Running head: PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION 1

Philosophy of Education

Fabian Flores

California State University Dominguez Hills

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Philosophy of Education

Education is a tool to effect positive change on individuals and the world. Educators have

the ability to captivate students’ attention and help them fall in love with learning. When

Educators are successful in captivating their students’ love for learning you can see students who

are eager and hungry for new knowledge. For the success of students, and society, educators

must build relationships with the students, develop culturally relevant lessons and provide equity

in the classroom.

It is vital for an educator to establish a relationship with the students. If a teacher is able

to establish a relationship with the students the teacher will learn key information like students’

interests which in turn could be used when preparing a lesson. Preparing a lesson that includes

the students’ interests is more likely to captivate the attention of the learner. In addition to

captivating students’ attention through interests it is also important for the educator to develop

culturally relevant lessons that allow the student to know that their culture is valued and

respected. The common occurrence of failing to establish positive relationships between

educators and students was illustrated in the article by Jana Echevarria, who is an expert in

effective instruction, and the author discusses the importance of having a teacher who has a

relationship with the students. Echevarria stated, “Culturally diverse students who are

chronically disengaged report that they lack positive relationships with teachers and are aware of

disrespect toward their culture or ethnicity (Suarez-Orozco, & Todorova, 2008). From this

information we can conclude that all teachers should strive to develop positive relationships with

their students that are based on mutual respect for their culture. The teacher and the student need

to have mutual respect for their culture because understanding one another is crucial for the

education process.
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Culturally responsive teaching is essential for learning. It might be difficult to teach a

culturally relevant curriculum when teachers are often given a curriculum developed by people

who have little to no experience with the cultures of today’s students. However the teacher has to

understand that the curriculum developers received their education many years ago when society

was in a very different place. In the past, curriculums were either culturally neutral or created to

advance the knowledge-base of the students who come from more affluent upbringings. Today,

the teacher is more culturally similar to the students and knows the students culture and interests

better than someone who does not know the students. Research has shown that curriculums that

directly focus on relating the material to the students’ culture (or language) has a better chance to

improve retention and understanding more so than culturally-neutral curriculums. Geneva Gay,

who is an expert on culturally responsive teaching states from her book Culturally Responsive

Teaching, “Culturally responsive teachers create an environment that values diversity and builds

on students’ different ways of learning, behaving, and using language (2010). Their lessons

incorporate students’ values, beliefs, and experiences, as well as their home language

(Echevarria et al., 2015). Educators should do everything and anything for the sake of improving

the children’s education regardless if they have to teach some things that are not listed on the

curriculum. The teacher does have a responsibility to the school and the school district which is

to abide to their contract and to present the curriculum to the students, but the teacher has a

greater responsibility to their students’ success.

In addition an educator should give students what they need to be successful. Before

learning about equity in my Liberal Studies major, I thought, “As an educator I am going to be

fair and give all my students the same thing.” However as I learned about equity I was hooked.

Equality in the classroom is giving every student the same thing. Equity is giving each student
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what they need to be successful. When I first heard of this concept I loved it, because growing up

I saw how I learned differently compared to my classmates. I usually took longer on state tests. I

took longer on homework than my siblings, but I still learned I just needed a bit more time. As

an educator I want to do all that I can to embrace my students’ different learning needs and

incorporate that into my lesson planning. I read about this example of equity, in Laurie

Wasserman’s article, “A Marriage Made in Math Class”, Wasserman and her collogue Craig

employ the equity in a classroom concept without actually discussing equity. The article

discusses how Wasserman and Craig were having trouble teaching some of their students so they

came up with a genius idea to combine a regular education classroom and a special education

classroom. They made this fusion of the two classrooms to be better able to give each student

what he or she needs. While one teacher was teaching the other was going around helping the

students that needed extra help.

Educators must develop relationships with the students to be able to learn key

information such as interest or what is going on in the students’ lives. This information can help

the educator develop lessons that are relevant to the students. Developing lessons that are of

interest to the students are more likely to yield success, because the students are interested in the

content. Equity is something all educators should employ in the classroom to ensure every

students receives what he or she needs to be successful in the classroom. As it is known not

everyone learns the same way some need visuals, others might need extra support equity will

ensure that both teacher and student are successful.

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References
Echevarria, Jana, et al. “What It Takes for English Learner to Succeed.” Educational Leadership,

Mar. 2015, pp. 22–26.

GAY, G. (2010). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. S.l.: Teachers

college press.

Wasserman, L. A Marriage Made in Math Class. (2008, September 10). Education World, 02,

17-19. Retrieved April, 2018.