TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
For me, the essence of the progressive philosophy that has influenced me begins with John Dewey (1930) who divulged the crux of his pragmatism by highlighting the priority of social and communal dimensions of experience. He described the dualism of an experience as having both an active and passive part and can only involve change if those two parts are acted out together. The active element is the “trying” part of the experience and the passive element is the “undergoing” of consequences. Reflection becomes the acceptance of the experience and the responsibility for future consequences which flow from present action (Dewey, 1930).
Maxine Greene’s (2009) message expanded Dewey’s (1930) theories to an explicit justification for the importance of the experience and the reflection. She believed that art is created to help the creator work through an experience. Therefore, the viewer must use his or her experiences to understand the creator’s experience.
Paolo Freire’s (2009) message is similar to both Maxine Greene’s (2009) and John Dewey’s (1930) in that they all are advocating for the educator to know the experience of the learners and to help them focus on the reality of the situation. Knowing how to help students with such a phenomenological state aides my understanding of how the creative process is taught most effectively to students. Freire’s (2009) process of problem posing helped me to understand how problems can be posed in the art room. The creative process becomes a process of dialogue and praxis. The artwork is a symptom of the dialogue, reflection, or action taken during the creative process.
Understanding this existential philosophy helps me to understand and ratify Viktor Lowenfeld’s (1982) approach to expanding children’s experiences with education. Lowenfeld (1982) explained that we should be sensitive to a child’s needs because that means we understand the child. As adults, we should not transfer our feelings onto the child but instead, know the child’s feelings, translate them and put ourselves into the child’s position. From this vantage point, we should start our motivation where the child’s experience ends.
Curricularist, James MacDonald (1980), stopped talking about “how someone does curriculum theory” (p. 58) and illustrated how one goes about “constructing” curriculum theory. He explains that this “construction” is not a rational process but one that deals with, “perceptions of wholes and attempts to analyze, synthesize, and prescribe within the same framework” (1980, p. 58). Curriculum theory and practice are part of a hermeneutic circle; they are connected. Constructing curriculum theory is a creative, aesthetic process just like the process involved in creating visual art. Everything will be considered in the creative process. Experiences will be reflected. Parts will be analyzed and goals will be considered. Eventually, parts become synthesized into a new creation with a specific end in mind.
After reading and studying these philosophies, the history of education and art education, and art history, I have seen how the pendulum swings from one philosophical stance to another. I have seen how an accountability movement has affected my children, my students, and my college students. I have lived with and am still living with my educational experiences as a teacher, parent, and student. I have analyzed the problems and dialogued about them. I have made connections to my past and have become fully alive and awake in the present. I have reflected on the problems and I am now taking action. I will use, as Freire (2009) stated it, the word to create action to allow other parents and educators to better understand the existential phenomenology involved in quality education. I will make it known that through my teaching, I have found the experience, the reflection of that experience, and the action taken because of the reflection of the experience, to be the dominant pedagogical approach that I advocate when instructing students and creating curriculum for these students.
References
Dewey, John. (1930). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education. New
York: Macmillan Company.
Freire, Paolo. (2009). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. In The curriculum studies reader: 3rd edition. Eds. D. J. Flinders & S.J. Thornton. New York: Routledge.
Greene, Maxine. (2009). Curriculum and consciousness. In The curriculum studies reader: 3rd edition. Eds. D. J. Flinders & S.J. Thornton. New York: Routledge.
Lowenfeld, Viktor. (1982). The Lowenfeld lectures. Ed. John Michael. The Pennsylvania State
University.
MacDonald, James B. (2001). How literal is curriculum theory? Theory into practice. 12(1), pp. 55- 61.
Tanner, D. (1980). Curriculum sources and influences—conflicting educational theories. In Curriculum Development: Theory Into Practice. New York: MacMillan Publishing. pp. 100-141.
1930).