Chapter One

General notes, by John Bartelt, pertaining to the Ed310 textbook

Philosophical and Ideological Voices in Education, by Gerald L. Gutek

NOTE: These notes are NOT intended to replace your text!

They are only intended as a review, to supplement your text.

Please read your text, and use these notes for review only.

Chapter One: Philosophy & Education

Differentiate between "the urgent" (attendance, assignments, tasks) and "the important" (understanding, interpreting, determining). What makes something meaningful? What are the "beyond" questions? (What is real, true, worthy, etc.)

The four major subdivisions of philosophy:

Metaphysics (What is real?) [relates to curriculum/content] [body, spirit, or mind?]

Epistemology (How do you know what you know?) [sensation, authority, or thought?]*

Axiology (What and why do you value?) [includes ethics & aesthetics]**

Logic (How do you organize your reasoning?)***

*[relates to methods of instruction/ how we teach]

Is knowledge derived through the senses? (If so, will teach via sensory learning.)

Or, does knowledge come from authority? (If so, we will form our beliefs from that source.)

Or, is knowledge already present in the mind? (If so, will teach via reasoning.)

**[relates to character education, art, and citizenship]

Are there universal and timeless principles of right/wrong which are found at all societies at all times? Or, are all values relative to different cultures at particular times? Are certain things considered "beautiful" universally? Or do they reflect the values of a certain time/place?

***[relates to how instruction is organized]

Deduction (explanatory = traditional curriculum, organized in sequence)

Induction (predictive = constructivist curriculum, direct experiences, form own generalizations)

Abduction (sparking thought)

Chapter Two: Idealism

Idea: thought, concept, or image about something.

Ideal: principle or standard to which we can aspire.

Idealist: striving for perfection is a desirable goal.

All things, and all ideas, derive from a pure and perfect spiritual source/essence. The senses are imperfect sensors of that source.

Plato: Allegory of the Cave.

Descartes: Doubt everything (except the fact that you are doubting), because the senses deceive (because they are based on opposite points of reference). Hence "I think, therefore I am."

Kant: The categorical imperative (all persons have intrinsic rights, values, and ends). Meaning comes from preexisting conceptual structures.

Hegel (& Watts): Every idea contains its opposite idea (antithesis) enfolded within it.

Froebel/Montessori: Development begins within the child, as latent powers rise to the surface.

Emerson: Over-Soul (individuals are microcosms of the world mind).

Idealistic teachers: Strive to motivate students to be truth-seekers and develop to their highest potential. Teaching is a moral calling. Character/values education. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Gestalt (whole) view. Schools exists to facilitate a student's spiritual and/or intellectual growth. All education is really self-education. Curriculum always has a cultural core.

Chapter Three: Realism

Realism: the reality of an objective order. What is external to us is real, and exists prior to our experience. All views of the world are the results of direct experience. The reasoned life yields greatest happiness. There is a "real" world of objects that have matter and form, and exists independently of us, that we can acquire knowledge about through our powers of sensation and abstraction. All human beings participate in a shared, general ethical human nature. We organize reasoning by conceptually arranging the frameworks of deduction and induction.

The purpose of education is to cultivate, develop, inform, and guide reasoning, by classifying objects within a body of knowledge, in a cumulative, sequential, and systematic manner. The same curriculum should be offered to all. Everyone has a duty to contribute the greatest values of which he or she is capable. The mind's ability to envision possibility is stronger than genetic proclivity.

Chapter Four: Theistic Realism (Thomism)

Thomas Aquinas. Philosophy (reason) is compatible with theology (divine revelation), because natural laws operate in accordance with the divine plan. Values are universal and timeless. Truth is an infinite realm. "Wrong" is a means without an end.

