Existentialism Philosophy in Education

Existentialism is a philosophy of existence appeared in the 20^th century; it can be defined as philosophic stand point which prioritize existence over essence. The existentialist uses existence to attribute especially to human existence and believed that only materialistic things can exist. He also suggests that to be an existent one you should be capable of being conscious, where the main interest about existentialism is the possibility of man’s self-realization.

Existentialism and education:

Applying existential philosophy in education is not possible. The issues discussed in existential philosophy reveals that education philosophy is a theoretical study and believes it should give more attention to the individual of student, and allow them to realize their true value, and how to be responsible to their quality of life. Existentialists consider that the existent moment appears when public awareness is spread between the people in the world as a self, and this mainly happen at puberty. Its characteristics are the person’s recognition to his presence among other things and the development of the knowledge and insights around his own responsibility towards their actions. Existentialist education starts at the school years and continue through high school and college. Here the aim of education is to find the individual’s consciousness. Elements of experience are supposed to be subjective, emotional, and personal which rise questions about good, evil, wrong and right.

Existentialists stated that they prefer to philosophize about the human conditions instead of creating a philosophical system where classification, standardization, and injustice which reduced personal choice and individual recognition are known as obstacle. These trends are not consistent with providing chances for creativity of genuine people. There is another social source that limits the individual’s identity, is the socio-economic pressures that played a major role in changing the teaching and learning. Existentialists believe that education should drive students to awareness and this means that students must be able to select their choices freely, wisely, an independently.

 Existentialist teacher and learning method

An existentialist teacher must be democratic and uses technology and different methods in his teaching without imposing his goals to students. The teacher’s major role is to guide students. Socratic dialogue method is a suitable one for existentialists, it do not neglect the relationship between me and you, it employs dialogue approach, in which any type of question can be answered only in the sense of student’s performance. The teacher promotes students and provides opportunities so they can be able to express their minds.

In existential teaching, a teacher must encourage, facilitate learning, and recognize the individual in the broad sense of the world. According to existentialist, the teacher should not define students according to their age, status, race…etc.

The first principle of Sartre’s philosophy in existentialism is that the man is not a subject, but he is what he chooses and creates for himself who make him more responsible.

Curriculum in existentialism

The curriculum includes skills and subjects that show social facts like human sciences that tell about human selection, there are various topics like history, language, math, science… are indisputable as fields of knowledge. Although the existentialist can choose several methods in his duty, however he is not allowed to harm any of these methods among (I-you) relationship that occur between the teacher and the student, so from here we can say that no lesson is more important than the other. Training is essential to help the person have the self-realization and awareness of the world.

Pragmatism Philosophy in Education

Pragmatism and educational process:

The basics of all teaching are the activity of the child. Every experience or activity is educative and all education lies in having experience however continuous growth of experiences is not the whole education, where education is a constant recognizing of experience. Pragmatism proceed toward the problem of education from the point of view of “progressivits”, progress means change , and change means novelty, so education cannot be acquired once for all. Solving the problem is the core of education in which the educational process becomes more practical and experimental: in a word pragmatic.

Pragmatism and aims of education:

Pragmatism doesn’t set any aims of education. It believes that there are no fixed aims, life is changeable, and thus aims are also changeable. Education deals with human life. It must help the children to attain their social and biological needs. According to pragmatists, education aims at the harmonious development of the educand-physical, social, intellectual and aesthetic. Thus the purpose of education is to direct the interests and abilities toward the satisfaction of the child that he needs in his environment. Children should be able to solve their daily problems, they also should be creative and effective members in the society, and finally they must be dynamic so they can change with changeable situations.

Pragmatism and curriculum:

Pragmatists follow some principles in the field of curriculum development.

1. Principle of utility: experiences, subjects, and activities must be included in the curriculum because they are very useful to the present needs and meet the future expectations of adult life. Other subjects like history, geography, language must also be a part from the curriculum.
2. Principle of interest: in this principle, only experiences and practical exercises that provide interest for the students are allowed to be included in the curriculum. There are four types of interests: interest in conservation, navigation, construction, and creative expression. Although these interests are of big importance; on the other hand, at the early stages, reading, writing and      counting must be included in the curriculum.
3. Principle of experience: the pragmatic curriculum here is formed from three integrated varieties      represented by the activity, experience, and vocation of the child. Pragmatism curriculum must include such varieties for learning experiences which stimulate original thinking to develop purposeful and social attitudes.
4. Principle of integration: pragmatic curriculum integrates activities, subjects and experiences in which pragmatists consider that knowledge is one unit. They focus on building a dynamic and integrated curriculum that helps in developing children and the variable society as the needs and demands require.

