Comparison of Two Contrasting Educational Philosophical Approaches

COMPARISON OF TWO CONTRASTING EDUCATIONAL
PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACHES
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Introduction
Educational philosophies work as a basic ground for developing any kind of policies, practices,
teaching approaches, theories and strategies for any level of education. Early childhood level of
education happens to be one of the vital parts of a person’s educational career where both the
role of the teacher and the student occupies a special place. Thus, the study revolves around a
discussion on two contrasting educational philosophies or philosophical approaches in the
context of early childhood education in contemporary Australia. For this reason, two
philosophies have been chosen including the philosophy of essentialism and the philosophy of
existentialism. Furthermore, the relevance and limitation of both these philosophical approaches
have been highlighted here. On the other hand, the developing role of early childhood
professionals and the role of the teachers have been illuminated with their relation to each of the
chosen philosophies. Moreover, the supposed influence of each chosen educational philosophy
has been mentioned in the context of the contemporary policies and practices on early childhood
level of education in Australia.
Essentialism
Essentialism is one of most commonly used teacher-centred educational philosophy that focuses
more on the skills development and on the active involvement of the teachers. According to
Malik and Akhter, (2013), essentialism can be defined as the philosophy that guides the teachers
to impart training to the learners so that they can process the contents of learning easily
(Emmons and Kelemen, 2015). The chosen content for learning as per this philosophy can be
culture oriented, historical or any significant knowledge related to the world. The purpose of
utilizing this educational philosophy is to prepare the students for the highest level of academic
achievement that involves skills of problem solving, critical thinking and so on through the
mostly passive participation of the students in the classroom.
Relevance
This educational philosophy can be moderately relevant in the context of early childhood
education in Australia. Australian framework for early childhood education advocates the fact
that the learners are expected to be confident learners who are eligible enough to contribute to
the world (Sumsion and Wong, 2011). These criteria can be fulfilled through an adoption of the
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philosophy of essentialism. This is because the learners can effectively contribute to the world
through their achievements, skills and knowledge. On the other hand, this framework also
believes that the learners should have a proper knowledge of the world that may include
knowledge of the society, different cultures, and different languages and so on. The above
mentioned philosophy can be useful in facilitating this knowledge in the mind of the learners
(Fleer and Ridgway, 2014). Moreover, a proper knowledge of the aboriginal Australian culture
can be imparted in the minds of the learners by following this philosophy as a background.
Limitations
However, there are multiple limitations of this educational philosophy in the context of
Australian early childhood education policy and practices. This philosophy does not allow the
learners to develop their distinct individualities at the beginning because the teaching learning
process is mainly directed and dominated by the teachers (Fleet and Farrell, 2014). Despite the
fact that the learners may contribute to the world but it cannot be assured that the learners will
learn how to connect to the world or to different cultures and values (Elliott and Young, 2015).
On the other hand, one of the unique natures of Australian framework of early childhood
education is that they give importance to partnership learning involving not only the teachers and
the learners but also the parents. Moreover, values like fairness, cooperation, interaction,
empathy and so on cannot be taught passively to the learners unless they get to actively
participate in the learning process collaboratively with other learners in the classroom.
Role of the teacher
This educational philosophy gives utmost focus to the role of teachers. As per the norms of
Australian teaching practices in the early childhood setting, the teachers are supposed to give a
full exposure to the learners including a detailed knowledge of the surrounding society, diverse
cultures, own culture, other societies and important and significant personas. On the other hand,
teachers are also expected to provide all the essential information and knowledge to the learners
to that may help them explore the society around them (Page and Tayler, 2016). Another
important role of the teachers is to preserve the diverse cultural knowledge that the learners
belong to. All these roles of the teacher can be facilitated by adopting this philosophy as the basis
of this philosophy is preservation of the knowledge of the world. Moreover, it is important for
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