Philosophy of Teaching

Emilio Chase
Critical Pedagogy II
Dr. Abrahams
23 November 2015

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Introduction
From my own personal experiences, I know what its like to have the weight of the world
on your shoulders inside and outside of school. During high school, I essentially became the
primary caretaker of my grandmother who was diagnosed with Alzheimers. This crippling
disease was one of the most painful things I have ever had to deal with, but I needed to take care
of her because we could not afford to send her to a home, nor did we particularly want to send
her to one. I volunteered to do this because I loved my grandmother with all my heart and I did
not want my parents jobs to be put in jeopardy. Additionally, I was an honor student in my high
school that was involved in many different activities. Having to balance that emotionally
crippling problems at home with the demand from my teachers proved to be too much for a mere
16 year old to handle, so I began to shut down academically. My grades slipped dramatically just
when they began to matter most, which caused me to slip in and out of depressive episodes. I
bring all of this up to get to my main point: if I had a teacher in my life that I was comfortable
enough with to share all of this information, my high school education may have turned out
completely different. Having a mentor in my life that did not necessarily understand what I was
going through, but could empathize with me and help me develop a plan to get my grades back
on track would have been wonderful. While it did take enormous amounts of effort, I was able to
get back on track and achieve what was needed of me to graduate with decent grades. While the
journey was not easy, I made it through feeling empowered and ready to take on college.

Creating Caring Individuals

Each students that enters a classroom comes in with different amounts of knowledge,
different life experiences, different cultures, and different amounts of confidence, whether it be

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in themselves or in their abilities. It is the duty of the teacher to create a caring environment that
helps their students feel safe and protected, even if only for a short amount of time. Randall
Everett Allsup and Eric Shiehs article Social Justice and Music Education: The Call for Public
Pedagogy addresses the importance of caring for students, stating, At the heart of teaching
others is the moral imperative to care. It is the imperative to perceive and act, and not look away.
Calling upon our best selves, we know ethically that we cannot ignore these things. Consider that
we are educators precisely because we do not wish to ignore these things. Education, after all, is
a public endeavor with an obligation to enter the public space. Consider that we work with music
because the social life, the cultural life of our communities, is something we care deeply about
(Allsup Shieh 48). In order to establish a community in the classroom, the teacher should aim to
be a beacon for care for every student. As stated by Allsup and Shieh, teachers cannot look away
in times of hardship that students may be facing. Instead, it is necessary to address these issues
and help them through the difficult times they are facing.
Similarly to Allsup and Shieh, Bucholz and Sheffler propose that, Classrooms that
encourage emotional well-being create an atmosphere for both learning and emotional
development. Educational research supports creating an atmosphere of mutual respect, where
students feel relaxed in asking questions and expressing their thoughts and feelings, (Bucholz
Sheffler 1). This connects to the basic idea of trust in a classroom environment. In the process of
creating a community in the classroom, trust is a vital component that has to be established. If
the students do not feel as though they can trust their teacher or the others in their class, they will
not feel comfortable being themselves, which in turn will cause them to not want to participate in
class. The entirety of the classroom dynamic is thrown off if the students do not feel this sense of
trust.

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On the topic of each student coming from different cultural backgrounds, Ralibert and
Teachout state in The Journey from Music Student to Teacher that, Knowing any or all of those
labels might help you to know about the child, but not to know the child. To know the child you
would have to get beyond the labels to know the individual. However, not to know pertinent
information about a child is to risk assuming that all backgrounds are the same (Ralibert
Teachout 137). By assuming different facets of a students experiences simply by what they
identify as will do nothing but harm in a classroom. Similarly, allowing other students to hold
prejudice over others for different aspects of their culture should not be tolerated. Differences in
culture and experience should be celebrated in a classroom, as no two students share the same
culture and experiences. Establishing this ideal in the classroom will enable students to learn
tolerance and acceptance, two vital aspects of being a caring individual. It is necessary to honor
the students world by honoring the prior knowledge and experiences they bring to the
classroom, as stated in Planning Instruction in Music by Frank Abrahams and Ryan John. One
example of this would be incorporating different backgrounds in the classroom and incorporating
them into lessons. In Bill Ayers To Teach, he states that, kids love to tell us about themselves,
and we can structure multiple opportunities for them to do so ( Ayers 54). By giving these
students an outlet to introduce their own cultures music, we give them a voice. This allows the
students to connect their own worlds with the world of learning while encouraging all students to
love their cultures and the cultures of their fellow students.
Another aspect presented is from Howard Gardner, a learning theorist, who created the
different intelligences present in individuals. Gardner argues that the differences in learning,
challenge an educational system that assumes that everyone can learn the same materials in the
same way and that a uniform, universal measure suffices to test student learning. Indeed, as

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currently constituted, our educational system is heavily biased toward linguistic modes of
instruction and assessment and, to a somewhat lesser degree, toward logical-quantitative modes
as well, (Lane). Gardners theory essentially states that everyone has a set of traits that they
either excel at or have difficulty with. Some of these areas of learning include logic, spatial, and
musical, but range vastly into different traits. I agree with the overall idea that students each have
their own area of strength. It is important for teachers to take into account that because a student
may not excel in one particular area that they are unintelligent. Fostering the strengths while
reinforcing the weaknesses is a necessary component to successful teaching.
A caring teacher helps every student strive for success while fostering a sense of
community that is, unfortunately, lacking in many classrooms. By taking the time to plan and
establish lessons and methods that help to benefit as many students as they can, they begin to
foster a sense of caring, which allows everyone in the classroom to feel as comfortable as
possible.

