What is in an educational philosophy? Well, it’s the ability to find a knowledge base and build it towards new learning that leads to enhancing or changing your learning. During my masters program at the University of Windsor my education philosophy tended to embrace a pragmatic-constructivist lens, which incorporates the tenets of Deweyan Pragmatism (named after John Dewey) that uses the concepts of experience and reflection to obtain knowledge. I have enhanced my concept of pragmatism towards new knowledge of interdisciplinarity and foundational knowledge; also, my learning has changed by embracing foundational learning through conceptual pragmatism, logic, and analytic philosophy in epistemology.
Through the facilitation of interdisciplinarity, I am able to merge the concepts of pragmatic construction with conceptual pragmatism and logic to find answers. This can be done by using C.I. Lewis’ connection of perceptions towards a priori thinking that flows from the self, to process, to the obtaining of knowledge.
Students learn best when they learn by doing, following the old Aristotelian adage ‘action is virtuous’. Regardless of the discipline, one should be physically, psychologically, and emotionally immersed in the discipline. If you aspire to be a nurse, be inside the hospital, if you aspire to be a mechanic, be in the garage, if you aspire to be educator, be in the classroom. Learning how to take part in action is a grounded measure to develop a construction towards mastery in knowledge. Along with gaining disciplinary knowledge, I firmly believe as human beings we are inherently interdisciplinary and should be engaged in multiple disciplines to challenge our virtuous action. Specialization is good, but to truly be knowledgeable within the human realm, a knowledge of many factors is paramount. Here is how I describe these realms in relation to my teaching and learning philosophy.
Interdisciplinarity
My epistemological base is centered through interdisciplinarity – or the inherent ability to draw knowledgeable connections towards learning and solving complex problems. This incorporates a philosophy that covers many domains and many different types of knowledge creating the deepest analytic and logical outcome. For example, the topic of 9/11 and the War on Terror can encompass a political discussion, an economic discussion, a sociological discussion, even a theistic discussion, and uses these different frameworks by building nomological networks for information towards a challenging topic. What we may find is a topic like 9/11 can be more nuanced and deeper than previously discussed. Another example is the discussion of online learning. This can introduce a pedagogical discussion, a learning theory discussion, an educational psychology discussion, or an economic discussion. By building these networks, a distinct pattern emerges that guides towards building knowledge through complex competencies. That is the goal of learning with interdisciplinarity.
Foundational Knowledge
The conception of foundational knowledge within my philosophy is to use the tenets of interdisciplinarity as a prime foundation for learning that builds towards other forms of knowledge around it. It usually encompasses a bedrock of ideas that make up the philosophy that leads to other forms of knowledge. Such as:
- Connected learning is inherent to the human individual.
- Critical thinking to solve problems.
- All ideas are shared, understood, and critiqued equally.
- Foundational knowledge governs anti-foundational principles.
- Enlightenment principles of logic and reason are necessary.
Foundational knowledge allows many ideas to be introduced, but they are not immune from critique. The expectation of finding an answer to a complex question requires all ideas to be shared, and with logic and reason the foundation of knowledge allows for this discourse to take place. This connects to my teaching style of offering discussions in class, allowing debates, and even introducing ‘guide on the side’ techniques to allow students to guide lectures or provide knowledge the rest of the class is not privy to.
Conceptual Pragmatism
This encompasses a deeper look into key philosophical influences of C.I. Lewis and Roderick Chisholm who use conceptual pragmatism in their work. However, it is Peter Carruthers who describes conceptual pragmatism in his aptly named work Conceptual Pragmatism:
“The conceptual pragmatist (henceforward the c-pragmatist) is one who believes that there are pragmatic choices to be made between concepts…one significant effect which c-pragmatism should have on our thinking is this: once we are clearly aware of the multiplicity of concepts and the multiplicity of purposes, we shall be able to resist the revisions being urged on us by those for whom science has become dominant.” (p. 205,214)
The connection and delineation of concepts – and purposes of concepts – for use are important to understanding the role of conceptual pragmatism. For example, the concept of teaching ethics can take on many different sub concepts (maybe large concepts in their own) to develop pragmatic knowledge and understanding. Such as, what might the movie No Country For Old Men be conceptually tied to the mortality ethics of Plato. Moreover, how can this be quantified over other concepts. This goes beyond shallow semiotics and allows to find concrete concepts to match the pragmatic reality. Another example would be the concept of bridge making merging with the concept of algebra. Not only that its working to merge concepts, but finding why exactly algebra works with bridge making and why the concept of interpretive dance does not.
Analytic Philosophy in Epistemology
I hold a stance that all learning is based on reason, analysis, and logic. Furthermore, these are not dichotomous to its counterpart of continental philosophy, rather a grounded base in analytical philosophy makes room for continental philosophy to exist, similar to the C.I. Lewis framework of a implies b. For example, reason and logic are not opposite to intuition and literature; rather, reason and logic are the basis to understand intuition and literature. Or the human condition is only understood though the a priori base of analysis to understand the human condition. When teaching, this is important to have a base for analytic philosophy because epistemology is not foundational without an analytic approach. A student may intuitively engage in the content, but the force, knowledge and problem solving of the content comes from an analytic base through interdisciplinary knowledge stemming from past academics, society, family etc.
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