Pragmatism and methods of teaching:

The principle of teaching in the pragmatic method is an activity or experience-based method. The core of pragmatic method is learning through personal experience of the child.

“Education is not so much teaching the child things he ought to know, as encouraging him to learn for him through experimental and creative activity”.

When a student learns about things by experimenting them by him, he becomes more creative and confident. The method used by the pragmatism teacher is experimental and the student must discover the solution by himself.

Teachers and textbooks play a secondary role in pragmatism education, they only suggest problems and leave the students to test or experiment themselves. Every child teaches himself, so we can say that pragmatic education is an auto-education.

Pragmatist teacher:

Pragmatists consider the teacher as a leader, philosopher, and guide. A pragmatic teacher must give problems to the students and motivate them to find the solution by themselves. In addition the teacher must provide chances for the students to develop their innate qualities. So the main role of the teacher is to suggest problems for the students and guide them to find answers.

Al Ghazali’s Philosophy in Education

Al Ghazali (1058-1111) was one of the most significant Muslim thinkers. He was a great theologian and philosopher of religion and ethics where he developed a theory of education that aims to improve the objectives and principles. Based on the methods and teaching and discussing the relationships, and the student-teacher relations, the concept of his education was notable inside and outside the Islamic world.

The education purpose:

According to al ghazali, the main purpose of education is to be close to ALLAH; however there are other minor worldly goals such as the love of knowledge, pursuit of wealth, social standing or power… Al ghazali divided the purpose of education into two types of terms.

·          The long term purpose:
      The long term purpose mainly is to build up a closer approach to ALLAH. The education system should have the ability to lead the humanity to awareness and getting in touch with The All Mighty. Starting from here we can say that the more the student learns, the more he gains knowledge, the closer he become to ALLAH. So it is clear that the education here is neither the part differentiating life science and religion, nor the Islamic system. On the contrary, it is an integrated education system which leads humankind to manage their obligation to be vicegerent.

·        The short term purpose:

It is the achievement of human’s career or profession based on their talents and skills. Al ghazali also talked about wealth, fame, status, position and other life joy. So far, all of these are not principles because the knowledge they have is to be much closer to ALLAH. Their first interest is to apply the law of Quran and the prophet’s mission.   So according to Al ghazali, it is clear that the purposes of education are to gain the approach to ALLAH and happiness in this life and afterlife.

Curriculum Concept:

Al ghazali related the curriculum concept to the knowledge/science and he divided it into three types. The bad knowledge which is considered to be useless now (life) and in the afterlife like black magic and fortune telling, the correct knowledge which is related to soul purifying to save human beings in this life and in the afterlife, and finally the correct knowledge if it is learnt appropriately, but it can also be wicked since by learning it deeply there will be collision between faith and hesitation as well as infidel. Philosophy is a clear example.

 Teaching methods:

Al Ghazali believed that showing the children a role model to act like him; this may improve their mental, pattern and other good characters. He divided this method into two parts.

·        Religion education:

The way in teaching religion, mainly starts with memorizing and understanding, followed by proving and believing, continued by implementing the law and finally by convincing information that can support the faith.

·        Character education:

A learning process should build up the right character. According to Al ghazali “character is a powerful attitude planted in the soul in which produce various behavior easily without a long thinking process and consideration”.

Learning method principle suggests giving your whole concentration of attention, you must also take into consideration the purpose of knowledge that will be given to students, and finally the education process must start from the simplest objective or lesson to the most complicated one. On the contrary, the teaching principle method must provide simple and clear explanation, the knowledge must be taught gradually step by step, and it must take into consideration the students’ abilities and their level of thinking. 

However, the principles of education are summarized by giving exercises and practices, advices, and helping students to stay away from bad social interaction.