Putting Students First

Similarly to some concepts previously stated, the purpose of teaching is not self-serving.
While rewarding, the main focus of teaching is on what the students need and how the teacher
can help those needs. In my high school experience, I wish a teacher would have noticed my
struggle more than they did. While my experience did turn out to have a favorable ending, that is
not always the case for the struggles of other students. Regelski discussed the ethics of music
education in his paper Toward an applied, professional ethics for school music. While discussing
duty ethics, he states that, First and foremost, it should benefit the students, not the teacher; and
not music programs as though autonomous ends-in-themselves. As we know, some in other

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professions do lose sight of their duty to those they serve and instead put their own needs ahead
of professional values. This often leads to warranted skepticism about the ethics of those
individuals or professions (Regelski 3). Essentially, it is the duty of a teacher to put the students
need on high priority. Students do not learn well or feel comfortable in situations when they are
preoccupied with other issues that plague them.
Similarly, Joan Wink of California State University states in Critical pedagogy: Notes
From the Real World that, Pedagogy is the meaningful interaction between teaching and
learning. In addition, critical pedagogy seeks to take action to improve teaching and learning in
schools and in life, (Wink 47). I chose to include this quote in this section because it addresses
the issue of meaningful interaction. If the teacher is putting the students first, they become more
open to learning the material presented. A common issue with teachers is that they are very
knowledgeable in their respective field, but have no idea how to connect to their students and put
them first and vice versa. If a teacher is only successfully one of these concepts, then the class is
suffering. The idea of a meaningful interaction between teaching and learning comes when the
teacher is able to communicate the information to the class effectively while still honoring their
worlds and acknowledging their needs as individuals.
In Planning Instruction in Music by Frank Abrahams and Ryan John, there is a section in
the first chapter entitled What Constitutes Good Music Teaching? that breaks down some
concepts of successful teaching in a music specific classroom. However, most of these points are
universal to all subjects of teaching. The very first point addressed is that, Good teaching is
student-centered. It begins and honors the students world. Good teachers use the knowledge and
experiences students bring to the classroom as a bridge to new learning, (Abrahams Ryan 9).
The overarching theme of this section, good teaching focuses on what the students need from

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both the class and the teacher. Instead of sticking to a lesson plan wholeheartedly, allowing room
for interpretation and change allows the students to have more creativity and control over their
learning experience. This does not mean that the students get to change the material to make it
easier, but rather to adapt teaching styles to keep the students interested and involved in their
learning experience.
Another common issue in the classroom is the topic of hegemony. McLaren defines
hegemony in Critical Pedagogy: A Look at the Major Concepts as, the maintenance of
domination not by the sheer exercise of force but primarily through consensual social practices
produced in specific sites such as the school, the political system, and the family, McLaren 76).
What this essentially boils down to in terms of the classroom is that the teacher unknowingly or
knowingly exercises domination and control over their class. This sets a very uneven balance of
power in the classroom environment that puts the needs and wants of the teacher above those of
the students. The teacher is winning the consent of the students by exerting this power, causing
the students to unknowingly give in to the teachers wants. Teachers that exert this power are not
honoring the students world and are also not allowing the students to express themselves as
individuals.

Conclusion
As McLaren states, It should be stressed that there is no one critical pedagogy. Each
teacher possesses their own viewpoint of what teaching should incorporate, but they should all
include a constant dialogue and interaction between the students and the teacher. My personal
goal is that my students feel that they are in a true community where they can express their
opinions and views without fear of being judged or criticized, but also allow them to think

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critically and learn as much as they can. The role of a teacher goes beyond simply teaching facts;
the teacher has to provide for the students both academically, emotionally, mentally, and socially.
Being a teacher is not a simple profession. Teachers are nourishing the individuals of the future
and the more effective and well-rounded they are, the better people they will become.

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Works Cited
Abrahams, Frank, and Ryan John. Planning Instruction in Music. Chicago: GIA Publications,
n.d. Print.
Allsup, R. E., & Shieh, E. (2012). Social justice and music education: The call for public
pedagogy. Music Educators Journal, 98(4), 47-51.
Ayers, W. (2010). To teach: The journey of a teacher (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Teachers College
Press.
Bucholz, J. L. & Sheffler, J. L. (2009). Creating a warm and inclusive classroom environment:
Planning for all children to feel welcome. Electronic journal for inclusive education, 2
Lane, Carla. "The Distance Learning Technology Resource Guide." Gardner's Multiple
Intelligences. N.p., n.d. Web.
Mclaren, Peter. "Critical Pedagogy: A Look at the Major Concepts." N.p., n.d. Web.
Raiber, M., & Teachout, D. (2014). The journey from music student to teacher: A professional
approach. New York, NY: Routledge.
Regelski, T. A. (2010). Toward an Applied, Professional Ethics for School Music. Paper
presented at the May Day Colloquium, Montclair, NJ.
Wink, Joan. "Critical Pedagogy Notes from the Real World." Pearson, n.d. Web.