Philosophy of Education

 
Philosophy of Education
Educational theory and practice, as well as the relationships between the two
elements, is an issue that has concerned philosophers of education for a long time, notably
because of its dualistic essence. The two-faced nature of the field consists of two tendencies:
grounding itself in the general discipline of philosophy and trying to encompass educational
practice. The collision between theory and practice in the domain of philosophy of education
provokes the emergence of a variety of problems, issues, and tasks with further attempts to
reconcile the two tendencies to create a holistic approach.
Certain problems of educational theory and practice derive from the teacher-student
hierarchy, with the power distributed in the top-down fashion – most traditional teachinglearning schemes see teachers as authority figures. An educational philosopher, Gökhan Baş
states that constructivist-teaching methodologists have a more egalitarian approach to the
teacher-student relationships. According to the researcher, "constructivist teaching-learning
conception emphasizes the role of a teacher as of a guide who helps students in the
construction of knowledge and consider student as active participant of the learning process"
(Baş 113). This vision deviates from the traditional Lockean approach, where a student is
seen as an empty recipient of knowledge and heads towards positioning teachers as
facilitators of the learning process. Moreover, the practical implications of these theoretical
problems go beyond the textbooks and straightaway to the classrooms, where they influence
the mode of human interaction.
Secondly, there is a tendency to regard educational institutions as simulators of bigger 
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societal structures. The view of a school as of a society in a miniature is not new and belongs
to Friedrich Frobel, a German pedagogue who created the notion of a kinder garden (Chand
130). This concept has a great influence on the theory and practice of the modern philosophy
of education and even on the topic of indoctrination. Furthermore, education can be seen as
an evolutionary instrument used by society to preserve its system and ensure its future
survival (Noddings 125). Knowledge acquisition, in this case, is not a final point, but rather a
means to an end, which serves to prepare a citizen, who could be an integral well-functioning
part of society. Thus, this tendency seems to be not ebbing away, and the function of
indoctrination might not lose its significance in the near future.
The role of a philosopher of education, who is in the crux of this variety of issues, is
to find possible outcomes and, potentially, to design methodologies and techniques to install
them in the system. Furthermore, according to Bai et al., "philosophers have long been
cultural workers and, in many instances, have risked criticism, ridicule, ire, hatred, and even
their own lives in order to contribute to society’s fuller wellbeing" (638). The history of
philosophy is abundant with tales of such thinkers. Modern educational philosophers defy the
boundaries of their domains, revise hierarchical educational structures, and the vision of
educational institutions as of building bricks of society. They challenge the ideas that were
considered permanent and monolithic.
The complex, multi-sided nature of the field of philosophy of education, in particular
of the subfield of educational theory and practice, poses a number of methodological and
practical questions that need further in-depth investigation. In addition, the two main sides of
this discipline (theoretical and practical) in their interaction create a number of problems that
were and continue to be of great interest. Various scholars and philosophical schools
occupied themselves with the investigation of the problems in question – from ancient and
scholastic philosophers to postmodernists and progressivists.
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Works Cited
Bai, Heesoon, et al. "Towards Intercultural Philosophy of Education." Studies in Philosophy
and Education, vol. 34, 2015, pp. 635–649.
Baş, Gökhan. "Correlation between Teachers’ Philosophy of Education Beliefs and Their
Teaching-Learning Conceptions." Education and Science, vol. 40, no. 182, 2015, pp.
111–126.
Chand, Bharati. Advance Philosophy of Education. Notion P, 2017.
Noddings, Nel. Philosophy of Education. 4th ed., Routledge, 2018.