Philosophy of Education 1

Philosophy of Education
Hannah Finch
27 April 2012

Philosophy of Education 2
Abstract
Although I would take bits and pieces of each of the different schools of educational
philosophies, the one I am drawn to the most would be postmodernism. I find this theory to be
the most effective when teaching children because it takes into account childrens different
learning styles and it has a student-teacher relationship which is more open and consists of a
mutual respect. Donald Vandenberg (2009) in his article Critical thinking about truth in teaching:
The epistemic ethos, argues that there should be honesty and a sharing of truths in postmodernist
classroom settings. He believes that in order to have a healthy learning environment, it is
necessary to have this mutual truth and respect between students and teacher in a classroom. I
would agree with this theory because education is no place for lies because students should have
access to all information so that they have the ability to make decisions for themselves.

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My first beliefs when it comes to a postmodernist education stem from the teacher. It is
impossible to have a school without teachers so it is necessary for an educator to have certain
qualities that make them a good teacher. These qualities include above all, someone who
students can trust. My belief is that a teacher should be kind, considerate, understanding and
friendly. They should be approachable because it is not okay for students to be afraid of their
teacher. A good teacher is someone who is a good listener and respects the opinions and attitudes
of her students; however, the teacher must also be strict and have the control. Nothing will be
learned if a teacher is a pushover and the students take advantage of her kindness. On the other
side of that, a student must respect the teacher. The student must be willing to learn and must try
anything the teacher puts before them. If they do not try, then they cannot succeed. The teacher
can only do so much if the student decides they do not want to work. The student must be willing
to put in the time and effort necessary to learn because without the desire to learn, nobody can be
taught.
My family has also been a major proponent of education and doing well in school.
Although my parents never really did well in school, education was always something they
encouraged in my siblings and me. Family is a major influence in my life because we have
always been very close and their opinions matter to me. Throughout my life, family has
encouraged and placed a lot of emphasis on education and doing well in school. There has been
research done showing that students with parent involvement and help with schoolwork will be
more likely to do well in school. Kemba J. Dunham (2012) found that there is a need to have
designated times for students to do homework along with parents there to help them if need be.
In order for children to truly be successful, it is necessary for them to have parent involvement,
especially when they are younger and may be in need of motivation to do their homework at

Philosophy of Education 4
night. The article discusses ways for parents to affectively help their children with homework,
especially when they are young so that it is not too frustrating for either the parents or the
children. If the children are constantly frustrated by homework and are not getting any help, then
they will grow to resent homework and in turn, resent school as a whole.
I also believe that many of my opinions come from the travels I experienced when I was
a young child. I was born in Saudi Arabia and within the first four years of my life, I traveled to
Bahrain, Egypt, Cyprus and England. I traveled to England often because that is where my mum
was from. From these travels, I have gained an interest in lots of different cultures and different
people from around the world. Through these experiences I have gained a greater understanding
of people from around the world and people who may have very different backgrounds from me.
Through this, I can connect a little more easily with people from all different stretches of life
because I may have had similar experiences as them.
A lot of my beliefs about education stem from my early childhood education in Lee, NH
at Moharimet Elementary School. At Moharimet, I was surrounded by teachers who cared about
the students and who wanted to see them succeed. At Moharimet, we had a variety of different
assessments and a variety of different projects which kept all of the students actively engaged
and enjoying learning. All of these factors influenced me because they encouraged my love of
learning and they made me want to share all the opportunities that I was given when I was in
school. At Moharimet, the focus was never on standardized testing but instead was on more
creative methods of assessment. This proved to be a very good method of education because it
gave me a strong basis to then be very well prepared for college.
This is also a good method of education according to Laura-Lee Kearns (2011) in her
article High-stakes standardized testing and marginalized youth: An examination of the impact

