Major Educational Philosophies
There are four major educational philosophies, which include essentialism, perennialism, romanticism, and progressivism. This paper will focus on essentialism, perennialism, and progressivism as the major educational and learning philosophies in America, and their historical development and shift.
Essentialism
This learning philosophy is based on the idea that teachers should teach students basic life skills, which begins with the mind's training. Essentialist educators promote teaching by transmitting knowledge to students, on progressively difficult topics, and promoting them to the next level upon achievement of learning of the course concepts. Essentialism engages students in subjects which provide them with a solid comprehension of the present day, where students undertake projects and practice, and assessments of the concepts learned over a semester or a year. Students are also expected to take notes during classes that adopt this learning philosophy. They, therefore, become self-reliant and independent and influence their academic achievement. Essentialists also believed that learning requires hard work, and therefore, memorization and drilling are effective teaching methods (Dave, 2014). Students are also expected to maintain the discipline to focus on the learning tasks.
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William C. Bagley mainly advocated essentialism as an educational philosophy. Bagley believed that education was supposed to preserve society and not to change it. His main idea was to create current knowledge and integrate it into the core curriculum. The Sputnik launch in the Soviet Union in 1957 inspired American schools to adopt the essentialist teaching and educational philosophy, because it inspired the essentialists to teach students current knowledge, and train them how to reason and develop ideas (Dave, 2014). Additionally, the Sputnik launch made American educators feel that their educational approaches were inferior and, therefore, limited America from launching their rockets into space for exploration. Therefore, Americans adopted essentialism to encourage students to master the concepts taught in school, to help America launch to space.
Perennialism
This educational philosophy is subject-centered and values educational knowledge that transcends time. Perennial educators tend to encourage students to adopt rational thinking and develop their minds to adopt critical thinking. Such a classroom tends to be highly disciplined and closely organized, to encourage students to embark on a quest for truth. Under this philosophy, education should guide students to great historical works, use them to understand today's world and its processes (Dave, 2014). Therefore, perennialism focuses on mastering educational content and developing reasoning skills.
Perennialism was originally religious, as developed by Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century. In the 20th century, Robert Hutchins and Mortimer Adler argued for secular perennialism. They were humanist and scientific traditions were supposed to be great influences in education (Dave, 2014). The two philosophers believed that schools should focus on continuously developing students’ knowledge and artistry, using historical work as models for educational discovery. By doing so, schools would teach students the American tradition necessary for their human rights and freedoms, in tandem with American democracy. Just as essentialists, perennial thinkers were conservative.
Progressivism
Progressive thinkers believe that fundamental to one's education is progress, change, and individuality. Progressive thinkers believe that people learn the most from what they consider important and relevant to their lives (Raber, 2019). Therefore, under this philosophy, course concepts are contingent upon student experience, interest, and abilities. Therefore, education should focus on the student and not the teacher as in essentialist and perennial philosophies. The learning philosophy tends to be visionary and encourages students to develop their problem-solving abilities. Experimentation is an important facet of this educational approach because through questioning ideas and experimenting with them, students derive knowledge and learning by experiencing the real world.
Progressivism in education lies in European educational cultures, which opposed the narrow view and perspectives from traditional education philosophies built upon rigid theist foundations. European pedagogical reforms in the 17th century started with Jean-Jaques Rousseau's publication, "Emile," which provided ideas on education as the deed of childhood. American progressive and educationalist John Dewey advocated for democracy in the classroom. They argued that democracy and pragmatism were critical in education, to encourage students to develop rational thinking skills and promote their individuality through learning (Raber, 2019). French philosopher, Rene Descartes, who argued that experience was subjective to every individual, also influenced Dewey's philosophical perspective. Therefore, according to Dewey, students were diverse in thought, culture, and ideas; therefore, learning should be based on what is relevant to the student.
Interaction of History and Philosophy
From the 17th to part of the 19th century, the main goal of academic institutions was to train Americans and American-educated individuals in different academic fields, with a Christian foundation, so that they could move on and influence the world positively with Christian teachings while serving in their professions (Setran, 2014). Colleges were built upon theistic foundations, especially in Christian doctrines. With time, the secularization occurred, and more colleges adopted nihilistic, naturalist, modernist, and existentialist perspective, which are all secularist tenets of thought. Deism gradually developed in America, given that it began in Europe, and Europeans living in America from the 18th century began to influence other locals with deist beliefs (Lawrence, 2007). The deist leaders, among them, the founding fathers, influenced this shift. These leaders believed that God had created the universe, but after that, he no longer interacted with it. The adoption of deism influenced the academic minds in America, hence, inspiring the secularization of education. Additionally, American higher education colleges developed a tendency to ape the European educational institutions in their secularism, hence fastening the secularization process. For instance, educationalists such as Dewey, who is credited for adopting progressive educational philosophy, relied on Descartes's thoughts on the individual and subjective experience in life and applied this worldview in education.
Pluralism is another historical reason for adopting secularist educational philosophies, such as essentialism (Lawrence, 2007). The main reason for the pluralism is the diverse student populations, which also inspired the academic institutions to adopt a secularist perspective in teaching students. Again, the progressive educational philosophy interacts with history because of the introduction of the concept of each student's subjective experience and the need to learn educational concepts based on personal experience. Pluralism meant dismissing the Christian or denominational perspectives in learning because of student subjective experiences, hence requiring pragmatism in education. This cultural shift was important in embracing the multi-cultural society that America was rapidly developing in the 19th century.
In addition to these historical examples, there is the fact that there were Christians who encouraged the objectivity of science to help them understand God's natural world. These Christians encouraged the separation of scientific and theological perspectives in education because they polarized education, where Christian leadership relocated into theology departments, leaving the arena for Christian teachers with a secular worldview in the educational departments. This division encouraged the development of the essentialist and perennial educational thoughts because both philosophies are conservative but encourage critical and rational thinking, like the Christians who questioned their reality.
References
Dave, R. (2014). Foundations of lifelong education . Burlington: Pergamon Press/Elsevier Science.
Lawrence, T. (2007). Philosophy, Religion, and Education American Style: A Literature Review. Journal Of Research On Christian Education , 16 (2), 243-267. doi: 10.1080/10656210701650377
Raber, J. (2019). Progressivism's Aesthetic Education . Palgrave Macmillan.
Setran, D. (2014). Guest Editorial "History Matters": Reflections on Studying the History of Christian Education. Christian Education Journal: Research On Educational Ministry , 11 (2), 294-299. doi: 10.1177/073989131401100205
