UNIT I.

PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATION OF EDUCATION

Introduction
Let’s start here, you are going to know the different philosophical roots of education. With this, you are
empowered. Also, the preparation of this lesson is an opportunity for you to improve yourself upon
knowing the philosophical roots of education. Shall we start now!

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this lesson you will:
• define philosophy and philosophy of education;
• explain the different philosophical roots of education;
• discuss how educational philosophies are used in education; and
• synthesize a concept through writing a reflective journal on the different philosophy of education and
its use in teaching.

ACTIVITY – Let’s Read These

Do you have an idea about the education philosopher?

Education Philosophers Remarks/ Description

John Locke Empiricist
Herbert Spencer Utilitarianist
John Dewey Experience
George Counts Building a social order
Theodore Brameld Social Reconstructionist
Paulo Freire Critical pedagogy vs. Banking method

ANALYSIS – Let’s Analyze

What does the word “philosophy” mean?

How you conceptualize “philosophy of education”?

ABSTRACTION – Let’s Conceptualize
The Summaries of Thoughts of Education

Education Philosophers Remarks/ Description

John Locke Empiricist
Herbert Spencer Utilitarianist
John Dewey Experience
George Counts Building a social order
Theodore Brameld Social Reconstructionist
Paulo Freire Critical pedagogy vs. Banking method

1. JOHN LOCK (632-1704)

 Acquire knowledge about the world through the senses - learning by doing and by
interacting with the environment.
 Simple ideas become more complex through comparison, reflection and generalization-
inductive method.
 Questioned the long traditional view that knowledge came exclusively from literary
sources, particularly the Greek and Latin classics.
 Opposed he “divine right of kings” theory which lad that the monarch had the right to be
an unquestioned and absolute ruler over his subjects.
 Political order should be based upon a contract between the people and the government.
 Aristocrats are not destined by birth to be rulers. People were to establish their own
government and select their political leaders from among themselves; civic education is
necessary.
 People should be educated to govern themselves intelligently and responsibly (Orrstein,
1984)

In view to this:
 According to John Locke, Education is not acquisition of knowledge contained in the
Great Books. It is learners interacting with concrete experience, comparing and
reflecting on the same concrete experience, comparing. The learner is an active not a
passive agent of his/her own learning.
 Another from the social dimension, education is seeing citizens participate actively and
intelligently in establishing their government and in choosing who will govern them from
among themselves because they are convinced that no one person is destined to be a ruler
forever.
2. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903): Utilitarian Education
 Spencer’s concept of “survival of the fittest” means that human development
had gone through an evolutionary series of stages from the simple to the complex
and from the uniform to the more specialized kind of activity.
 Social development had taken place according to an evolutionary process by
which simple homogeneous societies had evolved to the more complex societal
systems characterized with humanistic and classical education.
 Industrialized society require vocational and professional education based on
scientific and practical (utilitarian) objectives rather than on the very educational
goals associated with humanistic and classical education.
 Curriculum should have emphasized the practical, utilitarian and scientific
subjects that helped human kind master the environment
 Was not inclined to rote learning; schooling must be related to life and to the
activities needed to earn a living.
 Curriculum must be arranged according to their contribution to human survival
and progress.
 Science and other subjects that sustained human life and prosperity should have
curricular priority since it aids I the performance of life activities.
 Individual competition leads to social progress. He who is fittest survives.
(Ornstien, 1984)

Specialized Education of Spencer vs. General Education

 To survive in a complex society, Spencer favors specialized education over that of
general education. We are in need of social engineers who can combine harmoniously
the findings of specialized knowledge. This is particularly true in the field of medicine.
 The expert who concentrates on a limited field is useful, but if he loses sight of the
interdependence of things he becomes a man who knows more and more about less and
less. Of course, we do not prefer the other extreme, the superficial person who knows
less and less about more and more.