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on those who fail. Her article is about students who feel inadequate due to poor testing skills and
when they do poorly on standardized tests, they feel stupid, or as though they cannot do
anything, simply because they are not good test-takers. She argues that standardized tests do not
take into account different learning styles and only serve to harm students rather than help them.
According to Kearns, some youth not only expressed shock and lack of understanding at the
test results, but felt shame, degraded, humiliated, stressed, a little less smart, like a
loser, and expressed fear, upon learning that they had failed (p. 121). My belief is that
students at schools where the focus is more on creativity than standardized testing will have
more success in the future.
Another factor that can strongly influence education is socioeconomic background. I
came from a school district that received a lot of funding and a large portion of tax-payers money
went to the school district. This afforded me many opportunities because we could get more
resources that made our education more interesting and more fun. These may not be factors
which other students have depending on what type of socioeconomic area they are in. According
to Rucker Johnson, Ariel Kalil and Rachel Dunifon (2012), parents with low-incomes can affect
how a student does in school. The students who have parents with lower incomes can have their
emotional behavior affected and their academic progress can be interrupted or changed based on
a parents income. According to the article, Employment patterns of less-skilled workers: Links to
childrens behavior and academic progress, In contrast, maternal work accompanied by job
instability is associated with significantly higher child behavior problems (relative to
employment in a stable job) (p.1). I often saw this at Burdell Hunt, the school where I did my
field experience, often. Many of the children were from lower socio-economic backgrounds have
more behavior issues and more anger issues. Most of these problems arise from unstable home

Philosophy of Education 6
lives for the children. These issues make the classroom disruptive and can make learning more
difficult for the children. The behavior issues can make it very difficult for the teacher to have a
philosophy of postmodernism. This classroom cannot always practice this because there are so
many distractions and so many students that it may not be possible for the teacher to have a good
repertoire with every student.
Someday I hope to teach lower elementary school children, preferably first or second
grade. I will hope to apply my beliefs in a way that engages students and makes them excited
about learning. I will want my curriculum to be filled with creative, hands on projects that they
can learn from rather than taking tests. Instead of spelling tests, I could have students make
crossword puzzles or word finds with their spelling words. When students are doing math
problems, rather than simply having basic addition and subtraction problems, I could have word
problems or real life situations having to do with things that will relate to students their age. I
could make simple, boring activities into something more exciting that the students would want
to do and would be excited about. I could use some of the activities that we did in Foundations of
Education such as the snowball activity in order for younger students to share ideas. It could be
used as a way to find out what students know about a subject when we are starting it. For
example, if we were doing a unit on weather, I could have students write what they know about
weather on a sheet of paper. Then we could do the snowball activity because it would get
students excited about the lesson and they would have a chance to move around for a short
period of time. Then it would get students sharing ideas and on track to be thinking critically at a
young age. I think a classroom filled with color and books, a place that feels warm and safe and
inviting would be the perfect classroom for first and second graders because it would be a place
that they would want to be in every day.

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My philosophies of education all stem from a postmodernist standpoint. I want to have a
classroom that is warm and inviting. Where students can let their creative thoughts flow and are
not afraid to share any thoughts or ideas that may pop into their heads. My core belief is that I
want students to be happy to come to school every day and at the end of each day, I want them to
leave knowing they have learned at least one new thing that they are excited to share with their
parents as soon as they arrive back home.

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References
Dunham, K.J. (2012). The homework solution. Essence, 43(1), 128-131. Retrieved from
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=71ea6dd8-196c-4e91-879c2687c86760d6%40sessionmgr4&vid=1&hid=12&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ
%3d%3d#db=ulh&AN=74079245
Johnson, R., Kalil, A., Dunifon, R. (2012). Employment patterns of less-skilled workers: Links
to childrens behavior and academic progress. Demography, 49(2), p.747-772. Retrieved
from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=f968ea83-6d65-4874-ac7fca328149de3b%40sessionmgr112&vid=1&hid=122&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2
ZQ%3d%3d#db=bth&AN=74088949
Kearns, L. (2011). High-stakes standardized testing & marginalized youth: An examination of
the impact on those who fail. Canadian Journal of Education, 34(2), 112-130. Retrieved
from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ936746.pdf
Vandenberg, D. (2009). Critical thinking about truth in teaching: The epistemic ethos.
Educational

Philosophy and Theory, 41(2), 155-164. Retrieved from

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=e10dfe70-12d7-4249-a3c63bcf0ee6a1a9%40sessionmgr104&vid=2&hid=112