This document discusses several educational philosophies including Dewey's views on the role of the teacher as a facilitator and the democratic classroom. It also summarizes existentialism which emphasizes individuality, freedom of choice and responsibility. Poststructuralism focuses on discourse, power relationships and questioning knowledge. Critical pedagogy sees education as a means for social transformation and justice. Freire's approach stresses respect for students, their experiences and empowering them to understand oppressive structures. Finally, love and social justice are discussed as important aspects of dialogue and education.

1. Further approaches to the
philosophy of education
David R Cole

3. “I believe that education is the fundamental method of
social progress and reform…I believe that the art of thus
giving shape to human powers and adapting them to
social service, is the supreme art; one calling into its
service the best of artists…I believe finally that the
teacher is engaged, not simply in the training of
individuals, but in the formation of proper social life…”
- Dewey My pedagogic creed Article V

5. Impact of Dewey on teacher
identity
 Role is as a facilitator, not to direct the learning
 We all have a mission to make the world a better place
 Subject matter assists in problem-solving
 Emphasis on the democratic classroom
 Assist students to make mistakes and learn from experience
 Focus on the immediate experience, not preparing students for future
learning
 School is just one place where education takes place
 The influences are not just socio-cultural but also ecological
 Education through experience, emphasis on inquiry, problem-solving
and cooperative learning.
 Start with the students’ needs as a way of motivating and interesting
them
 Whole purpose of education is to help students to grow.

6. Existentialism
Soren Kierkegaard
John-Paul Sartre

9. Common Aspects of
Existentialism
Existence precedes essence
Human beings have free will
Life is a series of choices in which
responsibility must be taken
Some things are irrational or absurd and
without explanation

10. Implications of existentialism
for education?Task is for schools to make students aware of who they are
and of all their potentialities for becoming.
Stresses the importance of individuality of each of our
students and teachers.
Schools should not indoctrinate so that students think and
act the same.
Greater importance on emotions and irrational
Primary aim of education is to help individuals understand
themselves
Teachers and students need to be taught to be true to
themselves
Emphasis on increasing students’ awareness of their
existence as authentic beings who have the freedom to
choose what they make of themselves.
Emphasis on the arts and humanities

11. poststructuralism
Foucault
Derrida
Deleuze
Discourse analysis
Biopolitics
Deconstruction
Rhizomatics…

12. Implications of poststructuralism for
education?
Offers valuable insights into school culture and the hidden
power relationships
Highlights the “hidden curriculum”
Raises questions about core values, commonality and
difference in a pluralistic society
Focuses the learning on difference or “otherness”
Encourages students to question knowledge and its possible
misinterpretations and the ideologies shaping it.
Encourages us to criticise the conventions or traditional
structures
Helps bring forth more self-consciousness
Provides understanding about how schooling makes us
‘normal’

14. Paulo Freire
 “What I have been proposing from my political
convictions, my philosophical convictions, is a profound
respect for the total autonomy of the educator. What I have
been proposing is a profound respect for the cultural
identity of students- a cultural identity that implies respect
for the language of the other, the color of the other, the
gender of the other, the class of the other, the sexual
orientation of the other, the intellectual capacity of the
other; that implies the ability to stimulate the creativity of
the other. But these things take place in a social and
historical context and not in pure air. These things take
place in history and I, Paulo Friere am not the owner of
history.” – 1997 pp307-308

15. Underlying principles of
Freire’s approach to education
1. The world must be approached as an object to be
understood and known by the efforts of learners
themselves.
2. Acts of knowing are to be grounded in students’ own
being, experiences, needs, circumstances and destinies.
3. The historical and cultural world need to be understood
in the light of the ideologies which created them.
4. Learners must be able to consider how they have created
their own lived reality and the possibility of new makings
of reality.
5. The voices of all participants in education must be
shared.
6. Learners must come to know how the myths of current
discourses oppress and marginalise them.

16. “…teachers have to transcend their merely instructive
task and to assume the ethical posture of a mentor
who truly believes in the total autonomy, freedom
and development of those he or she mentors…”
Pedagogy of the Oppressed p. 309

17. What is “critical pedagogy”?
“Critical pedagogy is a way of thinking
about, negotiating, and transforming
the relationship among classroom
teaching, the production of
knowledge, the institutional structures
of the school, and material relations
of the wider community, society and
nation-state.”
McLaren, P. (2007) A Pedagogy of Possibility

18. Love
“Dialogue cannot exist…in the absence of a profound love
for the world and for people…Domination reveals the
pathology of love: sadism in the dominator and masochism
in the dominated. Because love is an act of courage, not of
fear, love is a commitment to others. No matter where the
oppressed are found, the act of love is a commitment to
their cause – the cause of liberation…As an act of bravery,
love cannot be sentimental: as an act of freedom, it must
not serve as a pretext for manipulation. It must generate
other acts of freedom; otherwise it is not love…If I do not
love the world – if I do not love life – if I do not love
people – I cannot enter into this dialogue…”
- Pedagogy of the Oppressed 1993 pp 70 -71

19. Advice from Henry Giroux
“Never separate learning from the precepts of
social justice; recognise that schooling must be
understood in a broader social and political
context; never allow yourself to be reduced to
simply a technician implementing educational
recipes; always take seriously the knowledge and
experience that students bring to school; heed
John Dewey’s advice about connecting the
meaning of curriculum and schooling to the
imperatives of a substantive democracy; and
never lose sight of how crucial education is for
sustaining democracy and keeping justice alive.”
In Ornstein, A. et al 2007 Contemporary Issues in Curriculum p. 4

20. Final remark (Dewey)
“I believe that the only true education comes
through the stimulation of the child’s
powers by the demands of the social
situation in which he finds himself..”
My Pedagogic Creed

21. Choices…
Constructivism
Existentialism
Poststructuralism
Critical pedagogy …
Contact; david.cole@uws.edu.au
https://uws.academia.edu/DavidRCole