Approaches to Integrating Philosophy Into Teacher Education: Critiques and Report of a Learning Experience

• In Event: The Relevance of Humanities-Based Approaches to Teacher Education

Abstract

While the place of philosophy is gradually declining in teacher education (Colgan & Maxwell, 2020), some universities still offer courses in the philosophy of education—sometimes called philosophical foundations—to their B.Ed. students. In some places, a philosophical foundations course is still mandatory for student-teachers. Such courses are often taught as a historical survey, as a review of a list of available educational theories, as an analysis of a set of ‘current issues’, or a combination thereof. Philosophy can contribute much to teacher education. These prevalent approaches, however, leave much to be desired, in part because they tend to pay less attention to the practical concerns and contexts of teachers and do not meaningfully initiate them into the discipline of philosophy. In a neglected series of papers, Richard Peters (1977) critiqued prevalent approaches to integrating philosophy into teacher education and outlined some principles and practical suggestions. He argued, for example, that initial teacher education in philosophy should be built around certain concepts and issues that are live concerns for new teachers—such as the concepts of authority, discipline, the freedom of the student, etc.—as opposed to offering a historical survey of ideas, which are often difficult to relate to the context of education. He also thought philosophy should be integrated with other foundational educational disciplines, such as psychology, where relevant in initial teacher education.

I found Peters’ insights helpful when designing and refining my own syllabus for the mandatory philosophical foundations course offered to student-teachers at my university, which I have taught three times since 2019. The topics we covered were some of the key concepts and issues facing new teachers, as Peters had suggested, though I organized these according to a schema of my own design: exploring false dichotomies often created in educational discourse between the subject of the verb ‘to understand’ and its objects, examples of objects of understanding and their implications for education, slogans and myths connected to the subject of understanding (students), and the theme of teaching. This approach allowed me not only to integrate philosophy with some psychology and history, but also to initiate students into a diverse range of philosophical approaches—another recommendation from Peters.

My presentation will (1) lay out Peters’ critiques of prevalent approaches, (2) outline his suggestions, and (3) share my own experience teaching a philosophical foundations course with some of Peters’ insights in mind.

Author

• Ilya Zrudlo, Queen's University - Kingston