Good teacher criteria:

According to Al Ghazali, a teacher is a person who provides the student with good vibes, and works to develop humankind without any rewards. Here we can find some of the teachers’ requirements with some duties: a teacher should be kind with the students and deal with them as if they are her children, prevent students from wrong behaviors and sayings, and able to discover the students’ abilities, so they can give them the appropriate knowledge. Teachers should accept others knowledge. The teacher must apply her knowledge and should not hide her words because knowledge is acquired by the heart sight; however experience is gained by the eye sight. Moreover a good teacher must be caring, sympathetic, sincere, honest, and gentle in giving advice. 

Good student criteria:

Al Ghazali also mentioned that students should have some characters; a student should have positive thinking, learn any knowledge systemically, and learn the principles…

Based on what al ghazali believed, we can deduce that the major aim of education is to be closer to Allah in order to be happy in your life and in the hereafter.

Philosophy of Education

Al Farabi’s Philosophy of Education

BIOGRAPHY

Al Farabi was a leading, philosopher, Muslim intellectual, linguist and educationist born on 870AD and died in Damascus 950 at the age of 80. He was given a bright mind that helped him to write on different branches in science and philosophy. Al Farabi’s works reached more than 100 of several sizes enriched with his experience; however his philosophy was neither completely Greek nor completely Islamic. He translated many Greek comments on Aristotle, where he was known as the “second teacher” while Aristotle was the “first teacher”.  

AIMS OF EDUCATION

According to Al Farabi, education is one of the most essential social phenomena where it deals with human soul and assures that the individual is being prepared from an early stage to become an effective person in the society. It is to achieve his stage of perfection to deliver the message he was sent for in this world. In Al Farabi’s opinion, the complete educational process can be summarized up as the acquisition of values, knowledge and practical skills in a particular period and culture. The purpose of education is to direct the individual towards perfection because human was born for this purpose. The presence of humanity in this world is to gain happiness and reach the highest perfection, where a perfect person is the one who has practical moral values and intellectual knowledge in which he become a role model for others. Al farabi joins moral and aesthetic values such as beautiful are good and beauty is good, in which beautiful valued by scholars. So, the perfection that al farabi expects form education combines knowledge and behavior. It is also goodness and happiness at the same time. Al farabi also adds that proficiency is another aim related to education, where perfection in practical and theoretical arts is an expression of wisdom. Al farabi states that education is the sum of learning and practical action. The aim of knowledge is to apply it, al farabi mentions that “whatever by its nature should be known and practiced, its perfection lies in it actually being practiced”. So sciences are nothing and void unless they are applied, the practical sciences are related to readiness for action and absolute perfection is the total achievements of a human that he requires through knowledge and applied actions.
   

TEACHER’S CHARACTERISTICS

In Al Farabi’s view, a teacher must have morality and learning as two important conditions. The teacher should have a good character and say the truth under any situation. Ethical people should be employed for educating students. The teaching career should be done freely without obligation. In addition, Al Farabi states here some characteristics a teacher should meet: he must have his own personality and rules; he should know how to discover students’ abilities and improve them, must be honest all the time, he should also be able to let others understand everything he knows without allowing any fault to occur in his art.

CURRICULUM

According to Al farabi the learning process must start with learning a specific language where the student will be able to express himself for people who speak the same language as him. Without this ability a student will not be able to communicate with others, so his personality will not develop properly. From here al farabi mentioned the big importance of learning language as a first step in the educational process. Next to languages comes logic which gives reflection to science and related to language. After language and logic, mathematics comes. Arithmetic comes in the top of the pyramid of theoretical sciences, where learning theoretical arts starts with numbers then magnitudes. Al farabi divides mathematics into seven parts and said that the student must keep on identifying the levels and stages of mathematics. Metaphysics follows sciences. Briefly, al Farabi’s curriculum is a group of sciences, ranked as follows:  science of language, logic, mathematics, natural science, theology, civics…he thought there is a link between natural sciences and theology. Al Farabi’s mathematical curriculum was similar to Plato’s ones, where he said “the demonstrations used in geometry are the soundest of all demonstrations”.

Al farabi mentioned another theory in which education starts with reforming morals. He states that “for he who cannot reform his own morals cannot learn any science correctly”. Another theory begins with natural science which is closer to us and can be caught by senses.

Al farabi admits that it’s possible to sum up these theories. In real, a student should improve his own ethical values before studying philosophy; he must also support the rational mind through training in scientific demonstration which is geometry the key of logic.