Sandra Broscheit

Educational Philosophy
The educational philosophy that I have gone through my personal education with and the
one that I intend to implement in a future classroom are both combinations of a variety of
philosophies. My personal philosophy includes aspects from perennialism, idealism,
progressivism, and social reconstructionism.
From perennialism, I am drawn to the idea of education revolving around ideas,
principles, and questions and themes. In my schooling experience, I felt I have learned and
retained the most from exceptional literature in which themes and big ideas and idealistic
concepts were discussed and questioned. This connects to what I like about idealism: the idea
that knowledge develops when we examine our ideas and experiences critically and engage in
questioning and dialogue with others. Idealism also has a focus on growing kindness, which I
think is extremely important to include in education. Progressivism also has this experiential
piece. It believes that people should have the space to test their ideas in real-world contexts and
experiments. I think this is important for retention and feeling that material is relevant for
outside-school situations. I also like this philosophy of students questioning themselves and what
they know. I think this would develop innovative thinkers for the world. Progressivism also
states that children learn by doing. Especially in early childhood, I think it is essential that
children have the space and encouragement to learn through play. With social reconstructionism,
I agree that students should be responsible for their position in life and be educated on social
justice issues while exploring innovative change. If students can be active agents in their own
education and outside world, they can be active agents in society. Looking back, I remember
most from schooling experiences where I could connect the information to my own life,
questioning and broadening that knowledge about the world and myself.