CHAPTER 9

Educational Philosophies
Related to Society

Reporter: Joanna Marie N. Azurel

 1. Behaviorism
CONTENTS
2. Linguistic Philosophy
3. Constructivism
4. Progresivism
5. The Roles of Influence and
Authority
6. Integrity and Influence
 Educational Philosophies
Related to Society
Educational institutions are in a never-ending quest for exellence that will make them
at par with global standards. Amidst all the challenges and difficulties that come their way
is the need for a leader whose solid vision, which is an indispensable quality of leadership,
will lead the institution to greater heights.

Leadership is an aspect of management which involves the management and

development of people. It requires action as it motivates people to move towards
institutional goals. In the words of Thomas Huxley, this is emphasized when he pointed
that, “the great end of life is not knowledge but action.”

Good leadership entails appropriate and collegial relationships with colleagues and
subordinates before anything else is to be carried out. The leader’s credibility and
effectiveness emanates from this harmonious relationship.
PART 01

Behaviorism
 Behaviorism
Behaviorism is a school of thought that borders on the development of the behavior of the
students through a very conducive environment. Why are behaviorists so obsessed on
this? It is because they have the conviction that the learners are the product of the
envrionment. Hence, every learner must be exposed to an environment that is structured
and organized.

Applying this to organizational leadership, a leader who is concerned with the working
environment of his or her followers will do his or her best to provide a favorable and
conducive workplace to his or her followers. A leader believes that distractions of all sorts
from the environment like poor ventilation, substandard computers and other working
gadgets, lack of excellent lighting fixtures among others will surely distract the focus of the
followers which eventually will result to poor performance.
 PART 02

Linguistic Philosophy
 Linguistic Philosophy
In this philosophy, communicative competence is given much emphasis. A
teacher who is mindful of this philosophy would demand that students should
be taught how to communicate clearly in both oral and written. A teacher who
embraces this philosophy tries to be the model of good communication skills as
there will always be a tendency for the students to imitate his or her verbal and
nonverbal communication. It is the teacher’s crucial task to teach learners to use
a language that befits the teaching profession. But, is the organizational leader
equal to the task? The answer to this question is borne by the ardent desire to
train and field employees whose skill and expertise could be at par with the
global standards. If the leader would ignore how his or her subordinates speak
and write well in the medium required by the organization, only a culture of
mediocrity would prevail within the organization.
 PART 03

Constructivism
 Constructivism
Our millenials of today are fortunate enough to be exposed to technological
advancements which multiply by leaps and bounds. It affects them to inestimable
extents. Hence, in the midst of all of these, are these millenials capable of creating
meaning to what is happening around them? Will they take all the advancements
per se without ever critiquing and evaluating the information provided them at the
click of the fingers?
A constructivist teacher would not settle for sharing of knowledge, ideas, and
concepts alone but is rather aware that all the learning experiences he or she
provides to the learners must be meaningful in order to be carried over in the
outside world. Thus, every teacher settling for this philosophy must allow his or her
students to construct meaning to what they experience inside and outside the
classroom.
PART 04

Progressivism
 Progressivism
We applaud John Dewey, one of the advocates of this philosophy for through this
philosophy, he opened us to realities that learning is meaningful if one is involved in
it. How can a learner claim ownership of projects assigned to class if he or she did
not “dip his fingers” to finish it? If the majority or almost all of the steps involves in
a particular problem was done by the teacher, do you think that effective learning
has taken place? Spoon feeding is not advocated by this philosophy as it stands firm
in its belief that a learner is fulfilled when he or she did the learning (with minimum
guidance) by experiencing it. As the olf adage goes, “the fruit of the pudding is in
the eating.”
 Progressivism
Applying this to organizational leadership, a beautiful scenaro in the
organization will emerge if the followers will be adept and independent enough
to work with minimum coaching from their leaders. As leader who is a
progressivist never settles for the status quo and mediocrity. There is a need for
him or her to innovate. But his innovation must be encouraged among the
followers through experiencing it from their very own leader. In the event that
some blocks surface blocks surface in the course of their attempt further to
develop the organization, everyone is involved in the problem-solving activity.
While it is true that leadership entails accountabulity, the followers too are
accountable if and when their organization perishes due to their indifference in
helping solve the organization’s problems.
 PART 05

The Roles of Influence and Authority

 The Roles of Influence and
Authority
According to J. Oswald Chamber (cited in Castillo, 2014) leadership is influence.
Nothing more, nothing less. As if Mr. Oswald is enjoining every organizational
leader to cultivate influence, not authority to command respect and obedience.
But the sad thing happens: a leader only gets compliance which to his or her
followers is not a welcome gesture from his or her leadership. In other words,
leadership who exercises too much authority is basing primarily on the position
bestowed on him or her. On the other side of the coin, leaders of influence
based his or her governance on relationship with colleagues and followers. A
leader is careful not to offend others as he or she journey with them to achieve
the organizational goals. In so doing, he or she gets commitment from his or her
subordinates resulting to exemplary performance of his or her domain.
 PART 06

Integrity and Influence

 Integrity and Influence
The exercise of trust to one’s followers is one classic example of integrity in managing
the followers. In return, a leader is trusted because of his or her credibility. Every leader
must make it a point not to tarnish his or her image and reputation. If a leader is no longer
a credible leader, people will no longer obey them. The worst scenario that may happen is
not to get the loyalty and commitment of the followers in supporting his or her programs
and projects.
A leader of influence is always aware that the welfare of his or her followers matters.
Thus, a leader is all out there, if possible to care for them. Indifference of a leader is one
attitude that followers hate most. They glamour for a leader who in their diffiCulties
places himself or herself on their shoes so that maximum understanding and tolerance
are extended to them. But it must not be misunderstood that a leader of influence is
negligent of his or her policies. In fact, a leader always makes it a point to balance his or
her organizational policies and the followers’ status.
Thank you for
listening