Teaching Philosophy
"Our language can be seen as an ancient city: a maze of little streets and squares, of old and new houses, and of houses with additions from various periods; and this surrounded by a multitude of new boroughs and with straight regular streets and uniform houses." - Ludwig Wittgenstein, P.I. §18
My educational philosophy can be divided into three separate areas: Literacy, culture, and social justice. I believe that it is a special education teacher's obligation to engender a sense of each of these in and out of the classroom, and that fulfilling each of these criteria makes up the majority, albeit not the totality, of a special education teacher's duties.
The first dimension of my educational philosophy is literacy. For me, the essence of literacy rests in meaning and rule-following. By literacy, I do not mean merely reading the printed word. Instead, teaching literacy entails connecting students with their communities and their world as fully participating members. This requires a special education teacher to consider literacy in the broadest of terms. In the past, I have worked with my cooperative teachers to challenge students to consider in what ways learning a musical instrument, or playing football, or changing car oil all qualify as types of literacy. Teaching literacy to students with disabilities emphasizes the functional and meaningful aspects of reading texts. This way, one begins to see all different kinds of literacy in one's world, from being able to read a bus schedule, to being able to interpret another person’s emotions, to being able to read the weather report and know how to dress for school that day. It is this idea of literacy – of how literacy interacts and mingles with our everyday lives – that interests and excites me today, and that I hope I can use to enrich my professional life.
The second aspect of my educational philosophy is culture. Every teacher is responsible for engendering a classroom climate that creates a positive and productive environment for students to learn in. More than that, however, a teacher must recognize the ways in which this climate is an extension of his own beliefs and values. Special education teachers, who serve a diverse population, especially need to project a purposeful and thoughtful classroom climate. Whether we perceive it or not, everything that takes place within our classroom walls affects our students. Our instructional methods, our behavioral management techniques, and even the physical layout of our rooms have an effect on our students. I don’t think that teachers are arbiters of morality, but they do model ethics, and being an ethical member of a culture means being versed in a particular set of social rules. Ethics, itself, remains a type of literacy.
The third domain of my philosophy is the concept of social justice. Just as special education teachers are responsible for cultivating a classroom culture that is beneficial to their students, they’re also obligated to expand that sense of community into the rest of their students' lives. For many of our students, school is the only place in their lives where they can feel any kind of safety or stability. Students with disabilities in particular ought to have teachers who are also their advocates, and who are willing to affect positive change in their communities.
Each of these aspects of education – literacy, culture, and justice - influences and informs one another. The culture that a teacher establishes affects the lives of her students outside it; students' experiences in the world determine their abilities to interpret it and navigate it; and the literacy skills that these students bring with them impact what a teacher will teach during the school day. If a special education teacher can successfully implement each of these elements into his work each and every day, then I believe that he will have fulfilled his obligation to his students.
The first dimension of my educational philosophy is literacy. For me, the essence of literacy rests in meaning and rule-following. By literacy, I do not mean merely reading the printed word. Instead, teaching literacy entails connecting students with their communities and their world as fully participating members. This requires a special education teacher to consider literacy in the broadest of terms. In the past, I have worked with my cooperative teachers to challenge students to consider in what ways learning a musical instrument, or playing football, or changing car oil all qualify as types of literacy. Teaching literacy to students with disabilities emphasizes the functional and meaningful aspects of reading texts. This way, one begins to see all different kinds of literacy in one's world, from being able to read a bus schedule, to being able to interpret another person’s emotions, to being able to read the weather report and know how to dress for school that day. It is this idea of literacy – of how literacy interacts and mingles with our everyday lives – that interests and excites me today, and that I hope I can use to enrich my professional life.
The second aspect of my educational philosophy is culture. Every teacher is responsible for engendering a classroom climate that creates a positive and productive environment for students to learn in. More than that, however, a teacher must recognize the ways in which this climate is an extension of his own beliefs and values. Special education teachers, who serve a diverse population, especially need to project a purposeful and thoughtful classroom climate. Whether we perceive it or not, everything that takes place within our classroom walls affects our students. Our instructional methods, our behavioral management techniques, and even the physical layout of our rooms have an effect on our students. I don’t think that teachers are arbiters of morality, but they do model ethics, and being an ethical member of a culture means being versed in a particular set of social rules. Ethics, itself, remains a type of literacy.
The third domain of my philosophy is the concept of social justice. Just as special education teachers are responsible for cultivating a classroom culture that is beneficial to their students, they’re also obligated to expand that sense of community into the rest of their students' lives. For many of our students, school is the only place in their lives where they can feel any kind of safety or stability. Students with disabilities in particular ought to have teachers who are also their advocates, and who are willing to affect positive change in their communities.
Each of these aspects of education – literacy, culture, and justice - influences and informs one another. The culture that a teacher establishes affects the lives of her students outside it; students' experiences in the world determine their abilities to interpret it and navigate it; and the literacy skills that these students bring with them impact what a teacher will teach during the school day. If a special education teacher can successfully implement each of these elements into his work each and every day, then I believe that he will have fulfilled his obligation to his students.