TEACHING PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT 1

Teaching Philosophy Statement

Elide Grande

California State University Dominguez Hills

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT 2

Through my journey as undergraduate student, I have come to look at education-

primarily- through the lens of Social Re-constructivism. I believe that every student deserves an

equitable education that allows them to explore and expand their knowledge in order to become

active citizens who question, analysis, plan, and put into action projects that assist positively in

re-shaping or changing current social problems. Thus, as an educator I plan of creating a

classroom that fosters a diverse, multicultural, and anti-bias culture that will assist students in

developing critical consciousness (Freire 2012), so they can become more aware and interested

in occurring and re-occurring social issues. Additionally, by helping students to develop critical

consciousness, my goal as an educator is to teach students not to agree blindly to what is

occurring, rather to question and analysis, so they can develop the skills needed to put their

solutions into action that can help re-shape or change the current social issue(s) and that allows

them to step away from oppression (Cohen 1999) and/or victimization.

To achieve my goal of providing students the opportunity to explore real social issues, I

plan on drawing from Maria Montessori’s theory of using relative and realistic tools in a

classroom (Mooney 2013). Thereby, instead of introducing social issues that the students are not

interested in or that are not relevant to their current lives, I plan to have students bring topics or

concerns that are occurring in both their home and/ or community. By using this strategy, the

focus of the class will become student centered, as they will engage in discussions about

different issues to decide which will be the focus of the lesson. As students begin to gain deeper

understanding and knowledge on the issue, begin to analysis, and develop possible outcomes, I-

as the educator- will act as a guide. I will check for understanding by asking open-ended

questions, and I will make sure that students stay on topic and on task. Open-ended questions

will allow students to enhance and further analyze their findings and/or plans, while making sure
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they stay on task will allow the classroom to have an organized structure, which is important in

the learning environment (Mooney 2013). Additionally, to foster diversity and a multicultural

environment, I will conduct ethnographic walks around the community and speak with students’

parent(s) or guardian(s). This will help ensure that the topics brought to class are accurate and

that students are being respectful and understanding of what those issues might mean to certain

groups of individuals as they explore them. Students will also be able to use different forms of

resources during the exploration- such as technology, newspapers, and books whether in English

or their home language. Furthermore, in order to make sure students understand the facts and

develop solutions that they actually believe will help re-shape or change the social issue at hand,

while leaving aside their bias, we will reflect after every lesson on where we are headed and

why.

In order to achieve my goals of a transformative social re-constructivist educator, I plan

to constantly reflect on my teaching strategies. How open or safe did students feel when

expressing their topic of interest? How well did students work together? Did I provide students

with enough time? Did I support them as best as possible? Did I provide helpful resources? Did I

make sure the questions asked were open-ended? Did I leave my bias aside as student’s

discussed, analysis, and planned solutions to a community issue? In addition, I plan to have

parent involvement by asking them to come into the classroom and listen to students’ ideas

adding feedback and/or suggestions before students attempt to put their solution to a community

issue into action. My overall goal is for students to leave my classroom knowing that they all

have the potential and tools to be social re-constructivists, so they can continue their educational

journey and lives as active citizens who help change and re-shape the current social issues in the

world.
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References

Cohen, L. M. (1999). Section III- Philosophical Perspective in Education. OSU, School of

Education.

Freire, P. (2012). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing Inc.

Mooney, C.G. (2013). Theories of Childhood: An Introduction to Dewey, Montessori,

Erikson, Piaget, and Vygotsky. (2nd Ed.). Redleaf Press, Upper Saddle River, New

Jersey.