Chapter Five: Pragmatism

John Dewey. A uniquely "American" philosophy of the early 20th century. Knowledge results from the empirical (observable and replicable) testing of practical ideas in human experience. There is no power or source higher than human experience. The scientific method should be applied to thinking itself (define a problem, research and act on an action, and hypothesize future responses). Good teaching and learning involves process-based problem-solving. Since life is dynamic, values cannot be determined for all time, but are, rather, projects to be worked out in human experience. Curriculum should not be prescribed in advance, but, rather, should derive from student experiences.

Chapter Six: Existentialism

Soren Kierkegaard, Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Buber. In psychology, Rooly May, Viktor Frankl, Gordon Allpart, and Carl Rogers. Embraced only recently (latter 20th century). There is no predetermined definition or purpose. We are totally free to make our own definitions through choice, and totally responsible for making choices toward self-definition. We are free only to bear the responsibility of making free choices. Angst is the awareness that we are responsible for our choices and will eventually disappear. Tragedy is finding personal meaning in an indifferent world. Existentialism corresponds to the self-definition phase of adolescence. The world simply "is". My existence makes no difference to anyone, but I can choose to make a difference to myself. We have been cast as actors who must write our own script as we go. Everything we learn is a tool toward the realization of our own subjectivity.

Students are free agents, responsible for their own self-construction as individuals. Role-playing a pre-defined societal script prevents being true to one's own authentic choices. Standards in teaching are tyrannical. Authentic assessment (such as portfolios or journals) better allows students to strive toward their own goals. Teachers should concentrate on asking questions to which we do not know the answer, so that they can learn along with their students. The act of creating something is far more important than what is created. [See top left of text page 102.] We view the past only through the lens of the present, thereby creating the past in the present. So history only has meaning in relation to present circumstance. The meanings of the past are authored in the here and now. History can therefore only be appropriated.

Chapter Seven: Philosophical (Linguistic) Analysis

Examine and clarify our use of language. What is the meaning of what we say and write? Reduce statement to their irreducible form, then test them empirically.

Three kinds of statements:

Analytical (the predicate is contained in the subject; e.g. "Iraqis are human beings" [verifiable], or "Freedom is strength" [not verifiable]). Used to express fact.

Synthetic (the predicate is not contained in the subject; e.g. "John weighs 150 pounds" [verifiable], or "No child should be left behind" [not verifiable]). Used to express fact.

Emotive (the meaning is ours); e.g. "I love my partner," or "Life is good" [never verifiable]. Purporting emotive statements to be verifiable can be dangerous. Used to express emotion.

Public education in the U.S. is inherently political, because it employs ideological exhortations.

Chapter Eight: Postmodernism

Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault. Rejects all existing theoretical structures. Sees metaphysical thought as a philosophical tranquilizer for insecure people. Strives to blend subjects and fields of thought. Rejects the idea of universal truths or approaches to rationality. Believes that previous ideologies supported industrialization, globalization, and a new exploitative capitalist ruling class fueled by racist imperialism. The world is incomplete, and in the process of becoming. We construct our own reality from our intuitions and experiences.

Believes that the dominant group creates racist, classist, and sexist language in order to subordinate and marginalize the under-represented groups. Postmodernism supports including feminism, multiculturalism, and the works of under-represented groups in the curriculum. Derrida, particularly, purports the "deconstruction" of culture by gleaning how it is represented in writings. Texts do not reflect metaphysical principles, but rather, are social constructions that involved political power relationships. What are the assumptions, presuppositions, and meanings of a text's culture? Philosophy is a socially-charged study in grammar. Establishing meaning requires interpretation.

Whoever claims to possess "the truth" either creates or supports a power relationship, or "regime of truth" by which people can control one another. Stereotypes from the 1950s about the appropriate roles of a female are good examples of this, as are the myths that have been created throughout history to foster patriotism of the controlling class and reduce conquered indigenous peoples to ignorant savages. Claims to authority, even regarding knowledge, is how dominant groups control subordinate ones. Things can only be "true", or "scientific", or "objective" for those who share the commitment to use that same terminology. Guilt is a powerful means of social control. Education must examine the social and political consequences of claims to truth. Claims to knowledge are never neutral, and the official curriculum is only one version of reality.

