Reflections on the Transformation in a Teacher Educator's Teaching of Educational Philosophy

Abstract

The Traditional Mindset At first, I only construed philosophy of education as a deep and abstract way of thinking about the purpose and process of education. As a graduate student, I stretched my mind by analyzing the educational philosophies and ideas of great philosophers, such as Aristotle, Plato, John Dewey, Alfred North Whitehead, Robert Hutchins, and others. Even though I majored in curriculum and instruction and minored in education foundations, I was captivated by philosophy of education and the visions of education held by respected voices in education, past and present. This was a heady and intellectually stimulating experience for me as a then foreign student who was encountering the wisdom of these great minds for the first time. My academic preparation in the fine tradition of liberal arts education during the 1960s and 1970s had prepared me well to learn and succeed in a reading and writing-intensive environment. I am a product of my native country Nigeria’s British educational heritage during the neo-colonial period of our national history. Moreover, I had majored in history as an undergraduate; therefore, reading and analyzing events and ideas were natural to me. For the same reason, the intellectual exercise that went with reasoning through philosophical theories was not new to me, even Reflections on the Transformation in a Teacher Educator's Teaching of Educational Philosophy