Spencer’s Survival of the Fittest

 He who is fittest survives. Individual competition leads to social progress. The
competition in class is what advocates of whole-child approach and Social-emotional
Learning (SEL) atmosphere negate. The whole child approach a powerful tool for
SELF-focused schools has as tenets – “each students learns in an environment that is
physically and emotionally safe for students and adults” and “each student has
access to personalized learning and is supported by qualified and caring adults..’
(Frey, N. 2019)
The highlighted words point to no competition for competition works against an
emotional safe environment.
3. John Dewey (1859-1952) Learning through Experience
 Education is a social process and so school is intimately related to the society that it
serves.
 Children are socially active human beings who want to explore their environment and
gain control over it.
 Education is a social process by which immature members of the group, especially the
children, are brought to appreciate in the society.
 The school is a special environment established by members of society, for the purpose
of simplifying, purifying and integrating the social experience of the group so that it can
be understood, examined and used by its children.
 The sole purpose of education is to contribute to the personal and social growth of an
individuals.
 The steps of the scientific or reflective method which are extremely important in
Dewey’s educational theory are as follows:
 The learners has a “genuine situation of experience” involvement in an activity
in which he/she is interested.
 Within this experience the learner has a “genuine problem” that stimulates
thinking.
 The learner possesses the information or does research to acquire the information
needed to solve the problem.
 The learner develops possible and tentative solutions by applying them to the
problem. In this one way one discovers their validity for oneself.
 The fund of knowledge of the human race-past ideas, discoveries and inventions was to
be used as the material for dealing with problems. This accumulated wisdom of cultural
heritage has to be tested. If it served human purpose, it becomes part of a reconstructed
experience.
 The school is social, scientific and democratic. The school introduces children to society
and their heritage. The school as a miniature society is a means of bringing children into
social participation.
 The school is scientific in the sense that it is a social laboratory in which children and
youth could test their ideas and values. Cultural heritage, customs, and institutions are all
subjects to critical inquiry, investigation and reconstruction.
 School should be used by all, it being a democratic institution. No barrier of custom or
prejudice segregate people. People ought to work together to solve common problems.
The authorization or coercive style of administration and teaching is out of place because
they block genuine inquiry and dialogue.
 Education is a social activity and the school is a social agency that helps shape human
character and behaviour.
 Values are relative but sharing, cooperation and democracy are significant human values
that should be encouraged by schools. (Ornstien, A. 1984)
Furthermore:
The Fund of Knowledge of the Human Race
 Dewey does not disregard the accumulated wisdom of the past. These past ideas,
discoveries and inventions, our cultural heritage, will be used as the material for dealing
the problems and so will be tested. If they are of help, they become part of a
reconstructed experience. This means that the ideal learner for Dewey is not just one who
can learn by doing e.g. conduct an experiment but he one who can connect accumulated
wisdom of the past and present.
Schools are For the People and By the People
 Schools are democratic institutions where everyone regardless of age, ethnicity, social
status is welcome and is encouraged to participate in the democratic process of decision-
making. Learners and stakeholders practice and experience democracy in schools.

4. George Counts (1889-1974): Building a New Social Order

 Education is not based on eternal truths but is relative to a particular society living
at a given time and place.
 By allying themselves with groups that want to change society, schools should
cope with social change that arises from technology.
 There is a cultural lag between material progress and social institutions and
ethical values.
 Instruction should incorporate a content of a socially useful nature and a problem
–solving methodology. Students are encouraged to work on problems that have
social significance.
 School become instrument for social improvement rather than an agency of
preserving the status quo.
 Teachers should lead society rather than follow it. Teachers are agent of change.
 Teachers are called on to make important choices in the controversial areas of
economics, politics and morality because if they failed to do so, others would
make the decisions for them.
 Schools ought to provide an education that afford equal learning opportunities to
all students. (Ornstein,A. 1984

In connection to this:
SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS AS AGENTS OF CHANGE
 For George Counts, schools and teachers should be agents of change. Schools are
considered instruments for social improvement rather than as agencies for preserving the
 status quo. Whatever change we work for should always be change for the better not just
for the sake of change.
 Teachers are called to make decisions on controversial issues not to make a decision is to
actually making a decisions.
 Like Dewey, problem solving, should be the dominant method for instruction.

