Meaning of Education

The term education is derived from Latin word ‘Educare’ which means ‘to ride’, ‘to bring up’, to train’, or to rear etc. Education is art of teaching. Recently an alternative claimed that education derives from a various verb; ‘Educere’ meaning to lead out or to lead forth and ‘Educatum’ meaning ‘to train’ or ‘act of teaching or training’.

            In the past, education was considered as knowledge given by the elders in certain institutions, creation of sound mind in a sound body. Education explains sorts of school that does not include outside schooling and talks somehow formal type of education in narrow sense. The narrow meaning of education is communication of information by teacher as well as acquisition of knowledge by students. Various writes have defined education in their own way.

            According to G.H. Thomson, “Education is the influence of environment on the individual with a view to producing a permanent change in his habit or behaviour of thought and attitude.”

According to Prof. Drevery, “education is a process in which/ by which knowledge character and behaviour of young are shaped and molded”.

            Some of writers have explained the term education in wider sense instead of narrow sense.

John Dewey said, “Education is not preparation for life, it is life itself.”

Pestalozzi explains, “Education is natural, harmonious and progressive development of man’s innate power.” Whereas T.P. Nunn says that “it is complete development of individuality of child so that he can make an original contribution to human life according to the best of his capacity.”

Comenius said, “Education is the development of whole man.”

According to S.S. Mackenzi, “A process that goes throughout the life, and is promoted by almost every experience in the life is education.”

Therefore, education is life long process, which influences from birth to death. Education is that whatever broadness our horizons, deepens our insight, refines our reactions and stimulates thought and feelings, educate us.

The actual meaning of education is its well-developed meaning. Therefore, according to this, education is that process which assists the intellectual, Physical, social, economic, cultural, spiritual, moral and material or all round development of an individual. By education, people are able to enjoy a successful life and become responsible members of the society. Education enables to bring out their internalized or inner ideas or thoughts. It makes people civilized and socialized. Education develops the sense of self-realization, self-dependency and self-respect within themselves. In nutshell, education brings perfection in an individual.

The combination of different perspectives of education meaning is known as analytical meaning of education. For instance, the meaning of education is not limited to school education. However, it takes place in different forms i.e. formal, non-formal and informal forms. Therefore, the education cannot be limited only to the school education. The process of education is broad and unlimited. It covers all the life of an individual; therefore, it cannot be limited only to schools. The meaning of education is as the harmonious development of innate powers of a child, in ancient period, education was considered as knowledge centered. Therefore, the aim of education was limited to the acquisition of knowledge.

In medieval period, it was considered as a child centered process. Rousseau, the French philosopher was the propagator of this thought. He said, “The function of education is to bring the harmonious development of the innate power of the child. Now it is accepted that the main role of education is to support the all-round development of a child by developing his innate powers.

Now the education is believed as a tri-polar process. Hence the three poles of education are educator, educand and curriculum which are presented by the help of the following diagram:-                                Education

Educator   curriculum Educand

            Previously, it was believed as a bipolar process where there were only two poles: educator and educand. In the past, it was believed that the teacher decides about what to teach and he was supposed to give this knowledge to his students. However the modern approach of education believes that curriculum is the third and most important pole of educative process. It takes place to fulfill some pre-determined aims through a pre-determined curriculum. The principal aim of the curriculum is to bring manifested changes in the behavior of the learner and the role of teacher is as the organizer of an educative process.

Education is a dynamic process instead of a static process. The traditional thought about education as a process of acquiring knowledge, which makes a person educated for his whole life, has been changed. One must regularly update his knowledge according to changing demands of life. Curriculum itself should be updated time to time to meet the demands of changing life with the changing period. Education is believed to be a process, which prepares the individuals, being capable to fulfill the changing demand of life. In fact, the present era is the era of explosion of knowledge. New knowledge and skills are being frequently developed which is making the old knowledge obsolete. It has turned education as a dynamic and a lifelong process.

            Education is also a process of social development. By nature, human beings are inherently social animals. Therefore, they are always in the effort of being adjusted with their complex social environment and maintaining societal relationships and they have to play a specific role in the society according to its specific and changing needs. In fact, education helps then in the process of their adjustment is also termed as social development since human beings develop specific skills in the process of this adjustment. In this way, education is a process of social development through which people learn the skills of social adjustment.

            Finally, education can be considered as the change of behavior. Psychologists believe that human beings change their original behavior through education. They bring change in their old knowledge, skill and attitude by the process. These changes enable them in their adjustment with society.

            Education is the process by which an individual changes his or her old set of behaviour and acquires the new set. Besides these given above meanings, it also considered as the process of training, guidance human development and development of life skills.

Nature of Education

        The nature of education is of three kinds. They are:-

1.      Formal education

2.      Informal education

3.      Non-formal education

Formal Education

            Formal education is the product of civilization and division of labour. It is the most planned form of education. Formal education is a long term and general credit based education. This kind of education is learned through the channel of education and is given by teachers. Therefore, it is teacher centered education rather than the student centered. Formal education is of hierarchical in nature that is divided into different grades. These grades are generally tied up with the age level. It has a predetermined curriculum and it takes place within the boundary of schools. Examination is conducted at the end of grade to validate the acquiring of knowledge of the learners. A person can be upgraded to upper grade only after being successful in this examination and schools give certificate as an indicator of success of examination. It develops knowledge in systematic manner. It takes place for duration in certain time, for example; Education achieved in college and schools.