Postmodernists believe that public education is used to perpetuate a capitalist, Eurocentric, patriarchal social order. Teachers should encourage multiculturalism and dialogue, by functioning as agents of critical change.

Chapter Nine: Ideology and Education

Ideology is a group's shared beliefs, values, and identity, based on place, time, and group membership. Philosophies claim relevance to all people at all times.

The ideology of liberalism served to proclaim individual rights against the vested aristocracy. Conservatism followed, to urge restoring the traditional institutions.

Paulo Friere: All education is conditioned and shaped by ideology, and exists to protect the dominant ideology. True teachers cannot reduce their practice to mere transmission of contents. True teachers must also stand up for what is right, against what is indecent.

Chapter Ten: Nationalism, American Exceptionalism, and Ethnonationalism

Currently, two hundred sovereign nation-states have school systems to socialize its children as national citizens. In the U.S., nationality was modeled on the white, English, Protestant interpretation of a celebrated and acclaimed American past. American Exceptionalism is perhaps best expressed in terms of "manifest destiny": God has favored Americans above all other peoples. Noah Webster believed that "a foreign education is the very source of evil." This type of extreme Nationalism has always led to world wars and conflicts.

Chapter Eleven: Liberalism

Liberalism began with the 18th century Enlightenment. A liberal believes that progress is both possible and desirable, and that the human condition can be improved through the free flow of ideas. Schools should be used to promote racial integration, solve social problems, encourage conflict resolution, and promote multiculturalism, by informing and encouraging critical thinking, rather than through dogmatic conformism.

John Locke: Government functions by a mutual consent of the governed. Classical Liberalism promotes separation of church and state, and argues that utility involves bringing the greatest good to the greatest number of people. John Stuart Mill promoted women's rights, and believed that schools should be open to all ideas, including unpopular or unconventional ones. Freedom should be limited only to the point where it interferes with another person's freedom.

Whereas conservatives believe that human beings are born in sin with a tendency to evil, and should be punished if they choose the wrong path, liberals tend to see people as inherently good by nature. John Dewey believed that schools should be places of academic freedom, where teachers are free to teach and students are free to learn, without censorship or arbitrary controls. While conservatives believe that everything ends up being clouded by relativism, liberals hold that libraries should not be censored, but should include controversial books. Liberals also tend to endorse process-oriented education ("learn by doing"). Neo-Marxists and Critical Theorists might argue that the Liberal process merely maintains the status quo of the dominant politics and economy. Liberals would be highly suspicious of Fascists on the right and of Marxists on the left, both of whom promise a perfect world order by purging the undesirables. In times of crisis, conservatives argue for safety over rights, whereas liberals opt for freedom even to the point of allowing those who want to destroy it to organize against it.

The Liberal teacher is flexible, and ready to diverge from the prepared lesson plan to make the most of a "teachable moment".

Chapter Twelve: Conservatism

Edmund Burke. Conservatism advocates maintaining and preserving traditional institutions, in order to pass along from one generation to the next the best elements of the past. Right and wrong are not voting matters. They are institutional, and enshrined in customary manners and behavior.

Human beings are imperfect (and/or sinful) creatures who need traditional social institutions and guidelines in order to know "correct" behavior. Tradition is the legacy that maintains social stability. Not all people are equal in intelligence and ability. Tradition is the best source of authority. The American past is one of ordained Divine Providence and manifest destiny. We, being on God's side, have the right to make unilateral decisions that affect world affairs. Thus, the world is divided into good and evil, and others "are either with us, or against us."

Educationally, we should tolerate neither bilingualism nor multiculturalism, but should instead focus on respect for authority, hard work, diligence, and civic responsibility. Schools exist to prepare a well-trained workforce, and to support traditional "family values". Women are traditionally homemakers and child-bearers, men are traditionally primary breadwinners. Creationism should be taught instead of (or at least alongside) evolutionism. Alternative families, such as same-sex arrangements, only cloud values and thus threaten the social order. Standardized testing is the only way to determine academic competency.

