An Analysis of Educational Philosophy at Wyndham Park Primary School

This essay examines the educational philosophy of Wyndham Park Primary School, located in Wyndham, Victoria, Australia. It explores key educational philosophies such as perennialism, reconstructivism, and essentialism, with a focus on the school's application of perennialism. The essay discusses the school's history, aims, and demographics, including its staff and student population. It also analyzes the influence of positive behavioral philosophy and the theories of Maslow, Canter, and Dewey on the school's practices. Furthermore, it addresses ethical challenges faced by staff, particularly regarding internet usage and social media policies. The essay emphasizes the importance of aligning educational philosophies with student needs for academic success and references several scholarly sources to support its arguments. The essay concludes by highlighting the school's commitment to values like responsibility, safety, and respect.

1
Wyndham’s Educational Philosophy
UNIVERSITY NAME
STUDENT NAME
STUDENT ID
COURSE
DATE

Wyndham’s Educational Philosophy 2
Philosophy refers to the study of important environment of knowledge, existence and reality
particularly when is considered as a discipline of academics. In the field of education, there
are a number of crucial philosophies which aid the schools to undertake their activities
accordingly and enable their students to be successful. They include the following:
Educational perennialism ,Reconstructivism as well as essentialism.Perennialism is also
occasionally denoted as Universal Curriculum and is considered as normative philosophy of
education( Ormrod,Anderman and Anderman, 2016 ,pg.134).Perennialism trust that an
individuals should impart those things that are everlasting in their minds and emphasis that all
information that are facts must be principled.Reconstructivism is another theory of
philosophy that holds that humanities should recurrently restructure themselves so that they
create more impeccable governments or even social networks. The overall reason behind this
term reconstructivism is to revive the sense of reality in the world where many things have
been established to be nothing but an illusion. Educational essentialism is the other key
philosophy of education which is majorly explained in the book of Thomas Stehlik;
‘’Educational Philosophy for 21st Century for Teachers’’. The adherents of this philosophy
trust that children have to learn the basic and traditional topics thoroughly. The main
objective in this particular school of thoughts is to impart students in the schools with the
"essentials" knowledge in academic scenario thus passing a back-to-basics method. The best
philosophy which can be applicable in Wyndham park primary school is perennialism
because instilling of everlasting things in the minds of the students is very important for them.
Wyndham park primary school is situated in the big city of Wyndham; specifically, at the
avenue of Kookabura in the government of Victorian.The essay entails the various
information relating to this particular school in accordance with various philosophies of
education which are applied highly to improve learning. The school has a long history since
its establishment in the year 2011.The key aim of this school is to provide well-structured
system of learning in various perspectives of life such as emotionally, socially and mainly
academically. This aim is achieved through the motto of the school Aspire Learn Achieve
together with its morals of respect, responsibility and safety. Its source of income is mostly
from the payment of fees by the parents of the students (Gutek, 2017, pg.36). The school
fraternity composed of people from various socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. The
population of the school has been growing overtime. The current composition of the school is

Wyndham’s Educational Philosophy 3
40 staff. The total number of boys and girls is 394. The number of schools in the area are
ranging from 35 to 40. The number of people who are homeless has risen from 110 to 200 in
the region of Werribee in Wyndham.The school has updated the ed level through introduction
of Wyndham communication app. The poverty level is not so bad since many people can
afford to obtain the basic needs (Noddings, 2018, pg.65).
Mosier (2011, pg.84), stated that the positive behavioural philosophy was applied mainly by
Wyndham park primary school. This philosophy aid education processes and operations in the
school. It is used to assist persons who are facing difficulties in behaviour while undergoing
their studies or work. The key thing is to prevent bad behaviour from occurring instead of
waiting for it to happen first then seeking for ways to eradicate.
The theories who are in the area of education that tried to boost the academics through
invention of educational philosophies are Maslow and Marlene Canter among others. Maslow
held that the needs of the humans are put in the order of hierarchy, from the basic wants that
are physiological in nature to those needs that pertains to self-actualization. Needs that are at
the very low level has to be completely fulfilled before the person involve commenced to
change his or her consideration to those that are the very high levels. For instance, a pupil in
this school who is constantly hungry is not possible for him or her to advance much academic
curiosity. Maslow recognised subsequent levels of the human wants which must be followed
for a person to be satisfied such as: physiological, security, belongingness as well as affection,
respect and self-actualization, not forgetting cognitive and the needs of aesthetic. Maslow's
hierarchy argued that those needs that are in the lower level are primary in nature and must be
fully satisfied before taking time to handle those at the higher levels. The other theorist who
dealt on this educational philosophy of behavior is Marlene Canter, when referring for the
system of school, he realized that a number of teachers were not capable of managing the
adverse behavior that happened in various classrooms (Slavin and Davis,2016, pg.372). The
Cantors credited this result to inadequate training in management of behavior in schools.
Based on his study and more so the fundamentals of confidence training as well as applied
analysis of behavior, they advanced a common sense, the approach of easy-to-learn known as
self-confident discipline to aid teachers to be the key leaders of their classes where they teach
and influence the students’ behavior in a positive way.