Lag Between Material Progress and Ethical Values

 Counts asserts that “there is a cultural lag between material progress and social
institutions and ethical values”. Material progress of human kind is very evident but
moral and ethical development seem to have lagged behind.
A friend once write: “The Egyptians had their horses. Modern man has his jets but
today it is still the same moral problems that plaque humankind.” Indeed, with
science and technology, we have become very powerful and yet powerless. We have
conquered a number of diseases and even postponed death for many, we have conquered
aging, the planets, the seas but we have not conquered ourselves.

5. Theodore Brameld (1904-1987) – Social Reconstructionism

 Social reconstructionism is a philosophy that emphasizes the reformation of
society. The social reconstructionist contend that:
- humankind has moved from agricultural and rural society to an urban and
technological society…there is a serious lag in cultural adaptation to the
realities of a technological society. Humankind has yet to reconstruct its
values in order to catch up with the changes in the technological order, and
organized education has a major role to play in reducing gap between the
values of the culture and technology. (Ornstein,1984)

Social reconstructionist asserts that school should:

 Critically examine present culture and resolve inconsistencies, controversies and
conflicts to build a new society do more than reform the social and educational
status quo. It should seek to create a new society. Humankind is in a state of
profound cultural crisis.
If school reflects the dominant social values then the organized education will
merely transmit the social ills that are symptoms of the pervasive problems and
afflictions that beset humankind… The only legitimate goal of a truly human
education is to create a world order in which people are in control of their own
destiny. In an era of nuclear weapons, the social reconstructionist see an urgent
for a society to reconstruct itself before it destroys itself. (Ornstein,1984)
 Technological era is an era of interdependence and so education must be
international in scope for global citizenship.
  For the social reconstructionist, education is designed “to awaken students’
consciousness about social problems and to engage them actively in problem
solving.” (Ornstein,1984)
 Social reconstructionist are firmly committed to equality or equity in both
society and education. Barriers of socio-economics class and racial discrimination
should be eradicated.
They also emphasized the idea of an interdependent world. The quality of life needs to be
considered ad enhanced on a global basis. (Ornstein,1984)

In addition,
Like Dewey, and Counts, Social reconstructionist Brameld believe in active problem solving
as the method of teaching and learning.
Social reconstructionists are convinced that education is not a privilege of the few but a right to
be enjoyed by all. Education is a right that all citizens regardless of race and social status must
enjoy.

6. Paulo Freire (1921-1997) Critical Pedagogy and Dialogue vs. Banking

Model of Education
 Paulo Freire, a critical theorist, like Social reconstructionists believed that system must
be changed to overcome oppression and improve human conditions.
 Education and literacy are the vehicle for social change. In this view, humans must learn
to rest oppression and not become its victims, nor oppress others, to do so require
dialogue and social consciousness, the development of awareness to overcome
domination and oppression.
 Rather than “teaching as banking” in which educators deposits information into
students’ heads Freire saw teaching and learning as a process of inquiry in which child
must invent and reinvent the world.
 Teachers must not see themselves as the sole possessors of knowledge and their students
as empty receptacles. He calls this pedagogical approach the “banking method” of
education.
 A democratic relationship between the teacher and her students is necessary in order for
the conscientization process to take place. Freire’s critical pedagogy is problem-posing
education.
 A central element of Freire’s pedagogy is dialogue. It is love and respect that allow us to
engage people in dialogue and discover ourselves in the process and learn from one
another.
 By its nature, dialogue is not something that can be imposed. Instead, genuine dialogue is
characterized by respect of the parties involved toward one another.
  We develop a tolerant sensibility during the dialogue process, and it is only when we
come to tolerate the points of view and ways of being others that we might be able to
learn from them and about ourselves in the process.
 Dialogue means the presence of equality, mutual recognition, affirmation of people, a
sense of solidarity with people and remaining open to questions.
 Dialogue is the basis for critical problem-posing pedagogy as to oppose to banking
education, where there is no discussion, only the imposition of the teacher’s ideas on the
students.
 More so, education philosophers point to the need of interacting with others and of
creating a “community of inquiry” as Charles Sanders Peirce put it. The community of
inquiry is “a group of persons involved in inquiry, investigating more or less the same
question or problem and developing through their exchanges a better understanding both
of the question as well as the probable questions.” (Lee, 2010). A community of inquiry
will engage learners inactive problem solving.

