Philosophy Research
The society is composed of many individuals, and when the ideas of
each individual change, the society will for sure change as well. According to
Maciver social change is a process, which influences and changes human life in
different directions. Change is the law of human life and society. The function
of education in this case is to maintain this progressive change.
Education is a process that can happen in both faces “the narrower”
as well as in “the wider”. Old people used to collect facts and information
about nature for survival. This is nothing but education, even if some people
might look at it as superstitions or lies. In the wider face of the concept of
education, education is acquisition of experience throughout life, which brings
changes in the life and behavior of humans. One of the primary functions of
education is to be an accelerator and facilitator of the changes.
According to the different east and west cultures, philosophies
differed in their points of view, as each culture believed in a different
perspective of education. But more than that, philosophies differed in their
ways of education, in the methods they have used, and of course the aims of
education they have planned to achieve. It cannot be denied that different
places have their own different culture and backgrounds.
While western philosophies encourage the rational thinking and don’t really care about their norms and culture, eastern philosophies relate everything in education to religion and believe that culture and norms are more important than the education itself and these norms must be protected and maintained as rules of life, plus, they believe that education and knowledge can be attained if we followed our norms and protected them.
While western philosophies encourage the rational thinking and don’t really care about their norms and culture, eastern philosophies relate everything in education to religion and believe that culture and norms are more important than the education itself and these norms must be protected and maintained as rules of life, plus, they believe that education and knowledge can be attained if we followed our norms and protected them.
One of the western philosophies is pragmatism. Pragmatism believes that
the meaning and value of ideas could be found only in the practical results of
these ideas. One of its biggest questions was: “how schools participate in
social change?” John Dewey was a leading proponent of the pragmatism, and in
one of his essays called “Education and Social Change”, he suggested that one must
support the idea of changes and accept changes if he wants progressivism in his
society, and moreover, he said that education reflects, generates, and guides this
social change, and therefore, the progress. However, He said that there might
be confusion on the direction that our schools might lead our society to,
that’s what made him some rules that schools and educators must follow in order
to lead a positive beneficial change in our society. He stated that schools and
educators must:
1-
Continue
to influence society without exploring how or why.
2-
Employ
a scientific method of teaching and learning that corresponds with the cultural
forces that cause social change.
3-
Take
a conservative approach and make schools a force of maintaining old order and
rejecting any new forces that steer society away from this old social order.
So as we
notice, western philosophies are with the social changes and push towards change,
however, at the same time, western philosophies maintain the good norms and
cultures of the old days, maintaining by this a balance between education and
social changes.
In
general, a Western philosophy of education comprises two schools, which are
traditional and modern. It has its roots in Athens, Rome and
Judeo-Christianity, whereas Eastern philosophy is derived from Islam,
Confucianism, Taoism and Mahayana Buddhism. By looking at Eastern and Western
countries, both countries have distinct differences in their ways of developing
and shaping an individual, in terms of skills and attitudes. Thus, different
cultures will have different philosophies, which results in different ways of
doing things, especially in educating the next generation.
Comparing both schools of thought, it can be
concluded that western philosophies prefer the active learning that has to do
mainly with experiencing in everything, while the eastern philosophies prefer
passive learning. Western philosophers, such as Aristotle, Plato and Socrates
encouraged rational thinking, whereas, the eastern philosophers mainly prefer
the knowledge to be directly coming from the teachings of religion, such as
Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism and Taoism.
Students of the western
education philosophy are active learners in the classroom, where the teaching
and learning process is not teacher-centered but more student-centered classroom.
It encourages the students to be active in giving and sharing the ideas, which
maximizes their role as students. For instance, students are very much
encouraged to think and voice their views whenever they need to. This gives the
students the chance to participate not only during class time, but also out of
the classroom.
Moreover, the students are
also given the opportunity to express their ability and talent by analyzing and
solving problems on their own, doing research on their own… According to
Thornton (1995), “the problem solving process becomes one of the basic
requirements for children for their critical mental development”. So as we can
notice, the education development in the west includes thinking skills, problem
solving and communication skills which have been integrated in the western
philosophy itself.
