{"id":294,"date":"2019-07-17T02:20:13","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T02:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-oneonta-education106\/?post_type=chapter&p=294"},"modified":"2025-07-02T17:36:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T17:36:03","slug":"5-3-philosophical-perspective-of-education","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-hvcc-education106\/chapter\/5-3-philosophical-perspective-of-education\/","title":{"raw":"5.3 Philosophical Perspectives of Education","rendered":"5.3 Philosophical Perspectives of Education"},"content":{"raw":"
\r\n\r\nThere are four philosophical perspectives currently used in educational settings: essentialism, perennialism, progressivism, and social reconstructionism\/critical pedagogy. Unlike the more abstract ontology and axiology, these four perspectives focus primarily on what should be taught and how it should be taught, i.e. the curriculum.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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Essentialism<\/h2>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\n\r\nEssentialism adheres to a belief that a core set of essential skills must be taught to all students. Essentialists\u00a0tend to privilege traditional academic disciplines that will develop prescribed skills and objectives in different content areas as well as develop a common culture. Typically, essentialism argues for a back-to-basics approach on teaching intellectual and moral standards. Schools should prepare all students to be productive members of society. Essentialist curricula focuses on reading, writing, computing clearly and logically about objective facts about the outside real world. Schools should be sites of rigor where students learn to work hard and respect authority.\u00a0 Because of this stance, essentialism tends to subscribe to tenets of Realism.\u00a0 Essentialist classrooms tend to be teacher-centered in instructional delivery with an emphasis on lecture and teacher demonstrations.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\n\r\nKey theorists:\r\n

William Bagley, E.D. Hirsh Jr.<\/p>\r\nDr. Hirsch developed a curriculum called \"core knowledge\" built from his philosophical beliefs.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XxyFkGYTb5o\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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Perennialism<\/h2>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\n\r\nPerennialism\u00a0advocates for seeking, teaching, and learning universal truths that span across historical time periods. These truths,\u00a0Perennialists\u00a0argue, have everlasting importance\u00a0in\u00a0helping humans\u00a0solve problems regardless of time and place. While Perennialism resembles essentialism at first glance, perennialism focuses on the individual development of the student rather than emphasizing skills. Perennialism supports liberal arts curricula that\u00a0helps produces well-rounded individuals with some knowledge across the arts and sciences.\u00a0All students should take classes in English Language Arts, foreign languages, mathematics, natural sciences, fine arts, and philosophy. Like Essentialism,\u00a0Perennialism may tend to favor teacher-centered instruction; however,\u00a0Perennialists\u00a0do utilize student-centered instructional activities like Socratic Seminar, which values and encourages students to think, rationalize, and develop their own ideas on topics.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\n\r\nKey theorists:\r\n

Robert Hutchins, Mortimer Adler<\/p>\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hKaUq-Hi660\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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Progressivism<\/h2>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n\r\nProgressivism focuses its educational stance toward experiential learning with a focus on developing the whole child. Students learn by doing rather than being lectured to by teachers. Curriculum is usually\u00a0integrated\u00a0across contents instead of siloed into\u00a0different disciplines. Progressivism\u2019s stance is in stark contrast to both Essentialism and Perennialism in this manner. Progressivism follows a clear pragmatic ontology where the learner focuses on solving real-world problems through real experiences. Progressivist classrooms are student-centered where students will work in cooperative\/collaborative groups to do project-based, expeditionary, problem-based,\u00a0and\/or\u00a0service-learning\u00a0activities. In\u00a0progressivist classrooms, students have opportunities to follow their interests and have shared authority in planning and decision making with teachers.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\n\r\nKey theorists:\r\n

John Dewey, Maria Montessori<\/p>\r\nRead more about Dr. Maria Montessori:<\/a>\u00a0https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Maria-Montessori\r\n\r\nWatch this video to take a peek into what a Montessori classroom looks like today.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8euBZVO0p_E\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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Social Reconstructionism & Critical Pedagogy<\/h2>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\n\r\nSocial\u00a0reconstructionism was founded as a response to the atrocities of World War II and the Holocaust to assuage human cruelty. Social reform in response to helping prepare\u00a0students to make a better world through instilling democratic values. Critical pedagogy emerged from the foundation of the early social reconstructionist movement.\u00a0Critical pedagogy is the application of critical theory to education. For critical pedagogues, teaching and learning is inherently a political act\u00a0and they declare that\u00a0knowledge and language\u00a0are\u00a0not neutral,\u00a0nor can\u00a0they\u00a0be objective. Therefore, issues involving social, environmental, or economic justice cannot be separated from the curriculum. Critical pedagogy\u2019s goal\u00a0is\u00a0to emancipate marginalized or oppressed groups by developing, according to Paulo Freire,\u00a0conscientiza\u00e7\u00e3o, or critical consciousness in students. Critical pedagogy de-centers\u00a0the\u00a0traditional classroom, which positions teacher at the center. The curriculum and classroom with a critical pedagogy stance is student-centered\u00a0and focuses its\u00a0content on social critique and political action.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\n\r\nKey theorists:\r\n

Paulo Freire, bell hooks (note: bell hooks intentionally\u00a0does\u00a0not capitalize her name, which follows her critical stance that language, even how we write one\u2019s own name, is political and ideological.)<\/p>\r\nDr. Gloria Ladson-Billings work connects with this perspective. Here she describes her views on culturally relevant pedagogy.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hmAZjNRmalI\r\n\r\nThis video on Paulo Freire's philosophies was posted in chapter 1 as well. Reposted it here as a reminder of his work.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jXUv7pIveMA\r\n\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"

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There are four philosophical perspectives currently used in educational settings: essentialism, perennialism, progressivism, and social reconstructionism\/critical pedagogy. Unlike the more abstract ontology and axiology, these four perspectives focus primarily on what should be taught and how it should be taught, i.e. the curriculum.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Essentialism<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Essentialism adheres to a belief that a core set of essential skills must be taught to all students. Essentialists\u00a0tend to privilege traditional academic disciplines that will develop prescribed skills and objectives in different content areas as well as develop a common culture. Typically, essentialism argues for a back-to-basics approach on teaching intellectual and moral standards. Schools should prepare all students to be productive members of society. Essentialist curricula focuses on reading, writing, computing clearly and logically about objective facts about the outside real world. Schools should be sites of rigor where students learn to work hard and respect authority.\u00a0 Because of this stance, essentialism tends to subscribe to tenets of Realism.\u00a0 Essentialist classrooms tend to be teacher-centered in instructional delivery with an emphasis on lecture and teacher demonstrations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Key theorists:<\/p>\n

William Bagley, E.D. Hirsh Jr.<\/p>\n

Dr. Hirsch developed a curriculum called “core knowledge” built from his philosophical beliefs.<\/p>\n