Educational Philosophy

Philosophy of Teaching / Education

I embrace teaching as an opportunity to motivate and empower. As a teacher, it
is my ambition to augment student learning as a transformative process. In an ideal
world, I want students to feel personally changed by their participation in a course I am
teaching. In my present classroom, I use the quote "Knowledge is Power", as a starting
point for discussing my attitude of teaching and generate a discussion regarding
learning and empowerment. Promoting an understanding that social and political forces
shape the construction and utilization of knowledge is central to my philosophy of
teaching because it helps students hone critical thinking skills in order to enable them to
transgress sociological and/or economic limitations.
One way I work to encourage students to confront existing limitations is by
teaching them to make the familiar out of the ordinary and question how they have
come to know what they trust to be true about their world. This helps students see
boundaries, whether personal or social, as constructed and affords them an opportunity
to challenge and move beyond them. It is this movement "against and beyond
boundaries" that both empowers and transforms learners.
Transformative learning is most likely to occur when students become personally
engaged with the material and perceive the subject matter to be directly relevant to their
own lives. Understanding the diversity of learning styles and student experiences is
paramount to enhancing this engagement. The process by which I work to stimulate
student engagement is unique to each individual and classroom. While students must
ultimately take responsibility for their own learning, a teacher can often inspire their
desire to learn. Learning about the students I teach and listening to their experiences
has helped me to (re) consider ways of making course material relevant and fostering
critical thinking skills. I am passionate about finding the most effective ways of
stimulating and sustaining intellectual growth among those who enter my classroom.

Learning is a complex process that is individual, content and context specific. As

a teacher, I am attentive to these factors and work to be flexible, adapting my
approaches according to the needs of learners, subject matter and setting. I believe it is
crucial for teachers to cultivate learning partnerships with students. In my view, teaching
is not about instructing or imparting information to students as if their minds were
waiting to be filled with my knowledge. Rather, teaching is igniting transformative
learning; empowering students to take responsibility for their learning, inspiring courage
to grow intellectually, cultivating curiosity, providing opportunities for developing
relationships, clarifying values, uplifting the spirit and igniting action.
In my experience at the high school level, I have worked to demonstrate daily my
teaching philosophy. While my teaching objectives vary, depending upon the course
level and content, my philosophy serves to inform my practice. In developing course
format and evaluation requirements, I attempt to optimize student commitment and
success.
In any teaching context, I work to promote student responsibility for learning by
asking each individual what they will contribute to the class and how each person can
participate in creating a classroom environment that is stimulating and respectful of
diverse views and experiences. In addition, I work to influence learning that occurs
outside the classroom by supplementing class time with a wide range of
teaching/learning activities including reading, formal and informal writing assignments,
Internet searches, oral histories, and social action projects. Providing access to my
expertise is also a priority in my teaching. I actively encourage dialogue with students
during office hours, by appointment, telephone and email. Additionally, I regularly strive
to improve my teaching by seeking student feedback, talking with peers, attending
teaching seminars, reading and experimenting with new methods. Through these
evaluative and informative processes I am continually refining my teaching practices
and growing as a teacher/scholar.
Teaching is a privileged position that demands humility as much as respect. It is
crucial that teachers recognize the power inherent in their role and are self-reflective
about their actions. In my teaching I work to be mindful of my position as a role model of

the kind of learning I strive to promote among students. Transformative learning is a

reciprocally educative endeavor--informative and uplifting for teachers and students
alike. These are tools of empowerment and rewards of transformative teaching and
learning.

Philosophy of Education
Educational Philosophy / Teaching Philosophy
Truth & Reality as the Foundations for Critical Thinking,
Reason and Education
Quotes on Teaching Philosophy of Education from Famous
Philosophers
Albert Einstein, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Michel de
Montaigne, Plato, Aristotle & Confucius

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without

accepting it. (Aristotle)
Since philosophy is the art which teaches us how to live, and since children need to
learn it as much as we do at other ages, why do we not instruct them in it? .. But in
truth I know nothing about the philosophy of education except this: that the
greatest and the most important difficulty known to human learning seems to lie in
that area which treats how to bring up children and how to educate them.
(de Montaigne, On teaching Philosophy of Education)
Plants are shaped by cultivation and men by education. .. We are born weak, we
need strength; we are born totally unprovided, we need aid; we are born stupid, we
need judgment. Everything we do not have at our birth and which we need when we

are grown is given us by education.

(Jean Jacques Rousseau, Emile, On Philosophy of Education)
This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our
whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive
attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive
success as a preparation for his future career. I am convinced there is only one
way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist
economy, accompanied by a educational system which would be oriented toward
social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society
itself and are utilised in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts
production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done
among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman
and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate
abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellowmen in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society.
(Albert Einstein, 1949, On Education)