The conservative "heritage of Western Civilization" is in actuality one ideology promoted by a dominant group at a particular time in history, but conservatives believe that society must adhere to it, because straying from it will tempt us toward our evil nature, resulting in the erosion of civilization.

Chapter Thirteen: Marxism (Scientific Socialism)

Marxism, which remains the official ideology of China and Cuba, interprets Western history as a class struggle. Karl Marx saw this conflict as a struggle of competing socioeconomic classes to control the material foundations of life, and their means and modes of production. Whoever controls those, controls all power, and workers are deliberately misled so they do not see themselves as exploited. But capitalism, because of its never-satisfied appetite for profits, will sow the seeds of its own destruction, with the inevitable victory going to the working classes. Democratic Socialists believe that socialism can succeed through political and educational means, rather than by violent revolution. Scandinavia and the European Union, for example, have successfully instituted numerous Democratic Socialist principles in policy and practice, and that has influenced and shaped how we think about the world.

In the same way that the church sanctions the status quo that protects capitalism, the school system indoctrinates the young by teaching false ideologies which sustain an unequal society. The value of work is appropriated by non-working capitalists, instead of giving work a social value by sharing the product fairly with other workers. The school reflects how the dominant class uses knowledge, and its instruments are framed in ways that benefit the dominant class. Tests are used to sort students in ways that mirror the class situations that exist outside the school. Schools are therefore used by the dominant class as agencies of social control.

Chapter Fourteen: Liberation Pedagogy

Paulo Friere. The purpose of school is to bring literacy to the impoverished, the illiterate, and the urban poor. Ignorance and poverty are caused by economic, social, and political domination. Consciousness to raise critical awareness can come from exposing the "hidden curriculum" of addictive consumerism (i.e. to desire material goods that one does not really need), and by allowing local people to define and create the educational processes that serve them best.

Friere maintains that teachers cannot remain neutral. The scientific method is only one way to think, and can be used as an instrument of oppression. Friere criticized even Liberalism as offering false promises by neglecting to ultimately improve the situation of those most in need. He also maintained that values are not freely made and chosen, but rather, imposed by the dominant class on the oppressed. A history that celebrates the achievements of the ruling class while ignoring the contributions of the marginalized, distorts the truth, falsifies the past, and dehumanizes us all. According to Friere, genuine teaching should create, rather than transmit, knowledge, via critical dialogue which recognizes that all social and educational situations are ideological.

Educational "banking" is where information is deposited in a mental bank, where it is stored until it later needs to be "cashed in". Standardized testing is an example of the banking model of education.

Friere: "When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist."

Friere: "It is not the unloved who initiate disaffection, but those who cannot love because they only love themselves. It is not the helpless, subject to terror, who initiate terror, but the violent, who with their power create the concrete situation which begets he 'rejects of life.' It is not the despised who initiated hatred, but those who despise. It is not those whose humanity is denied them who negate man, but those who denied that humanity, thus negating their own as well. Force is used not by those who have become weak under the preponderance of the strong, but by the strong who have emasculated them. For the oppressors, however, it is always the oppressed who are disaffected, who are 'violent,' 'barbaric,' 'wicked,' or 'ferocious' when they react to the violence of the oppressors."

Chapter Fifteen: Theory and Education

Theory: a hypothetical set of ideas or principles that can guide practice.

Essentialism is derived from Idealism, Realism, and Conservatism.

Perennialism is derived from Realism, Theistic Realism, and Conservatism.

Progressivism is derived from Pragmatism and Liberalism.

Critical Theory is derived from Existentialism, Postmodernism, Marxism, and Liberation Pedagogy.

Chapter Sixteen: Essentialism emphasizes fundamental/basic skills and subjects. "Back to basics." Don't get lost in irrelevant issues. The "three R's". "No Child Left Behind." Discipline. Benchmarks. Standardized testing. Inculcate traditional values of patriotism, hard work, effort, discipline, respect for authority, and order.