Wrap-Up
Philosophers Contribution to education..
JOHN LOCKE- THE EMPIRICIST Education is not acquisition of
knowledge contained in the Classics.
It is learners interacting with concrete
experience. The learner is an active
not a passive agent of his own/her own
learning.

From the social dimension, education is

seeing citizens participate actively and
intelligently in establishing their government
and in choosing who will govern them from
among themselves. They are of the thinking
that no one person is destined to be ruler
forever. This is in keeping with the Anti-
Political Dynasty Bill.
SPENCER- THE UTILITARIANIST To Survive in a complex society,
Spencer favors specialized education
over that of General education.

The expect who concretes in a limited

field is useful, but he loses the sign of
interdependence of things he becomes
a man who knows more and more
about less and less, must be warned of
the early Peril of over-specialism. Of
course, we do not prefer the other
 extreme, the superficial person who
every day knows less and less about
more and more.
Who is fittest survives. Individual
competition leads to social progress.
The competition in class is what
advocates of whole-child approach
and Social-emotional Learning (SEL)
atmosphere approach and Social-
emotional Learning(SEL) atmosphere
negate. The whole child approach, a
powerful tool for SEL-focused
schools has as tenets – “each student
learns in an environment that is
physically and emotionally safe for
students and adults” and each student
has access to personalized learning
and is supported by qualified for
competition works against an
emotionally safe environment

JOHN DEWEY- EXPERIENCE Dewey does not disregard the

accumulated wisdom of the past.
These past ideas, discoveries and
invention, our cultural heritage, will
be used as the material for dealing
with problems and so will be tested. If
they are of helped, they become part
of a reconstructed experience. If they
are not totally accurate, they will still
be a part of a reconstructed
experience. This means that the ideal
learner for Dewey is not just one who
can learn by doing e.g. conduct
experiment but one who can
accumulated wisdom of the past and
present.

Schools are for the people and by the people.

Schools are democratic institution where
everyone regardless of age, ethnicity, social
status is welcome and is encouraged to
participate in the democratic process of
decision-making Learners and stakeholders
practice and experience democracy in
schools.
GEORGE COUNTS - BUILDING A Schools and teachers should be agents
NEW SOCIAL ORDER of change. Schools are considered
instruments for social improvement
rather than as agencies for preserving
the status quo. Whatever change we
work for should always be change for
the better not just change for the sake
of change.

Problem solving, like Dewey, should

be dominant method for instruction.

“There is a cultural lag between

material progress and social
institutions and ethical values.”
Material progress of human kind is
very evident but moral and ethical
development seem to have lagged
behind.
Is very evident but moral and ethical
development seem to have lagged behind.
THEODORE BRAMELD – THE Social reconstructionist critically examine
SOCIAL RECONTRUCTIONIST present culture and resolve inconsistencies,
controversies and conflicts to build a new
society not just change society. Technological
era pedagogy and dialogue in contrast to the
banking system of education
PAULO FREIRE – CRITICAL Employ critical pedagogy and dialogue in
PEDAGOGY VS. BANKING METHOD contrast to the banking system of education.
Learners are not empty receptacles to be
filled.
Reading Source: Pawilen, Reyes, Rivera, and Sison (2019). The School and the Community,
School Culture and Organizational Leadership. Rex Bookstore. Quezon City

APPLICATION:
 Make a table summary of the philosophies of education. (AA1)
Philosopher Philosophy on Aim/s and Classroom / School
Method/s of Education Application

Closure
Amazing! I appreciate your hard work in this lesson. The next lesson will help you
understand the historical foundation of education. Enjoy your next task!