After reading the list of philosophies available, I was not at all surprised to learn that my

beliefs aligned most closely with social reconstructionism. My life has largely been shaped by

my passion regarding issues of social justice. Whether for students for special needs, racial and

ethnic minorities, or members of the LGBT community, I consider myself an advocate for those

who have long-struggled for equality and fair representation in our countrys political and

educational systems. I believe that these passions will be made evident in my everyday teaching

practices and will shape the standards to which I hold myself as a professional. First, I firmly

align with the social reconstructionist belief that students should develop critical literacy and

question the information that is fed to them. For example, if I were to have my students watch a

video or read a passage from a book, I would not expect them to automatically agree with the

information I had presented them and accept it as fact, but rather voice their true opinions and

express any issues that they may have with it. I hope to establish a climate in which my students

feel comfortable to question the status quo, address problems as they see them, and take the steps

needed to reach a reasonable solution as I believe that society has serious problems at hand, and

that students must be taught how to improve the world in which we live.

In todays schools, students are immeasurably diverse and each encounter a wide variety

of experiences and lifestyles. They each relate to information given to them in a school setting in

different ways and may recognize problems in society that others cannot see. As a teacher, I

would aim to create a classroom environment that encourages students to examine the way that

their background can influence their way of thinking, try their best to celebrate each other

differences, and learn to resolve any conflicts that may arise so that they are better adapted to a

world made up of people from so many different walks of life. In my classroom, I would

structure classroom activities to promote many different perspectives. For example, if my

students were studying the first Thanksgiving, my teaching would not focus solely on how the

Pilgrims thrived as a result of the Native Americans teaching, as textbooks and childrens

stories are prone to do. I would be sure to include information on the despair and enslavement of

the Native Americans, and ask my students to question what we can learn from their suffering as

modern Americans.

Additionally, I hope to encourage cooperative learning in my future classroom, as I

consider teamwork to be a precious skill vital to the largescale efforts necessary for

reconstructing the social world. For example, I might implement a group project that asks

students to consider our nations current climate of racial bias and police brutality, and offer

solutions. By working together, the students will be exposed to worldviews outside of their own

and will contemplate issues that they may not have realized were so crucial to certain cultures.

Though I am sympathetic to the federal governments requirement of standardized tests,

my ideal classroom would not include this method of assessment. I believe it to be stifling to

creativity, as teachers teach to a test while students are forced to simply memorize information

in hopes of passing it. I am a proponent of authentic assessment, which encourages collaboration

between the student, teacher, administration, and community to set student goals and provide

feedback. I find this method to be promising in that it focuses on individual student progress

rather than the students performance in comparison to others. While I believe healthy

competition to be important in many areas of life, I also believe that people all learn and behave

in different ways, and should not be forced to adhere to any specific standard.

Comparison With Other Philosophies

Though I primarily align with social reconstructionism, there are other educational

philosophies that have traits I find compatible with my philosophy of choice. For example, both
social reconstructionist and progressivist schools emphasize critical thinking, relevant

curriculum, equality, and cooperative learning. In fact, many of the social reconstructionist

thoughts were ideas from progressivism that were simply expanded upon to focus more on social

issues. On the other hand, both essentialism and perennialism focus on formal, standardized

testing, past culture and tradition, and the teaching of universal truths, which all conflict with the

forward-thinking, change-seeking mindset of a social reconstructionist.