            Formal education is that kind of education that is well-defined and systematic curriculum and planned with a particular end in view. This kind of education is controlled by external or hierarchical system. It is institution based. So is isolated from environment.

            Although formal education is an organized and well-planned system of education that is mainly responsible for the development of knowledge, many educationists such as Paulo Friere, Ivan Illich and Reimer also criticize it for its more formalized structure. They criticize this system for providing piecemeal education that is not according to need of learners. In this system of education, more emphasis is given to the acquisition of theoretical structure of knowledge. Formal education provides knowledge in passive manner and they have to wait for a long time to acquire the required knowledge. The education system in formal education system is more exam oriented than skill oriented for instance, education that we are learning and getting in Kathmandu University is formal education. Formal education takes place form primary to University level. Its main aim is to provide minimum knowledge, skills and attitude for life.

Features of formal education

1. Limited to a specific period.
2. It is well-defined and systematic curriculum.
3. It is given by Special qualified teachers
4. It includes the activities outside the classroom though focused on inside activities.
5. It observes discipline.
6. It takes exam at specified period formally and award certificates for the success and failure.

Every society organizes schools to give education or to help people learn. However, not all learning can take place in the school. Most people receive the largest and some of the most important part of their education outside the school system Hence school is not only the channel of learning.

Informal Education

            Informal education is life long process by which every person acquires and gathers knowledge, attitudes, skill and insights form daily experience and exposures. It does not have a certain objective or curriculum. It does not have a fixed time or limit. In this education system, the agency, which provides education may or may not have well-defined objectives and well targeted group of learners.

            Informal education is not imparted by specialized agency but it is incidental and spontaneous. It is neither pre-planned nor intentional. Hence, the learners acquire it in planned way. This type of education has no limit time to learn the knowledge for the students. It is taught not according to prescribed timetable or curriculum. However, people get this kind of education through daily experiences and activities. It is not institutionalized based education. The students learn things directly which they experience. Examples of informal education are radio, newspaper, magazine, pamphlets, posters etc.

The features of informal education are:-

1. It is incidental and spontaneous.
2. It is neither pre-planned nor intentional.
3. It is not imparted by specialized agency.
4. It is not according or prescribed timetable or curriculum.
5. It is life long process of education.

Non-formal Education

“Non-formal education is a plan of instructional design which uses both overt and covert procedures in a more flexible environment to teach towards a goal determined by a regulated policy”, said Philip H. Combs and Monsoor Ahmad.

It covers all the three important objectives like imparting knowledge, developing different skills and promoting values. Like an organized education outside the formal system like adult literary skill oriented training.

The major aim of this education is to develop skills to increase the functional capacity of individuals of different area of society.

Aims of non-formal education is

1.      The main aim of non-formal education is to provide an alternative chance to those who are not benefited by various reasons and bring them back into mainstream of education.

2.      Its aim is to provide functional literacy to illiterate people for solving their problems caused by lack of education.

3.      It is aimed to develop skills and knowledge in people and orient them for self-job.

4.      The next aim of this education system is to develop competency in people to be adjusted with the fast changing conditions of present life.

5.      It aims to turn the backward human resource due to lack of education into a skillful and productive manpower.

6.      It provides an opportunity of re-entry for the people in mainstream education who have left schools without completing their education.

7.      It provides continuing education for the needed people.

The features of non-formal education

The features of non-formal education are given as below:-

a.       It is organized outside the formal system of education.

b.      It is consciously organized and systematically implemented.

c.       It is life long process, learning integrated with life and work.

d.      It facilitates multiple entry, exit and reo-entry and re-exits.

e.       It is diversified, flexible and open-ended education system.

f.       It provides part time instruction to the non-controlled children and to those who cannot follow full time programmes.

g.      The learners are more motivated in this system.

h.      It is related to the need, interest, ability and aptitude of learners.

i.         It is related with the necessities of life of the people.

Functions of Education

What education does for us? Why do people get education? These questions are very much important to be discussed while mentioning the function of education. In fact, function of education is based on the aim and objectives of the education. They are different from nation to nation, place to place, time to time because they must address the changing context and needs of every individual, society and the nations. While locating the actual functions of education, we can find various thoughts about the ultimate function of education.

Some of the thoughts of educationists regarding function of education are given below:

According to George Payne (father of sociology), "the main functions of education are transformations of tradition, development of new social patterns and creative and constructive work."

According to Munroes (sociologist) the function of education includes dissemination of knowledge, social control, security of social heritages and social progress.

 Similarly, G.S. Syagee says," the function of education can be classified as general. individual, social, national and international functions."

So, after studying the thoughts mentioned above, we can say that education functions at different level such as individual level, social level, national level, and international level. An individual is very close to all level. So behavior change (socially accepted) is very much important function of education. Every individual is social by instinct. So the function of education must focus to enable individual to play a constructive, respected role in society and to lead his life which to him will be satisfying.( AESEO, Washington D.C. NEA, 1965,P 17)

Here, we can list out the function of education with brief explanation in the following ways:

1.  Individual Function

The function of education related to the all round development of an individual for his proper adjustment with acceptable norms and values in his society, national and international scenario, are called individual function of education. Individual function makes an individual to adjust in his environment, achieve vocational efficiency, development of characters, personality. Education prepares an individual ready, equipped with all those knowledge and skills to overcome the problems arise in his personal life and his environment as well. Education must help to understand the rights and duties of each person toward his country help to control undisciplined activities, crimes and must develop democratic, worthy and good moral character to produce a good citizen of a nation. In fact an individual attempts the treasure of knowledge and skills for his wholesome development. This individual function of education help an individual adjust in his society with required knowledge and skills to run his life successfully and make him able to fight any challenges on the way of his life. Some of the individual functions are:

a. Development of innate potentialities:

