to explore their own truths, and by creating teachable moments by

permitting them to experiment. I will actively avoid any association with behaviorism in my

classroom, as I believe it is the most efficient way of losing students trust and respect. The

process of awarding positive behaviors and punishing negative ones, as a form of operant

conditioning popularized by B. F. Skinner (McLeod, 2015), leaves no room for students to learn

on their own. Behaviorism believes school is a place to increase appropriate behaviors [and]

decreases inappropriate behaviors (Webb, et al. 2010). This philosophy forces the students to
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view their teachers as drones, rather than living, working people. It requires the process of

learning to become one-sided, and therefore reproduces carbon copies of students when the

teacher is done. This is a process underlines everything that a teacher should not want out of

their students. In order to avoid this disaster, I will follow Vygotskys model of classroom

management by edging my students into their own learning (Cherry, 2016). Vygotsky believed

that the best learning is done between the gap of what a person can do on their own and what

they cannot do without assistance, and this gap is known as the zone of proximal development

(Cherry, 2016). As a teacher, I plan on utilizing the zone of proximal development to allow my

students to essentially teach themselves. Through this, I hope to see personal growth in my

students.

A persons real knowledge cannot be pinned down by a number grade or a test score. My

postmodern core does not allow me to view my future students as grades on a spreadsheet. I will

not allow my students to judge their worth by a social construct. Luckily, because I will be a

literature teacher, I will have the unique opportunity to give my students critical thinking skills

and, somewhat, evade this pattern of systematic downfall. Unfortunately, I know I will one day

have to give into the test monster that is current public education, but the vast majority of grades

in my class will be more personal types of self-assessment. My students will write essays,

engage in meaningful group discussion, and participate in projects in order to show me what they

have learned. This will ensure that they have actually learned material, rather than memorize

facts, and will also give them the social interaction they need for healthy growth. I will also have
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an exceptional opportunity to discuss social issues in my classroom. Literature can form

connections to past and present, and can be applied on both an individual level or a class level.

This will give us opportunities to think critically about the world around us, of both fiction and

in real life. These sort of assessments will allow my students to voice their own opinions and

question the purpose of the major institutions of society (Webb, et al. 2010). It also adds a

sense of unpredictability to my classroom, an aspect that I believe my future students will thrive

under.

My own teaching philosophy is a combination of my personal pubic school experience and

separate beliefs gained by myself through personal experiences. I believe my emphasis of my

own personal experience had lied the base for my newly labeled postmodern beliefs, but I do not

see this as an inertly bad trait. On the contrary, this lens is one of the main reasons I want to

become a literature teacher. I knew I wanted to become an English teacher upon my second

reading of Orson Scott Cards Enders Game, a book I plan on teaching multiple times over my

career. In the book, the young protagonist is put through grueling tasks by his professors, and

comes to the final conclusion that the teachers are the ultimate enemy. As I read this book in

high school, I was affected greatly by this outcome. As a student, I felt powerless to the school

system, and often fell victim to over analyzing my grades and therefore my self-worth; and I

eventually watched several friends fall into this trap as well. However, my rebellious nature and

my longing for social reform converged when I realized I could create a career out of teaching

students to question authority with a good cause. My goal as an educator will be to break my

students of the toxic behaviorism they are familiar with, and to teach them that learning is
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actually an enjoyable activity. I want to teach them to be independent, and to never let

unnecessary rules get in their way to success. But above all, I want my students to know that

their own self-worth is valued so much more than a meaningless number grade.
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Works Cited

Cherry, K. (2016). Lev Vygotsky's Seminal Influence on Psychology. Retrieved April 04, 2017,

from https://www.verywell.com/lev-vygotsky-biography-2795533

Cognitivism. Teaching and Learning Resources. (2017). Retrieved April 04, 2017, from

http://teachinglearningresources.pbworks.com/w/page/31012664/Cognitivism

Cohen, LeoNora M. (1999). Educational Philosophies Scoring Guide. Retrieved April 04, 2017,

from https://oregonstate.edu/instruct/ed416/scoringguide.html

Felluga, Dino. (2011). General Introduction to Postmodernism. Retrieved April 04, 2017, from

https://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/postmodernism/modules/introduction.html

McLeod, S. (2007, January 01). Skinner - Operant Conditioning. Retrieved April 04, 2017, from

https://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html#positive

Ojose, B. (2008). Applying Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development to Mathematics

Instruction. Mathematics Educator, 18(1), 26-30.

Postmodernism. (2017). All About Philosophy. Retrieved April 04, 2017, from

http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/postmodernism.htm

Webb, L. D., & Metha, A. & Jordan K. (2010). Foundations of American Education (6th ed.).

Boston: Pearson.