Wyndham’s Educational Philosophy 4
John Dewey was a critical thinker who developed a very vital educational philosophy called
pragmatism. Pragmatism trusted that reality has to be fully experienced (Mead, Biesta and
Trohler,2015, pg.23).
This was defined by the Dewey that students must be in a position to interact with the various
surroundings in order for them to adequately adjust and learn. In the other words, John
claimed that the school curriculum has to be significant to the students in order for them to
understand and learn with ease. He perceived that learning is a way of putting practical skills
in a proper way to help the students appreciate their learning materials. This theory is
uniformly applicable in this school of Wyndham park primary where the students can be
involved in practical skills that will uplift their mental capability and acknowledging their
topics of study (Biesta,2012, pg.720).
Elliott and Travers (2012, pg.23), claimed that everyone who is employed must face several
ethical challenges in his or her place of work. This is portrayed in Wyndham park primary
school. The staff of this school is required to give clear training on the best safety and also
ethical application of the internet as well as expertise. Based on this, I will be prone to using
internet unethically to learn many things within the unlimited world of technology thus
affecting the performance of the school adversely and resulting in poor performance (Elliott
and Travers, 2012, pg.23). All the members of staff are also expected to appropriately model
the best behavior when they are in the practice of using the internet. This is not a simple work
to handle. Therefore, I will be faced with ethical challenge in handling this appropriately.
Staff members in this school are powerfully recommended not to admit students, previous
students of the school or accept school parents as among the friends on various platforms like
Facebook and others (Taylor,2016, pg.24). This is a hard thing which various staff’s members
will be facing thus finding themselves in acting against the rules. Therefore, am not be
different from the other staff members hence I will be ethically challenged in handling the
Facebook requirements as per the school rules and regulations. Staff is also anticipated to
report any form of Cyber bullying’s cases. This issue is not easy to work on it ethically
(Knight, 2016, pg.77).
The values which every staff should possess in order to provide his or her services
accordingly in the school are responsibility, safety and respect. The philosophical theory of
education which the school has successfully apply has helped the students to grow in various
aspects of life. It is important for every school to undertake comprehensive research on the

Wyndham’s Educational Philosophy 5
type of students they have and select the best educational philosophy which will perfectly
match with them in order to realize a success in academics.

Wyndham’s Educational Philosophy 6
References
Biesta, G., 2012. ‘This is My Truth, Tell Me Yours’. Deconstructive pragmatism as a
philosophy for education. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 42(7), pp.710-727.
Elliott, S.N. and Travers, J.F.,2012. Educational psychology: Effective teaching, effective
learning. Madison, WI: Brown & Benchmark.
Gutek, G.L., 2017. Philosophical and ideological perspectives on education.
https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319759685
International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 35(2), p.4.
Knight, G.R., 2016. Philosophy and education: An introduction in Christian perspective.
Mead, G.H., Biesta, G.J. and Trohler, D., 2015. Philosophy of Education. Routledge Mosier,
R.D.,2011. Perennialism in education. History of Education Journal, pp.80-85.
Noddings, N. (2018). Philosophy of education. Routledge.
Ormrod, J.E., Anderman, E.M. and Anderman, L.H., 2016. Educational psychology:
Slavin, R.E. and Davis, N., 2016. Educational psychology: Theory and practice.
Taylor, S., 2016. From philosophy to phenomenology: The argument for a “soft”
perennialism.