GERASMIO, ANGELIE P.

BSE-MATH A2020 ED103 (WRITTEN REPORT)

Educational Philosophies
1. John Locke
 John Locke FRS (29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and
physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and
commonly known as the "Father of Liberalism”. Considered one of the first of the British
empiricists, following the tradition of Sir Francis Bacon, Locke is equally important to
social contract theory. His work greatly affected the development of epistemology and
political philosophy. His writings influenced Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and
many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American Revolutionaries. His
contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the United
States Declaration of Independence. Internationally, Locke’s political-legal principles
continue to have a profound influence on the theory and practice of limited
representative government and the protection of basic rights and freedoms under the
rule of law. Locke's theory of mind is often cited as the origin of modern conceptions of
identity and the self, figuring prominently in the work of later philosophers such as Jean-
Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant. Locke was the first to define the
self through a continuity of consciousness. He postulated that, at birth, the mind was a
blank slate, or tabula rasa. Contrary to Cartesian philosophy based on pre-existing
concepts, he maintained that we are born without innate ideas, and that knowledge is
instead determined only by experience derived from sense perception, a concept now
known as empiricism. Demonstrating the ideology of science in his observations,
whereby something must be capable of being tested repeatedly and that nothing is
exempt from being disproved, Locke stated that "whatever I write, as soon as I discover
it not to be true, my hand shall be the forwards to throw it into the fire". Such is one
example of Locke's belief in empiricism.
2. Herbert Spencer
 Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher,
biologist, anthropologist, and sociologist famous for his hypothesis of social Darwinism
whereby superior physical force shapes history. Spencer originated the expression
"survival of the fittest", which he coined in Principles of Biology (1864) after reading
Charles Darwin's on the Origin of Species. The term strongly suggests natural selection,
yet Spencer saw evolution as extending into realms of sociology and ethics, so he also
supported Lamarckism. Spencer developed an all-embracing conception of evolution as
the progressive development of the physical world, biological organisms, the human
mind, and human culture and societies. As a polymath, he contributed to a wide range of
subjects, including ethics, religion, anthropology, economics, political theory,
philosophy, literature, astronomy, biology, sociology, and psychology. During his
lifetime he achieved tremendous authority, mainly in English-speaking academia. "The
only other English philosopher to have achieved anything like suc h widespread
popularity was Bertrand Russell, and that was in the 20th century." Spencer was "the
single most famous European intellectual in the closing decades of the nineteenth
century” but his influence declined sharply after 1900: "Who now reads Spencer?" asked
Talcott Parsons in 1937.
3. John Dewey
 John Dewey (October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher,
psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education
and social reform. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the first half
of the twentieth century. The overriding theme of Dewey's works was his profound belief
in democracy, be it in politics, education, or communication and journalism. As Dewey
himself stated in 1888, while still at the University of Michigan, "Democracy and the one,
ultimate, ethical ideal of humanity are to my mind synonymous." Dewey considered two
 fundamental elements schools and civil society to be major topics needing attention and
reconstruction to encourage experimental intelligence and plurality. He asserted that
complete democracy was to be obtained not just by extending voting rights but also by
ensuring that there exists a fully formed public opinion, accomplished by communication
among citizens, experts and politicians, with the latter being accountable for the policies
they adopt.
4. George Counts
 George Sylvester Counts (December 9, 1889 – November 10, 1974) was an American
educator and influential education theorist. An early proponent of the progressive
education movement of John Dewey, Counts became its leading critic affiliated with the
school of social reconstructionism in education. Counts is credited for influencing
several subsequent theories, particularly critical pedagogy. Counts wrote dozens of
important papers and 29 books about education. He was also highly active in politics as
a leading advocate of teachers' unions, the head of the American Federation of Teachers,
the founder of the New York State Liberal Party, and as a candidate for the U.S. Senate.
5. Theodore Brameld
 Theodore Brameld (20 January 1904 – 1987) was a philosopher and educator who
supported the educational philosophy of social reconstructionism. His philosophy
originated in 1928 when he enrolled as a doctoral student at the University of Chicago in
the field of philosophy where he trained under the progressive philosopher and
politician, T.V. Smith. After becoming intrigued by John Dewey’s philosophy of
education, Brameld developed his own theory of schools being the ultimate source to
bring about political and social change. Brameld’s philosophy of education was called
reconstructionism. He was not the first to come up with this idea, but he was one of the
first to support it publicly. In response to the existing crisis of the time period, he
believed reconstructionism in schools was the solution to the problem. In his book,
Education as Power, he clearly outlines the two major roles of reconstructionism.
6. Paulo Freire
 Paulo Reglus Neves Freire (19 September 1921 – 2 May 1997) was a Brazilian educator
and philosopher who was a leading advocate of critical pedagogy. His influential work
Pedagogy of the Oppressed is generally considered one of the foundational texts of the
critical pedagogy movement, and was the third most cited book in the social sciences as
of 2016 according to Google Scholar. Freire believed education could not be divorced
from politics; the act of teaching and learning are considered political acts in and of
themselves. Freire defined this connection as a main tenet of critical pedagogy. Teachers
and students must be made aware of the politics that surround education. The way
students are taught and what they are taught serves a political agenda. Teachers,
themselves, have political notions they bring into the classroom.