According to Pestalogzzi, education is natural, harmonious and progressive development of man's innate power. In fact, every individual is born with some innate potentialities but it is very difficult to recognize them. It is the most important function of education that brings out these potentialities. Education helps an individual to find out his power to the progressive way.

b. Fulfillment of individuals needs:

A society doesn't exist without an individual and vice-versa but an individual needs many more things to be adjusted in society such as physical needs (food. clothes, houses-livelihood), social, economic status etc. So education makes an individual equipped with all these needs. He must be able to earn his livelihood by using his knowledge and skills. Besides this, an individual needs the philosophy of life, ways of living happy and prosperous life. He must be able to recognize the system and with all his hopes he leads his life through education

c. Personality Development:

Personality represents external and internal qualities or physical and mental characteristics. This is the main thing by which an individual deserves his position and make his name and fame in his society. Therefore, education should help him in all round development and make his prestige higher in the society.

d. Development of vocational efficiency:

Vocational education is the need of our country now days, due to the lack of it, many educated people, even if they are educated are unemployed and have become the problem of the nation. Therefore, vocational education is the function of education that helps an individual to produce, to sell skills for industrial needs and makes their life prestigious one. Gandhi has said," True education ought to be for them a kind of insurance against employment". So education for "bread and butter" also should be implemented. Anyway, education should make an individual skillful and help him to earn his life.

e. Educational development:

According to Socrates, knowledge is power by which things are done and it cannot be considered as an end in itself. According to him, school is and should be a means of communication center of knowledge of all subjects. So education must equip an individual with certain educational qualification to make him an efficient member of his society.

f. Attainment of self-dependency:

Every person must be able to be independent working somewhere according to his knowledge and skills. Education helps an individual to get some job and to carry out certain works, so that he gets himself self-dependent person. It is not only the matter of being financial independent only; a person must be independent in all aspect of his life. Education helps a person for his all round development. Education provides knowledge and skills to help him do some works, earn something for his development, for his progress. Education should develop the feeling of independency, and must produce laborious and industrious person. It should impart not only the theoretical knowledge but also produce laborious citizen so that country's development is easier.

1g. Re-construction of experiences:

Learning is mostly influenced by personal experiences of every person. He can learn many more things. So learning is just re-construction of experiences that we feel in our life. This is the acquisition of new behavior. Education helps an individual to

reconstruct the behavior providing many more opportunities and help him to modify his knowledge.

h. Development of self-morality\Characters:

Money is not needful, power is not needful, cleverness is not needful, even health is not needful but character\ morality alone and education must develop it. According to Vivekananda, the end of every education, all trainings should be man making. Similarly John Dewey has said," All education forms characters- mental and moral."

 Character is the product of daily actions and words and thoughts such as daily forgiveness, kindness, politeness, sincerity, sympathy, and sacrifice for the good of others. Good acts and the good habits are the basis. It is continuation process from birth to death. Therefore, education should develop the moral character in every individual.

2. Social Function

Both, an individual and a society cannot exit alone. We can't imagine our life without society. Social norms, values, leadership, and personality development all we learn in society. All these are possible because of education. If there was no education, certainly we would be as savage as we were in the past. Because of education, the present society is now in well developed form, well civilized. But change takes a long time. Social process and education process are almost the same. Education aims giving direction to the social reconstruction that we so desperately need if we are going to solve our social problem. All the progressive functions change the society, civilization of the society, social norms and values of the society whatever are set, are because of education. Helping each individual's personality and help him socialize creating knowledge and transmitting of culture and preservation are the social function of education. As education is the dynamic process, it should change its function according to its demands, changing context of the society. Generally, John Broacher has identified the following four function of education:

a. Conservative function:

As its name suggests, the social function of education is to conserve social norms, social values, cultures and tradition of a society. Many traditions, culture, social norms and values, which are the identities of a country were made, conserved and transmitted from one generation to another. However some people have criticized this function as the conservative function leads the society backward, to old traditional and conservative out dated things but it doesn't mean that it only conserve the old tradition and force people to follow them, rather it also preserves progressive, new knowledge, new development, new achievement of revolution. It means conservation and promotion of social property.

b. Progressive function of education

Both society and education are dynamic and are supposed to change according to the progressive change in the field of knowledge. It has to change itself according to the changing context. In other words our social norms, values, traditions, culture have to be changed according to the changing context, demanding time. Education should modernize the society to the progressive way. It emphasizes on creating of new balance in the society. So, modernization according to the demands of time is very much important function of education. It also should focus on progressive development of innate powers of individuals, social reforms and progress. This function includes improving the conservative thinking, developing society using new trend, new inventions, scientific knowledge and technology.

c. Neutral function of education

This function of education is quite contradicting and has been criticized by many people. It focuses on not to take any side and education should remain neutral in contradictory debate in the society. But it has been criticized badly. What people criticized is, education should make a clear idea among people about good and bad, it should guide people for correct judgment. Otherwise education will have no value at all.

