Man by nature is endowed with a mind to enable him think his way through the problems of the world. As the most intelligent creature, he has relied on the comprehensive nature of philosophy to determine and carve out a place for himself in the world. He has also discovered education as another instrument for self - fulfilment. Together, philosophy and education have charted a course for him to follow in order to achieve his goal of mastering his world.
In our today discussion, we shall discuss about of nature of philosophy and education, some issues in philosophy of education,
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/anatomy-human-awareness-4033242/)
NATURE OF PHILOSOPHY AND EDUCATION.
Philosophy has to do with asking ultimate questions about existence and purpose of life generally. Philosophy may be defined as a systematic, reasoned and logical exploration about ultimate problems of existence. Philosophy is generally broken into four branches, namely, metaphysics, epistemology, axiology and logic.
Metaphysics is a study of the nature of reality, that is, how to determine whether or not a thing is real. Philosophers are particularly interested in this matter because they realize that our dependence on the senses as a way of knowledge is not reliable.
The second branch, epistemology which is the study of how we know, can be linked with the first one. For one thing, we cannot claim to know what is not real. As you are well aware, a teacher must definitely be interested in how one comes about his knowledge. The primary responsibility of the school is to generate knowledge as a process of education. Axiology, the branch of philosophy is further divided into two branches aesthetics and ethics. Axiology is the study of values. Aesthetics, is concerned with the notion of beauty while ethics is concerned with the notion of right or wrong.
Indeed both aesthetics and ethics are concerned about the value we place on anything. Logic deals with the laws of reasoning; the rules for arriving at valid inferences. These features of philosophy are closely linked with education. If you cast your mind back, is there any teacher who is disinterested in whether or not a thing is real? Isn't knowledge central to education? When we talk about morals in school isn't it a reflection of our value system? You can therefore see that philosophy and education are together in every aspect.
ISSUES IN PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
Philosophy of education is a specialized and applied branch of philosophy. It is concerned with issues and problem which hinder the achievement of the objectives of an educational system. The areas of concern are so diverse that at list of topics would give us a better picture of the scope of the discipline. The following is a list of topics in philosophy of education:
- The justification of education.
- What is teaching?
- Reflections on educational relevance.
- Concept of equality of educational opportunity.
- Equality of education as equal right to education for everyone.
- Equality of educational opportunity as right to equal education.
- Education, Democracy and the public interest.
- The standard/quality debate in Nigerian education.
- Justification of moral judgements.
- Some questions of morals and religion.
- What is educational theory.
It should be apparent from the above list that the scope of educational philosophy covers a wide range. The question of who is entitled to education and why, would be of interest to the educational philosopher because it has to do the right of a person. Stretched further, it becomes a moral issue because it has to do with is right or wrong. If from his analysis of the matter in his article someone in a position in government pays attention and certain educationally deprived children are given an opportunity to go to school. The philosopher would have rendered useful service to the children and the community.
When the educational philosopher turns his attention to the problem of falling standards in schools, he is raising the awareness of those who should do something about the situation. His effort should not be seen as an exercise in futility. Those concerned owe it to the entire country to seek ways of reversing the trend. No matter which issue the philosophy of education is concerned with, every teacher would have a place.
SUMMARY
We have consider that philosophy is define as a reasoned systematic logical and rigorous inquiry into the ultimate issues of existence and of man place in the universe. Then we learnt:
• that philosophy has four branches, namely, metaphysics, epistemology, axiology and logic.
• that metaphysics is a study of the notion of reality.
• that epistemology is concerned with the notion of knowledge.
• that axiology is concerned with values.
• that logic deals with laws of correct reasoning.
• that aesthetic which is an arm of axiology is a study of the notion of beauty.
• that ethics, the other branch of axiology is concerned with the notion of right and wrong.
• that the four branches of philosophy are inevitably linked with education.
• that the issues covered by philosophy of education range from social to political problems affecting education.
This is where I will drop the curtain for today see you in my next post.
Thank you for your time.