On the
other hand, the teaching and learning process in the eastern education
philosophy stresses the major outcomes from the teachers. It means that
teachers are the main responsible for the class effectiveness. They prepare and
plan all the activities for the students in all the domains. So, the students
are not responsible to do anything, but all the materials are ready and given
to them by the teachers. They are mainly responsible of receiving the input
given from their teachers, and they are not even trained or encouraged to voice
out their own points of view or perspectives. According to Rohaty (1999), “one
of the reasons why the teachers sometimes don’t implement various innovative
teaching strategies is due to the excessive attention on theory rather than on
practical sense.”
In my own point of view, I believe in our life, our planet, our
world, everything is related to everything. Anything you do today is going to
reflect on what is going to happen a hundred years from today. Anything you do
in any domain is going to reflect in all the sides of your life. So is the case
between education and all sides of life. Education has impacted, and is still
impacting the life in all its sides. However, the different sides of life
reflect on the education as well. It’s a correlation between the two sides:
Education and life, with all of its sides. However, the question that we should
ask in this situation is whether education should reflect on our social life
and change it, or should it help us maintain our social life as it is?
Right since the ancient times, education has reflected on the social life negatively and positively, and so did the social life on education. As we already saw, the eastern and western worlds encourage development and change, as they encourage education and knowledge. Now, I am going to present my point of view toward this conflict, and only my point of view, and I am going to support my point of view with evidence from real life and from different philosophies.
We all know that in ancient times, education was very intimately connected to religion and the social values of the day, but during the recent centuries, the scope of education is merely connected to religion and social values, and some educated peoples nowadays consider religious people as ignoramuses, and they even think that religions are nothing but superstitions.
At the same time, comes another side of people, who thinks that education is exactly the opposite of religion, and they even think that education is something harmful and is going to take us to the darkness because it drives us away from God.
But which opinion is the right one? Which opinion should rule our lives?
Right since the ancient times, education has reflected on the social life negatively and positively, and so did the social life on education. As we already saw, the eastern and western worlds encourage development and change, as they encourage education and knowledge. Now, I am going to present my point of view toward this conflict, and only my point of view, and I am going to support my point of view with evidence from real life and from different philosophies.
We all know that in ancient times, education was very intimately connected to religion and the social values of the day, but during the recent centuries, the scope of education is merely connected to religion and social values, and some educated peoples nowadays consider religious people as ignoramuses, and they even think that religions are nothing but superstitions.
At the same time, comes another side of people, who thinks that education is exactly the opposite of religion, and they even think that education is something harmful and is going to take us to the darkness because it drives us away from God.
But which opinion is the right one? Which opinion should rule our lives?
NO ONE! Education is for our good, so is religion! Religion
elevates us and organizes our life in all its sides if applied in the right
way, as God told us to. As for education, it is also something much related to
religion. God created us with brains and mental abilities to use in order to
develop and be educated and improve ourselves. So education and religion
complete each other when used in the right way.
However, the problem doesn’t lie here; the problem is how are we going to use education in a beneficial way? Education can be harmful only if used in the wrong way, and that’s the problem in our society. We always miss the old days, when we were less knowledgeable, and education wasn’t as important as in our days. But actually, deep down inside us, we don’t miss the old days because education wasn’t that important, but we miss the old days because we are using the education in the wrong way in our present days.
Education is a powerful weapon that we should take advantages of to use it in a way that will develop and change our life, social life, and culture, but at the same time to maintain the good sides of our society and culture. People in our east world are taking what’s bad from education and educational evolution from the west, and are adding it to our culture and society. In benefiting from education, we are being so superficial. We see west cultured people doing a certain haircut, and we eventually want this haircut. We see western people wearing indecent clothes, and we eventually copycat them. We want to use education only to explore the west society superficially and imitate them.