2d. Revolutionary function of education

This role of education in society is a product of Marxist philosophy that clearly says no society can be transformed to new shape unless the old society is changed entirely. It is very difficult to change already established social norms, values, traditions and culture. So it needs revolutionary activities, developed by education. Without strong struggle revolutionary power does not work. Therefore, education should bring revolution in society through struggle. However, it is also not far from criticism. Many people say that while bringing change in society through struggle, the society can be divided in to different parts, groups and it will be never lasting\ endless struggle that will create more problems. So agreement, evolution are some of the alternatives of this problem.

3. National Function of education

The development of a nation is dependent of the development of an individual and vice versa. For the country's development, all the citizens of that country join hands in hands and united by devoting themselves for the development of the country. It will be only possible if all the people are aware of their duties towards the nation that is possible by education. Therefore, the most important work of education is to make efficient, laborious, industrious and honest citizen for a country. Some of the national function of education can be listed as follow:

a. Education produces skilled human resources for the development of the country.

b. Education makes the people proper use, conservation, transmission, and promotion of natural resources, national property and cultural heritages.

c. Education helps all the people to be integrated between them for the development of the country. It reduces the feeling of castes, regionalism, and antagonism against others' cultures or ethnic groups.

d. Education helps every individual to be a good citizen of the country.

e. Education helps the people to preserve and transmit the cultures and civilization which are very precious treasures of a country.

f. Education fosters the quality of leadership among the people of the country which unifies the people to work jointly for the betterment of the country.

g. Education emphasizes the qualities of simplicity, integrity, tolerance and the socio-economic situation of the country.

h. Development of the patriotism. It includes 3 things- a sincere appreciation of the social cultural achievements of one's country, readiness to its weakness and to work for their eradication bordering national interest.

i. Appreciation of democratic norms and values and development of democratic citizen.

j. Developing art of living in a community: Appreciating value of others, qualities for graciousness, discipline, co-operation, social sensitiveness

k. Passion for social justice: Education must develop a passion for social justice, based on sensitiveness to social evils and exploitation which corrupts the grace of life.

4. International function of education

The world has been a global village for us because of rapid development of science and technology especially in the field of communication and transport. The geographical distance as well as mutual relation of the people\ countries of the world has been near to internal relationship, mutual dependence, co- operation among the countries and the people have been stronger. Now, an individual is not limited within a country, the whole world has been his village like. In this context there must be international neighboring, bilateral, mutual understanding between the countries and people as well which is possible only by  fostering such emotional concept\ feelings of brotherhood among the people. In this scenario, the following are the functions of education:

a. Development of international relation, understanding, bi-lateral relation, mutual co-operation between the countries and the people.

b. Exchange and development of human resources, ideas, experiences, technologies to fulfill the needs of the countries.

c. Proper utilization of international forum.

c. Developing the feeling of international understanding.

d. Provide the knowledge of contemporary development of science and technology and social consciousness to each individual.

5. Cultural function of education

A nation's culture, traditions, called as the precious gift, treasure of a country given by the ancestor is national identity of the country. The past generation had done a lot for the preservation, transmission and development and promotion of these treasures, so this treasure should be preserved, developed, promoted and transmitted properly to the new generation that is possible by education. Some of the cultural functions of education are given below:

a. Education helps for the preservation of cultural arts, crafts, traditions, norms and values and transmission of these to new generation keeping their precious identity.

b. Education helps every individual to respect their culture, norms, values, languages, traditions, religions, developing the sense of tolerance and nationalism.

c. Education helps every individual to implement people's thought, faith, thinking styles in to the real life.

6. Economic function of education

Herbinson and Myers define education as an investment in people. From this definition, we can understand the relationship between education and economic condition, which is economic function of education. Regarding economic function of education, education system should not impart only the theoretical knowledge but also should be able to produce laborious and industrious citizen and concept of education has developed as "work and study". Education helps to strengthen the economic condition by producing different manpower needs for the development of the country on one hand and must prepare an individual to manage his living doing some kind of jobs as well. It means after getting education, an individual must be able to do something to be economically sound. So education should develop the feelings of independency, interest towards the job and industrious attitudes to a person. Gandhi has said," True education ought to be for them a kind of insurance against employment". This function of education is also called "the bread and butter function "of education. So, education should train individuals with knowledge and skills to make socially and economically efficient.

Conclusion

Education is the development of whole man that broadens the horizons and deepens our insight as well as refines our reactions. It is that process which assists the intellectuals, physical, moral etc. or all round development of an individual. By education people are able to enjoy a successful life and become responsible citizens of a country. Education makes people civilized and socialized. Education is very important for human beings as it helps to develop the innate power of an individual and helps to overcome the future challenges. Human relies his or her social existence through education. It is education that enables us to achieve self-sufficiency or independency. Without education the life of human being will be as dark as night. Education helps the people to exchange the good culture and exchange of science, technology and experiences as well as fulfills the interest expectations and necessities of society, nation and world through the individual. Through education we learn to adapt the new environment. Therefore, education should be provided to the learners, it should be life long process, and it should be well defined and planned. Education is a process which brings modification in the behavior of the people and it is the process of social development.

