Really-What Is Your Educational Philosophy?
The Situation
Cherie Ford, a brand new eighth-grade teacher at Oxford Middle School, just finished her first postobservation conference with Ms. Renee, her principal. Although a positive and upbeat conference, Ms. Renee's comments keep ringing in Cherie's head. "Cherie," Ms. Renee said, "it's clear that you enjoy your students and that they respond well to the structure and expectations you've created. I was pleased with the flow of the lesson and the attention the students paid to you and to each other. But when you interviewed for this position, you described yourself as a 'facilitator of active learning,' and your portfolio showed you understood that approach. Now, though, what I see in your class is mostly teacher directed: lecture, vocabulary drills, worksheets, and so on. How are you building the students' capacities for creativity, autonomy, and critical thinking? Where's the Cherie Ford we interviewed? Next time I visit, I would like to see that Cherie in action."
"How could I get away from what I believe in?" Cherie scolds herself. The problem, she realizes, was that in her first few weeks as a teacher, feeling unsure of herself, she tried to be safe, to make sure her students were getting a basic foundation. Now it is time to challenge them and herself.
Later that day, while Cherie and several other teachers were eating lunch in the teacher's lounge, someone picked up the local morning paper, which had a lead article about the results of a statewide assessment program administered to eighth graders. Composite scores for every middle school in the metropolitan region were listed, and Oxford Middle was ranked in the bottom third. Cherie's school made marginal improvements over last year's tests in reading and math scores, but lost ground on the writing portion of the test.
Everyone in the lounge lamented the newspaper's remark that the school's progress was "not significant." They expressed pride in the advances their students made. They argued that most schools with comparable populations of low-income and culturally diverse students have not shown gains as great as Oxford Middle.
Bill O'Connell pointed to another article in the paper. This one featured members of a Citizen's Educational Advisory Council complaining about the schools' performance on the assessment program. Their demand was for a back-to-basics approach with more emphasis on factual knowledge and less on critical thinking and innovative and time-consuming teaching strategies.
Cherie asked herself, "What should I do?"
Thought Questions
- What philosophical orientation is being expressed by each party in this dilemma (Cherie, Ms. Renee, the Citizen's Educational Advisory Council)?
- Which of the orientations above best reflects your own personal philosophy of education?
- If none does, can you think of someone who would represent your philosophy in this dilemma, such as a concerned parent or business leader in the community?
- What would you do if you were a teacher at Oxford Middle School faced with this conflict in educational goals? Do you see any way to achieve both goals? What would you do if you were Cherie's principal? What do you think Cherie should do?