Chapter Seventeen: Perennialism asserts that the reoccurring patterns of human life should set the foundations for education and schooling. Find universal truth, live the values based on it, and understand the classics that reflect it.

Chapter Eighteen: Progressivism believes in public consensus to bring about gradual reforms. Use group learning and open methods of instruction to encourage children's self-expression. Shape the curriculum around children's needs and experiences. They will construct their own knowledge through interaction with their environment. The teacher's responsibility is to facilitate learning.

Chapter Nineteen: Critical Theory (1960s) sees schools as arenas in which groups contend for power and control. The emphasis should be on advocating the causes of the disempowered and subordinated groups. Schools, segregated into socio-economic levels, reproduce the dominant status quo. But if marginalized classes are made aware of their exploitation, they can resist further domination. The purpose of critical education is to raise the consciousness of the dispossessed, and encourage them to work toward their own empowerment Common themes have been civil rights, women's rights, equal rights, environmental and social issues, and racial integration. Teachers should encourage students to voice their beliefs and concerns, and to understand how their peers feel about what is right and wrong. Critical Theorists believe in the empowerment of teachers, rather than in perpetuating teachers as an underpaid workforce who are controlled by bureaucrats who see to it that the values of the ruling class are imposed on subordinate groups. The "hidden curriculum" portrays the American experience as favorable to industrial capitalism, supports "this is mine and that is yours" values, and encourages sexist and consumer-driven values. Knowledge is created rather than transmitted.

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General Comparison of Liberal and Conservative Ideologies,

adapted by John Bartelt from the Ed310 textbook

Critical Issues in Education: Dialogues and Dialectics, by Nelson, Palonsky, & McCarthy

LIBERAL	CONSERVATIVE
We must embrace diversity and think critically.	We have lost our traditional moral and social compass.
Answers are often inherently contradictory, competing, or inconsistent.	The right answers are always simple, clear, and forceful.
Humans are inherently good, trustworthy, and responsible by nature, and need freedoms.	Humans are inherently flawed and/or sinful by nature, and need structure and rules.
What's important is the process of thinking.	What's important is knowing the right answers.
Democracy requires an enlightened public and free dissent.	Democracy requires social tradition and control.
Cut class size.	Cut school expenses.
Repair buildings.	Lower taxes.
Allow more local control.	Impose more national standards.
Educate about social concerns.	Stick to the basics.
Give teachers more freedom.	Make teachers more accountable.
Make schools more collaborative and inclusive.	Increase individual competition for grades and awards.
Schools should include social components such as medical exams, health instruction, lunch programs, multicultural education, and community involvement.	Schools should focus on traditional practices, rigid discipline, rote memorization and drill, rigor, classic American values, dress codes, and standardized tests.
Crime and corruption are made worse by a lack of critical thought and involvement.	Crime and corruption are the result of progressive education and ideas.
Bilingual education allows the child to learn content while learning English.	Full immersion forces the child to embrace traditional American values.
Teachers should have a hand in creating their own curriculum, based on the individual needs and interests of their children.	The same curriculum should be proscribed for all, to ensure that teachers teach appropriate things consistently.
We should teach world views.	We should teach a unified American view.
Educators are generally good, and try to be sensitive to students' self-esteem	Educators are generally poor, and tend to brainwash students with alternative values.
Current content standards are generally dull and lack a multicultural/world perspective.	Current content standards are insufficiently patriotic and overly-liberal.
We should openly discuss the sex, religion, and politics of the world's peoples.	Discussing non-traditional sex, religion, and politics is morally destructive and unpatriotic.
Unity is complacent, whereas diversity provides richness.	Unity provides a focus, whereas diversity invites dissention.
Censorship of any kind is antithetical to critical thinking.	Censorship of diverse ideas is sometimes necessary to ensure the social order.

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