ESSENTIALISM

After the downfall of progressivism, there was the dawn of Essentialism in American society. In fact, it was an educational movement rather than philosophy. It was introduced to revive the education system of USA, which was lowered down by the progressivism. This American philosophy of education which began in 1930’s and 1940’s as a reaction to what was seen as a overemphasis on a child-centered approach to education and a concern that student were not gaining appropriate knowledge in schools. Basically, the root forms of essentialism are idealism and realism. The etymological meaning of Essentialism is the word “Essence” is very closed to the definition of form and “ism” means the study. Therefore, the study of the structure or the form is essentialism. It is easier to understand the structure and real existence of anything by the analogy to an artifact produced by a craftsman. The main profounder of this philosophy are Bagley, Demishevich, Morrison, Briggs, Breed, Kandel, Finney etc. The main purpose of this schooling is to prepare students to be productive, contributing members of society and to teach the young the essentials they need to live well in the modern world. The main essentials of Essentialism are:-

1. Certainty in knowledge and truth:-

The school should provide the valuable knowledge for the children to make a whole man. The skills and knowledge they learned and gained at childhood and youth stage is the main base at adult stage as we say morning shows a day and a child shows a man. Therefore, whatever things we learned during our childhood and young stage, that shaped our adult activities and behavior. The right knowledge and true things r true wisdom of our childhood leads the future life and on the basis of it, we can continue our norms and values further in proper way.

2. Certainty in values: -

The main function of school is to handover the fixed traditional norms and values to the students. The world has its own norms and values which are unalterable or permanent. So, they are called universal norms and values.

3. The individual and society: -

 The individual and society have close relationship. The all round development of an individual completely depend on the society. Therefore, the individual should have the ability transform him or herself with the change of social factors and he\she should make himself\herself as a civilized citizen with civilized society.

Basic principles

1. Learning necessarily involves hard work and application: -

As we say, ‘no pain no gain.’ Therefore, for the fruitful result, one should do hard work Self discipline and self control is necessary for hard work, which affect positively throughout life. We should give priority to the future plans\ aims of the students rather than the present needs of the learner. The main aim of the students should be suppression of the immediate needs and thinking about the future progress.

2. The initiation in education should lie with the teacher rather than the pupil:-

Learning can’t be successful unless it is based on the capacities interest and purpose of the learner but those purpose and interest must be made over by the skill of the teacher who is master of the logical organizer. Teacher is in the center of the teaching-learning process. Principles of learning knowledge of child psychology, knowledge of learning process, commitment of the profession are the basic foundations of a teacher without which she can not be teacher.Untill and unless the adults direct the child they can’t identify their potentials. The vast majority of the students only attain knowledge through voluntary and intelligent submission to discipline imposed by the teacher.

3. The core of education is the absorption of prescribe subject matter:-

 The wisdom of the many, tested by history is more significant than the knowledge of the individual and far more significant than the totally untested experience of the child. The purpose of child attending school-to get to know this world as it really is and not merely to interpret it in the light of his\her own interest. Where does the child get such knowledge? Experience from the past and should make them ready for the future life. The main foundations of the future are contemporary society, environment and circumstances. The child does not get social adoption in the lack of such curriculum.

4. The school should retain traditional methods of mental discipline:-

The child should be taught the essential concepts that he needs in order to understand the situation, even if this concepts have to be adapted to his own psychological and intellectual level. The purpose of education should be to encourage knowledge of the whole life rather than to concentrate on the solution of the problem. Many of the things are abstract that can not be divided into pieces. Learning by doing is only a means which can’t be generalized in every stage of life.

Education and Essentialism

Educational essentialism is a theory that states that children should learn the traditional basic subjects and these should be learned thoroughly and rigorously. An essentialist program normally teaches children progressively, from less complex skills to more complex. An essentialist will usually teach some set subjects similar to Reading, Writing, Literature, and Foreign languages, History, Math, Science, Art and Music. 

Essentialism in ethics:-

Essentialism in ethics is changing that some things are wrong in an absolute sense, for example murder breaks a universal, objective and natural moral law and not merely an adventitious, socially or ethically constructed one.

Essentialism in biology:-

Before evolution was developed as a viable scientific theory, there existed an essentialist view of biology that posited all species to be unchanging throughout time. Some religious opponents of evolution continue to maintain this view of biology.

Essentialism and society: -

Essentialist positions on gender race or other group characteristics, consider these to be fixed traits while not allowing for variations among individuals or over time. Contemporary proponents of identity politics including feminism, gay rights, and anti-racist activists generally take constructionist viewpoints, agreeing with Simone de Beauvoir that “One is not born, but becomes a woman,” for example. However, this is a vexed issue. That means giving more emphasis to male – dominated society.

Essentialism in history:-

 Essentialism is used by some historians in listing essential characteristics of a particular nation or culture. A people can understand this way. These characteristics have degenerated into clichés serving to justify colonial practices. In other cases, the essentialist method has been used by members. Or admirers, of historical community to establish a praiseworthy national identity. This theory gives more emphasis to preserve the good things for future generation.

Essentialism and Education

According to essentialism, there are four concepts of education. They are:

1. The purpose of formal education is of two kinds-

They are Social aim and individual aim. Social aim includes the process of handover of the cultural heritages to new generations then only the society. For this he needs intellectual training and school- programs advancement of the intellectual life.

2. The nature of curriculum: -

 Accepted values are so essential that they must be transmitted to all those who come to school. Common core of subjects’ matters should be combined with intellectual skills. Traditional disciplines such as math, natural science, history, foreign language and literature form the foundation of the essentialist curriculum. Reading, writing, dictation, number system.

3. The function of teaching and the role of the teacher: -

The function of teaching is to bring the essential portion of the cultural heritage uninformed child together by transmitting to the students and instilling into him the essential portion of the accumulated heritage. Teacher is the sufficient cause of the educational process. She must an academic scholar. He\she holds moral integrity. He\she has profound sense of justice. He is always committed to human betterment.

