Globalization and Education

Munir Moosa Sadruddin

 In this session you will learn about:
Contemporary Educational Theories
• Perennialism
• Progressivism
• Essentialism
• Reconstructionism
• What is your philosophy of Education?
• What is your identity as a teacher?
PERRINIALISM
 Case
• Munir is a university teacher. Dean of School
Education asked him to design a curriculum.
He feels privilege but what exactly, he should
choose for the curriculum?.
• Humans are rational beings, and their minds
need to be developed. Thus, cultivation of the
intellect is the highest priority in a worthwhile
education.
 PERENNIALISM
Plato, Aristotle, and St. Thomas Aquinas

According to Segall and Wilson (2004), it views truth as

constant and never changing. Perrenialists believe it its our
ability to reason that makes us different from the others.

They advocate the cultivation of intellect to find truth

They argues that we must develop our intellect by learning

how to focus out instinctual and emotional energies into the
pursuit of rational, logical thought. the main purpose of
education is to nourish a person's intellect
• It teaches concepts and focuses on knowledge
and the meaning of knowledge. Aimed at
teaching students ways of thinking that will
secure individual freedoms, human rights, and
responsibilities through the nature.
• Teach Everlasting Ideas
• Ideas of Western Civilizations
• Since people are human, one should teach first
about humans, not machines or techniques.
• Education is not an imitation of life but a
preparation for it

• The student should be taught certain basic

subjects that will acquaint him with the
world’s permanencies.

• Students should study the great works of

literature, philosophy, history, and science in
which men through the ages have revealed
their greatest aspirations and achievements.
• A particular strategy with modern perennialists
is to teach scientific reasoning,

• Perennialist classrooms are centered on

teachers in order to accomplish these goals.
• Focus Intellectual and Moral Values
• The basic principles of perennialism may be
outlined in six categories

• Human nature remains the same everywhere;

hence, education should be the same for everyone.

• Since rationality is man’s highest attribute, he

must use it to direct his instinctual nature in
accordance with deliberately chosen ends.

• It is education’s task to import knowledge of

eternal truth.
• It is important that individuals think deeply
and imaginatively.
• Students should not be taught information that
may soon be outdated.
• Disapprove of teachers requiring students to
absorb massive amounts of disconnected
information.
• Recommend that schools spend more time
teaching about concepts and explaining they
are meaningful to students.
 Critical Discussion
• Inflexible approach
• Deep, Analytical and Imaginative Thinking
• No concern about students' interests or
experiences.
• Use those teaching methods and techniques that
are believed to be most beneficial to disciplining
students' minds.

• Example Islamiat Classroom

• It is grounded in the philosophy of the liberal

• Ideas should be tested for their utility. If it

works, accept else learn from the experience
and try alternative

• Focuses on reforms in education

• Child based curriculum
• School as a place to learn and grow
Education should focus on the whole child,
rather than on the content or the teacher.
• Learning is rooted in the questions of learners
that arise through experiencing the world.
• The students should be an active part of their
education.
• Learners should experience democracy in
school to make them better citizens

• LEARNING BY DOIING
• CHILDREN INTEREST AND NEEDS
• Child is not a little adult and that he must not
be treated simply as a scholar.

• Can’t expect a child to indulge in abstract

intellectual pursuits until he had reached the
age of reason. Instead, a child should learn the
things he is capable of understanding through
personal discovery.

• Dewey emphasized a generalized problem-

solving procedure to solve problems
• Education should be life itself, not a preparation for
living.

• Learning should be directly related to the interests of

the child.

• The teacher’s role is not to direct but to advise. They

are fellow learners and their main role is to work as a
resource person

• The institution should encourage cooperation rather

than competition.

• Only democracy permits – indeed encourages – the free

interplay of ideas and personalities that is a necessary
condition of true growth.
• learning through experience [problem solving]

• Effective teachers provide experiences so that

students can learn by doing. Curriculum
content is derived from student interests and
questions.
• William Bagley
• Sociological perspective

• Teacher centered philosophy

• Instill basic knowledge, skills and ethics
• Learners should learn the traditional basic
subjects systematically.
• Emphasize the teacher's to embed moral values
• Focuses on teachers leadership position in the
classroom.
• Instill essential topics and character traits that
make students productive members of society.
• The teacher should serve as an intellectual and
moral role model for the students.
• The school should retain traditional methods of
mental discipline. The child should be taught
essential concepts
• Core knowledge in reading, writing, math,
science, history, foreign language, and
technology.
• The tools include lecturing, memorization,
repetition, practice, and assessment.
 Point to ponder
• Are we teaching subjects or topics like human
rights education, peace education, required as
per today’s context of society?

• Are we focusing on essential philosophy in

Pakistan?

• Are today's teachers role model for the

learners?
Premises
• society is in need of constant reconstruction or
change
• social change through education
• personal experience constitutes reality
• “truth is what works, and we arrive at truth
through a process of trial and error”
• “Students learn more, remember it longer, and
apply it to new situations better if they learn
through experience, rather than through being
told something.
• It focuses on addressing social questions and
quest to create a better society and worldwide
democracy.
• It focuses on a curriculum that highlights
social reform as the aim of education.
• Curriculum focuses on student experience and
taking social action on real problems, such as
violence, hunger, international terrorism,
inflation, and inequality.
• Education should fulfill the basic values of our
culture and at the same time harmonize with
the underlying social and economic forces of
the modern world.

• The new society must be a genuine democracy,

whose major institutions and resources are
controlled by the people themselves.

• The teacher must convince his pupils of the

validity and urgency of the reconstructionist
solution to the global challenges
 Reference
• http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/Glob
al_Education/p21_state_framework_on_globa
l_education.pdf
• facstaff.elon.edu/simonl/Rec.doc
Next week quiz from week 1 and 2