Personal Philosophy of Teaching
What is the main purpose of teaching and learning? I have never pondered this absolute question before. For me, the purpose of teaching is to promote individual growth in order to foster social justice. The purpose of learning is to find out how to promote individual growth, academically and social/emotionally, effectively and appropriately. I must admit, however, the way I see social justice today is much different than the way I saw it nearly three years ago when I entered the Education Specialist Level I program at Sonoma State University. I may sound ignorant when I explain the change in my understanding of social justice, but in order to adequately articulate my current philosophy of special education I must take this risk. I used to think of social justice as providing all people with the goods and services that the dominant (read: white, middle class) society deems necessary for maintaining a specific quality of life. I was not raised in a culturally aware environment and I am now dealing with the repercussions of my life experiences. I was raised in a tolerant and accepting household, but my parents did not know much about any culture besides their own. In a way, I am grateful for having to have put myself in a vulnerable position in terms of learning about not just tolerating other cultures, but accepting them as being independent and respecting true cultural diversity. I now truly believe that my way of life and my opinions are just one way and that there are countless others that are equal to mine. We should not focus on changing people, or assimilating people to dominant society; different cultures should continue to exist in the Unites States side by side. I now see the issue of cultural diversity as a situation in which the system must adapt to accommodate all cultures (within reasonable means) and not that people of other cultures should adapt to “the system.”
With the main purpose of teaching being to promote individual intellectual and social growth, I suppose it would be wise to state why individual growth is so important. Individuals make up society. It is up to individuals to respect one another in order to live in a peaceful society, whether we are discussing a city or the entire world. The more individuals know and understand about themselves, the more they will be able to understand about their counterparts. Intellectual growth represents the knowledge that it is essential to instill in our pupils through hands-on, self-reflective content. Social growth represents the life skills necessary for an individual to be an agent of social justice. Just being in the classroom teaches me so much! My students and colleagues contribute to my individual growth each and every day. The Sonoma State University conceptual framework for the school of education contains several vision statements along with the school’s mission statement. The vision statement that most closely represents to me the most important elements of being an educator is that, “Graduates will promote social, emotional, and moral growth and learning in their classrooms, schools, and communities, and respect and encourage the contributions of families and caregivers in the education of children and youth.”
What about content? Academics are obviously of central importance to education in general; students receiving special education services are no exception. Core content areas must be addressed according to current state standards. I do not believe that I am one to judge if any subjects are more important than others, however I can say that teachers should have and show an enthusiasm for whatever it is that they teach. Subjects like English (Language Arts) and History are essential- not only do they contain key pieces of information, but often there are questions to which there are no right or wrong answers. These are the questions that provide insight into a child’s individual growth and provide opportunities for every student to be the expert. Math and Science are also core subjects and they provide opportunities for students to make their own discoveries. Life skills should be taught right along side of academics. Social skills are essential to our students’ abilities to maintain successful and satisfying professional and personal relationships. Our students spend more time with us than any other adult (often more time than they spend with their parents), so it is our duty to practice training in life skills. The bottom line is that no matter what content is covered in class, it must be relevant and accessible to all of our students, meaning they can and will use the information that we teach them in their lives.
Special educators can employ a variety of instructional strategies in order to address core content areas; Standard Four of the Council for Exceptional Children states that, “Special educators posses a repertoire of evidence-based instructional strategies to individualize instruction for individuals with ELN. Special educators select, adapt, and use these instructional strategies to promote challenging learning results in general and special curricula and to appropriately modify learning environments for individuals with ELN. They enhance the learning of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills of individuals with ELN, and increase their self-awareness, self-management, self-control, self-reliance, and self-esteem. Moreover, special educators emphasize the development, maintenance, and generalization of knowledge and skills across environments, settings, and the lifespan.” Special educators should offer information verbally, by providing written examples, role playing, research activities, using text books and novels and by drawing upon the personal; knowledge and experiences of individual students. Special educators must be flexible in order to accommodate different learning preferences. The most important idea that an educator should keep in mind is to be sure to provide opportunities for students to be the teachers, whether they are teaching themselves through experimentation or teaching each other through sharing assigned tasks. These opportunities offer learning experiences that are not just purely academic.
The roles of the teacher and student in the teaching-learning process can be reciprocal. Teachers must allow themselves to be students in their classrooms from time to time or they will never evolve. Our field is constantly evolving. Therefore we must constantly be evolving, too. Students relate and appreciate teachers who show that they are also learners. Why pretend to know everything? We don’t and we never will! I believe that our students are our most powerful teachers and refusing to learn as an educator is denying our best teachers the opportunity to show us new ideas and concepts. If a special educator adheres even slightly to Standard Five of the CEC, learning from his/her students is unavoidable. The type of environment that should be created and maintained by a special educator results in the fact that everyone learns! Students must also be teachers at times in order to access the more abstract parts of education, the parts that are not tested by STAR or the W-JIII. Students must at times take on the role of teacher (even if they do not realize that they are doing so) in order to learn about themselves. Students (learners) must be able to become vulnerable at times at accept the idea that they are not omniscient, and so do teachers. Teachers must be very tolerant of differing viewpoints and cultures and present that state of mind to their classes.
My ultimate instructional goals consist of academics, of course, and life skills. I want my students to master the content material addressed in the state educational standards. I also want my students to leave my classroom with an increased respect for self and others. I would like for my students to look back upon their experiences in my class as a time when they learned about themselves and gained confidence in their own strengths, interests and abilities and became comfortable with themselves. I want to assist my students in feeling accepted by others, and in their own acceptance of others. In order to achieve these goals, I will do my best to be incredibly caring but also remaining as neutral as possible, and not coddling. I do not want my students to learn how to get others to do things for them; I want my students to learn how to get things done themselves. I will provide as many opportunities as possible for students to gain knowledge through their own efforts, not just lecturing and expecting them to memorize the information. Students learn best when they experience knowledge in the classroom.
The first most important disposition necessary to becoming an effective educator is a passion for teaching. You must like your job and like all of your kids in order to remain neutral. Kids do not learn from being coddled or from being ridiculed! Also important is commitment to professional ethical standards. This field is very personal and there are many elements that are considered controversial should an incorrect action occur or unethical judgment be made. We deal with people’s lives and their children and we must give them the utmost respect and care. Promoting social and emotional growth are two main responsibilities of special educators, so we must act as agents of change. We should expect kids to do everything they can do and teach them to do other things that they cannot. As special educators, we have a commitment to help kids teach themselves.