Role of students

As we know that ‘Knowledge is power and work is worship.’Therefore, without hard labor and work no student can obtain knowledge. Another most important thing is the students should follow the directions of the teacher and should move ahead. Then only the essentials of the world can be understand easily by the students.

School

No mission to change or reform the social order but rather to preserve and refine that exists. The schools teach the students about the importance of social cultures and heritages and encourage them to preserve and conserve. Similarly, provide intellectual training to the students. So that students can cope with different social activities easily. Finally, essentialism gives more important to natural things. That is old is gold. Natural things have idealistic value. So, it has power to find out the truth.  

Meaning of Progressivism

Progressivism may be regarded as the outcome of the influence of pragmatism in education. The term progressive education was first used in 1919 while founding the progressive education associated in Washington, D.C. being predominantly child-centered , this association  embraced the following given principles:-

-          Freedom to develop naturally.

-          Interest the motive of work.

-          The teacher, a guide not a task master.

-          Scientific study of pupil development.

-          Greater attention to all that affects the child’s physical development.

-          Cooperation between school and home to meet the needs of child life. The progressive school is a leader in educational movement. It is based on the belief that education be child-centered rather than focused on the teacher or the content area but it should be child-centered, lesson should be derived from students’ interests.

Progressive Education

Progressivism is the development of pragmatism, instrumentalism, and reconstructionalism. It is a broad movement for educational reform in the 20^th century.

Progressive education is mainly associated with John Dewey, but it contains many different and often conflicting ideas. In general progressive educators view that the existing schools as too rigid, formal and attached from the real life. They prefer informal

Classroom arrangements and informal relation between the students and the teachers. They also prefer that schools teach the useful subjects and emphasis on “learning by doing” rather than instruction purely from text books. Some place the developing personality of the child at the center of educational thinking and insist, “Teach the child, not the subject.” To run this principle ahead continuously he published a book named “School of Tomorrow” in1951.

            It is the movement in American Education confined to a period between the late 19^th and mid 20^th century. The term “Progressive education” is generally used to refer only to those educational programmes that grew out of the American reform effort known as the “Progressive Movement”.

            The source of movement, however, partly lies in the pedagogy of Jean Jacques Rosseau, Johann Pestalozzi, and Friedrich Froebel.

            Progressive education was a pluralistic phenomenon, embracing industrial training, agricultural education, and society education as well as the new techniques of instruction advanced by educational theorists. Postulate of the movement were that children learn best in those experiences in which they have a vital interest and that modes of behaviour are most easily learned by actual performance. The progressivisms, thus, insisted that education must be a continuous reconstruction of living experience based on activity directed by the child. Identifying the individual differences was also considered crucial. Progressive education opposed formalized authoritarian procedure and fostered reorganization of classroom practice and curriculum as well as new attitudes toward individual students.

            Progrssivists believe that education should focus on the whole child, rather than on the content or the teacher. This educational philosophy stresses that students should test ideas by active experimentation. Learning is rooted in the questions of learners that arise through experiencing the world.

            It is active, not passive. The learner is a problem solver and thinker who makes meaning through his or her individual experience in the physical and cultural context effective teachers provide experiences so that students can learn by doing curriculum content is derived from students interests and questions. The scientific method is used by progressivist educators so that students can study matter and events systematically and first hand. The emphasis is laid on the process how one comes to know.

            The progressive education philosophy was established in American from the mid 1920s through the mid 1950s. John Dewey was its foremost proponent whose main aim is that school should improve the way of life of our citizens through experiencing freedom and democracy in schools. Shared decision making, planning of teachers with students, student-selected topics are all aspects. Books are only the tools rather than authority.

Deweyan Progressivism

            Deweyan progressivism is based on three central assumptions:-

1. The content of the curriculum should be derived from students’ interests rather than from the academic discipline.
2. Effective teaching takes into account the whole child and his or her interests and needs.
3. Learning is essentially active rather than passive.

Progressivism declares that education is always in the process of development. The core of education is not adjustment to society or to the external world, or to certain perennial standards of goodness, truth, and beauty. It is continual reconstruction of experience. In relation to this John Dewey said, “We thus reach a technical definition of education; It is that reconstruction or reorganization of experience which adds to the meaning of experience, and which increase the ability to direct the course of subsequent experience”.

Various Progressive Plans

John Dewey, an early proponent of progressive education, maintained that schools should reflect the life of the society. He suggested that the schools take on such responsibilities as the acculturation of immigrants in addition to merely teaching academic skills. He also proposed a number of specific curricular changes that had strong impact on subsequent reformer.

            At his laboratory school in Chicago, for instance, Dewey developed a method in which younger student groups worked on a central project related to their own interests. The division of more advanced work into units organized around some central theme was an attempt to adapt the method of the academic needs of older children.

            Other efforts to recognize the schools included the Gary Plan, developed in Gary, Ind in 1908 to 1915. The plan divided the school building into classrooms and space for auditorium, play ground, shops and laboratories to utilize the school plant more efficiently, to provide opportunity for more practical work and to co-ordinate various levels of schooling. Two schools ran simultaneously in this space so that every facility was in constant use. The school day was eight hours long, and schools were open six days a week.  The Gary plan was widely adopted.