What I am trying to say is that we should always make a balance in our life in everything. We should always take the golden mean as our law of life. In other words, we should seek education and knowledge, but at the same time we should never ever disconnect it with religion, especially as all religions encouraged us to seek knowledge and always chase education.
However, the problem doesn’t lie here; the problem is how are we going to use education in a beneficial way? Education can be harmful only if used in the wrong way, and that’s the problem in our society. We always miss the old days, when we were less knowledgeable, and education wasn’t as important as in our days. But actually, deep down inside us, we don’t miss the old days because education wasn’t that important, but we miss the old days because we are using the education in the wrong way in our present days.
Education is a powerful weapon that we should take advantages of to use it in a way that will develop and change our life, social life, and culture, but at the same time to maintain the good sides of our society and culture. People in our east world are taking what’s bad from education and educational evolution from the west, and are adding it to our culture and society. In benefiting from education, we are being so superficial. We see west cultured people doing a certain haircut, and we eventually want this haircut. We see western people wearing indecent clothes, and we eventually copycat them. We want to use education only to explore the west society superficially and imitate them.
What I am trying to say is that we should always make a balance in our life in everything. We should always take the golden mean as our law of life. In other words, we should seek education and knowledge, but at the same time we should never ever disconnect it with religion, especially as all religions encouraged us to seek knowledge and always chase education.
Al
Qura’an Al Kareem: “Iqra’ bi’ismi rabbika allazi khalaq.” (Surat
Al Alaq)
The bible: “Gold there is, and rubies in abundance, but lips that speak knowledge are a rare jewel.” (Proverbs)
The bible: “Gold there is, and rubies in abundance, but lips that speak knowledge are a rare jewel.” (Proverbs)
These
two verses are evidence from the Qura’an and the bible, which prove that
education is so important in our life and that God wants us and encourages us
to seek knowledge.
However, education and development are directly related to each other, so should we develop and change as well?
However, education and development are directly related to each other, so should we develop and change as well?
As a conclusion, development is more than economic growth; it
encompasses economic, social, cultural and political dimensions. Development aims
for improving the human beings and the life of each individual on the basis of
their education, work, effort, and their will and aim to develop and be
knowledgeable and educated in their lives, societies, and surroundings.
Education has a multidimensional impact on communities, and it is one of the
building blocks for the development that we are talking about and we are all
aiming towards it. Furthermore, education is the main instruments and means
that gives equal opportunities and chances, and promotes higher income levels
amongst the entire population. However, if used in the right balanced way.
Our today’s biggest challenge is to know how to use education in a beneficial way that will, at the same time, protect our norms and values. We cannot separate between education and cultural life and norms. We cannot choose one single side. We must walk with the two weapons in our hands keeping us balanced, and each one’s protecting the other. Try to follow the golden mean in your life, in everything, not in just this limited topic. It will always guide your path in life.
Our today’s biggest challenge is to know how to use education in a beneficial way that will, at the same time, protect our norms and values. We cannot separate between education and cultural life and norms. We cannot choose one single side. We must walk with the two weapons in our hands keeping us balanced, and each one’s protecting the other. Try to follow the golden mean in your life, in everything, not in just this limited topic. It will always guide your path in life.
References:
1-
N. Amante. Philosophy of
eduation.
3-
M. Danish Khan. (2015). Importance
of Education by Islamic perspective. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/importance-education-islamic-perspective-danish-khan
4-
The
holy bible online.
6-
S.
Kumar, S. Gulati, S. Ahmad. Lesson 2: Introduction to philosophical,
psychological and sociological bases of education. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1146/1167f80224e937ae5d5231320f729a29681a.pdf
7-
J.
Daniels. (2008). Education and social change. http://faculty.fordham.edu/kpking/classes/uege5102-pres-and-newmedia/John-DeweyEd-and-Social-Change-by-Jen-Dainels.pdf
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A. Hassan, N. Jamaludin, J. Sulaiman, and R.
Baki. Western and Eastern educational philosophies https://ivc.instructure.com/files/6886/download?download_frd=1&verifier
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