            The Dalton plan (1919), at Dalton, Mass, sub-divided the work of the traditional curriculum into contract units, which the students undertook to accomplish in a specified amount of time. The Winnetka plan, established (1919) at Winnetka, III., Separated  the curriculum into subjects handled by the Dalton technique and used the cooperative method of creative social activities developed by Dewey.

Basic principles of Progressivism

The basic principles of Progressivism are given below:-

1. Education should be active and related to the interest of the child:-

Progressivism thinkers have introduced the concepts of the “whole child” as an answer to what they consider partial interpretations of the child’s nature. In this way, the thought or the concept of the “whole child” brings forward two things,

-We wish at no time to disregard the varied aspects of child life;

- The child as an organism properly responds as one unified whole.

Thus, they give priority to the child-centered schools or education because the teaching process is determined not on the basis of teacher and the content of area but on the basis of individual student. The student should learn, then, because he needs and wants to learn, not necessarily because someone else thinks that he should. It is right of the students to choose and get the education which is related with the life.

2. Learning through problem solving should replace inculcating of subject matter:-

Experience and experiment are the key words for the progressivism method of learning. It is a means by which the child is led from practical issues to theoretical principles from the concrete and sensory to the abstracts and intellectuals, problem solving is not an end.

3. Education should be life itself rather than a preparation for life:-

Intellectual life is learning since it explains and reorganizes the experiences. Therefore school is only the place where the children can learn seriously. Education is the life itself. It has to create a learning environment according to their interest so that they can learn through experience and reconstruction. It should be child centered.

Indeed, education is not simply a means to a future life, but instead represented a full life into itself.

4. School should encourage cooperation rather than competition:-

It rejects the social Darwinists view that society should imitate nature and encourage competition so that the rewards of success will go to those who are fittest to receive them. However, progressivists insist that cooperation is better suited than competition to the biological and social facts of human nature.

They think that competition may create jealousy, and conflict among the students whereas cooperation brings together and feel love, affection for. Since men are social animals, they enjoy and get delight from each others relation. Thus, progressivists emphasis on love cooperation and participation. Love and partnership are more appropriate to education than competition for them.

5. Education and democracy imply each other:-

            Democracy is the sharing of experience. This is a system of collective life. The teacher should be a democratic person and give full respect to the needs and interests of the children. He should provide suitable environment for learning to the students. The teacher should encourage them to learn.

            Remember that the children make their own curriculum; therefore, he should give full respect to their freedom. The students should be encouraged to learn on the basis of their own interest. Therefore, school should promote student government, the free discussion of ideas, joint pupil staff of planning and the full participation of all the educative experience. This is called the democratic environment of school.

            The role of the teacher is to select the appropriate experiences in schooling are interrelated forerunner of interdisciplinary learning. Education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform . Community’s duty to education is a normal one.

6. Truth is always changeable:-

            Progrssivists think that truth is possible only after experiment. Truth is man made. So it is nothing, it is an achievement. Thus they consider truth is dynamic not the same always. According to W. James, “Truth is not complete and certain”.

Progressivism and aims of Education

Education means social process whereas philosophy means general principles of education. It must be in touch with the society. Therefore education should fulfill the aims of a person.

            According to Dewey,“Education is life. It is laboratory of philosophy and social activities. Education is the process of growth and reconstruction of knowledge. This school is a miniature society. It is life itself, the function of school is not to prepare the child for future life”.

            For progressivists, the education should be practical and should be able to develop the new experiences. It shouldn’t be bookish doctrine but means to solve the problems of child in the future. Education should encourage cooperation rather than competition. Cooperation is the foundation of democracy. Democracy and education are also complementary to each other.

Aims of education

1. Education is the process of development

            There are no predetermined aims of education since it is always in the process of development. Education should change to face the time pace and conditions in all the time.

2. Education should be related with the interest of the child:-

            Education should always emphasis on the interest of the child. Education is always in the process of development. So the participation of the child is necessary in education process. Without the fulfillment of child’s desire, there is not possibility of child’s growth.

3. Education for the formation of new values:-

            They believe that education should be able to form the new values in the society for child. Without the formation of new values, education will remain always autonomous and futile.

4. Education should be life itself:-

            On the opposite of perennialists, progressssivists think that education is not the preparation of life but it is life itself. They give more priority to the values of life rather the aims of education. Thus they think education and life are same. Giving education means to make the life successful. It is the give and take which should be mediated by both.

5. Education for reconstructing human experiences:-

            Education should be always able to reconstruct human experience. It should provide experience to men. The experience of present and past helps anyone to live successful life in the future.

6. Education as the improvement of social order:-

            Progressivist said that education should be always able to improve the social order in the society.

7. Improvement of child’s growth:-

            Education should give importance to the child’s growth. It should not neglect the students but keep students at the center.

8. Dynamic:-

            Education should be dynamic. It should not be constant all the time.

9. No absolute goal of education:-

            According to progrssivists, the education can not be dynamic by predetermined aims. When the aims are determined in the education, it can not change and can not help the child to solve his problems. The aims of education must be related with time or according to time.

Progressivism Curriculum

The progressivism curriculum has a strong emphasis on problems solving and analysis for these skills are invaluable in today’s society. Without problem solving abilities, an individual is lost and alone in the puzzling maze of the society that characterizes the world today. It centered on activities and instruction that challenge the students’ problem solving and analysis abilities in an effort to strengthen these skills.

            The progressivism curriculum is found on providing for students’ instruction that ranges from basic real world skills to higher levels of investigation and analysis.

            John Dewey says’ “A good school program is one which leads students from an early interest in solving problems of an immediately localized and concrete sort to a more matured interest in solving problems which arise through intellectual curiosity and a desire for abstract knowledge”.

            Progressivist curriculum emphasizes on the principal of utility such as language, health and Physical Educational, History, Geography, Maths, Science, Home Science, agriculture etc. and next on the principle of integration like interrelationship.

            They emphasis on the child centered curriculum and principles of vocational activities and experiences.

Progressivism and Teacher

Teachers are responsible for the preparation of students for the real world and it is within the classroom setting that teachers must recreate problems which exists in the society and guide students in the direction of solving these problems.

            Good teachers always encourage creative thinking as well as analytic thinking. The questions they pose for their students are often open-ended questions that may or may not have prescribed answers. Therefore, a teacher is a responsive guide to students.

            A teacher is a supreme person of school who has social and intellectual personality. He creates the environment and new ideas. And a teacher is also a planner of education who evaluates the capacities and needs of the learners in the school. He should respect the freedom of learners. He is highly valued in the society.

            A good teacher always understands the individual differences of child and he should always guide the children in all complexities of life. So he is considered a philosopher friend of the learners in the society. Therefore a good teacher should be always punctual, regular, loving or caring and honest to his profession as well as skilled and good knowledge about the subject matter.

            Thus the role of the teacher is progressivism teaching is not to direct but to advise the learners who influence the growth of his students, not by drawing bits of information into their heads but rather by controlling the environment in which growth takes place.

            The teacher is there only to guide learning but the children plan their own development in the progressivism school. He works with the children for the attain ment of mutually agreeable ends. Therefore, teacher merely has superior and richer experience to bring to bear on the analysis of the present situation.

            The teacher is vitally important as stage setter, guide and co-ordination. He is not the sole source of authority in the progressivism.

The role of the Students

 The role of the students is vitally important than the teacher in the progressivism. The children are responsible towards group as the groupism life is inevitable for the individual personality development in progressivism education.

     - Education is child-centered:-

            The child is in the center of learning in progressivism education. Only the school can change the child desire and interest in teaching.

-          The child himself creates the truth and values. He., thus gets this environment.

-          The child is the developer of experiences.

-          He finds the causes of problems.

-          The child himself creates values. So is the creator of values.

-          The child is involved in developing learning processes. Therefore he is known as developer of it.

-          The child co-operates rather than competes.

The Teaching Methods of Progressivism

In progressivism, they emphasis on experimental and methodology. They regard learning as one whole experience a single ting that branches and grows. Hence, the wholeness method is the basis of progressivism learning. Many teachers come to class “armed” only with lectures or one way teaching. But progressivists say that we must learn to use other methods strategically.

They give priority on the idea of problem-based learning wherein the student is required to develop original solutions to existing or potential problems. The students are e given the opportunity to speculate and question the world around them and world awaiting them. For examples, students are encouraged to discuss, share and compromise within small peer groups.

The teacher is there to encourage this process, rather than to provide prescribed solutions in the progressivism. The learning environment is collaborative and democratic, giving opportunity for all to speak their minds and receive feedback from peers as well as the teacher.

            This continuous loop of feedback potentially positive or negative, serves as the means of assessment for problem-solving based institution. In the progressivism schools, teaching methods are presented as problem solving tools and experimentation is the main aim of the progressivism. They give importance to the learning by doing.

Progressivism and School

Traditional education has apart the body and mind. It has treated the learning as a head thing only. But in real sense, the body and mind are not two separate things, but one totally integrated whole. In other words, mind is the body, body is the mind. The nerve system and circulatory system tie them together as one. Therefore, we should help let both body and mind involved in the learning.

            In progressivism, school is a miniature society which represents the society. School or education is the process of personality development. It is the responsibility of school for social reformation. Progressivism school inspires or encourages the students to create new values and it is the supplier of values of learning. Thus school or education should be safe guarder of democracy in progressivism.

            “School, therefore, is to be a reflection of the larger society outside its wall in which life can be learnt by living. But it is to be a purified, simplified and better balance society” says Dewey.

            In nutshell, progressivism is the outcome of the influence of pragmatism in education. It is a kind of American Movement that came in existence to improve the education sector in America. Progressivists led emphasis on the development of significant and integrated human personality through education of emotions and feelings, social life and functional activities. They opposed the bookish curriculum, other social agencies to cooperate with school. School has to encourage group activities and discipline of positive type giving motivation and appreciation.

            Progressivists emphasis on learning by doing-hands-on projects and experimental learning. They are on the side of integrated curriculum focused on thematic units. They led strong emphasis on problem solving and critical thinking. Group work and development of social skills are highly valued in the progressivism education. Education should be understood and action as the goals of learning as opposed to rote knowledge.

Collaborative and cooperative learning projects are the main for the progressivists. They said education should be for social responsibility and democracy. It must be the integration of community service and service learning projects into the daily curriculum.

            They de-emphasis on textbooks in favour of varied learning resources but value the selection of subject content by looking forward to ask what skills will be needed in future society. Therefore, education should emphasis on life-long learning and social skills. The progressivism is the development or building or reconstruction of education that modifies the desired behavior. Truth is always dynamic not the constant as well as education is life itself not the preparation of life.

 Progressive education opposed formalized authoritarian procedure and fostered reorganization of classroom practice and curriculum as well as new attitudes towards individual students.