“EXISTENTIONAL
EDUCATION”
Prepared By :
Name : 1. Ahmad Syafii (13410154)
2. dwi artining tyas
Class :
Semesster :
Lecturer :
Prof.
NIP :
ISLAMIC EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TARBIYA
STATE ISLAMIC
UNIVERSITY
SUNAN KALIJAGA
2013/2014
EXISTENTIONAL EDUCATION
Abstrack :
education is one of the
most important parts of life. humans is the center part in the educational
process. existentialism as one of the schools of philosophy, trying to unpack
how actual human position in education. This paper examine exiting education
literature that discuss existensialism’s ideas, forms, methods, and results in
education. thus expected to provide a bit of knowledge about the views of
existentialism to education.
INTRODUCTION.
Existentialism is a modern philosophy emerging
(existence-philosophy) from the 19th century, inspired by such thinkers as Kierkegaard
and Nietzsche. Unlike traditional philosophy, which focuses on “objective”
instances of truth, existentialism is concerned with the subjective, or
personal, aspects of existence. The themes in the writings of Kierkegaard and
Nietzsche were developed in Europe and a modern philosophical movement was
born. Existentialism is linked prominently with such atheist thinkers as
Sartre, Merleauponty and Camus, and religious thinkers like Marcel, Buber,
Tillich, and Jaspers.[1]
In generally, exsistensialism is a school of
philosophy that try to reconciling both of school of idealism and materialism. Existentialism is a humanistic perspective on the individual situation,
a philosophy of existence, of being, of authenticity and of universal freedom.
It is a quest, beyond despaire, for creative identity. It is the philosophy
that is counsellor in crisis,”a crisis in the individual’s life, which calls
upon him to make a ‘choice’ regarding his subsequent existence.[2]
It means that existentialism want to change person who is fettered in
depression to be free person who can develops his talent and to be whole human.
In
opinion of existentialism, education is that which helps an individual to realise the best that
he is capable of. [3]
Education is important to human because education is expected to help a person
find his identity, then he can develops both his creativities and his talents
abilities in free, so that both his existence and the best he can do are
recognized by society in a place where he is. So that, he can be whole human.
education
in the perspective of Existentialism is a human liberation from the shackles
which lock so that realization of human existence toward a more humanists and
civilized. existentialism can be a foundation or some sort of devotional
materials for educators in order the educational process that carried out
increasingly lead to the authenticity and true human liberation.
AIMS OF
EDUCATION
Therefore,
aims of education perspective existentialism are to enable every individual
to develop his unique qualities, to harness his potentialities and cultivate
his individualities. It means the implication of existentialist formulations
for child rearing education and counselling practices are many. Since
existentialists behold human life as unique and emerging a child is to be
recognized as a full person and not simple as an in complete adult. The
practices by which the child is socialized varied from culture to culture.[4]
FORM OF EDUCATION
In
generally, there is the dichotomy between formal education and informal
education. Formal education is understood as a state sanctioned institutionalized
education. On the other hand, in Dr. Francis E. Ekanem’s journal, he adopts an
idea from Park that informal education “has been the traditional way by which
the human race has educated its young”. It is a type of education that is the
opposite of formal education hence knowledge here is gotten from experience and
in other strange ways and manner other than in a state sanctioned institution.
From kindergarten till tertiary education have imbalance in the curriculum
content of schools because of wrong preference and values attached to
materialism.[5]
There
is an opinion that the school -as a formal education- has been allenged to be
unable and inefficients in helping children get the best of the knowledge and
skills they need to live in highly technological and constantly changing
society. Humanistic education claims that today’s school are not only
repressive, but also mindless and inhuman because it has destroyed children’s
spontaneity, inquisitiveness, and creativity. They generally agree that
education can be made more meaningful to the learner‟s life if it is
“humanized”.[6]
Here,
existentialism offers the balance curriculum for the formal education and
informal education. Everyone want to their freedom, so existentialist do not
advocade any rigid curriculum. Everyone is different with another, so, the
curriculum is appropriated the needs, abilities, and talent of individu.
The central place is given to
‘humanities’, poetry, drama, music, art, novels etc. as they exert the human
impact in revealing man’s inherent quilt, sin, suffering, tragedy, death, late
and love. The teacher should teachs social sciences for inculcating moral
obligation and for knowing the relationship of the individual to a group. The
specialization in any field must be complemented by liberalising studies for it
is the man who counts and not the profession. The study of the world’s religion
should be taught so as to develop religious attitude freely within the
students. The ideal school permits religious unfolding in according with whatever
doctrine the student wishes to accept or to reject. Religion keeps him aware of
death. Self-examination and social obedience is the first lesson. The child
must be saved from his own unexamined self and from those who interfere with
the free exercise of his moral decision. Scientific subjects and mathematics
should be included in the curriculum but they should not be given more stress,
as they deal with objective knowledge. In short, existetialists don’t believe
in formal curriculum consisting of set of body of studies to be pursued but a
curriculum, which features the reverberatory effect upon heart, and mind of
passionate good reading and then personal contact. The curriculum should be
chosen, sorted out and owned by the learner.[7]
THE METHODS OF EXISTENTIALISM
Existentialist
methods focus on the individual. Learning is self-paced, self directed, and
includes a great deal of individual contact with the teacher, who relates to
each student openly and honestly. In reality, the way in which subject matter is handled seems to be more important to
the existentialist than the subject matter itself
The teacher’s role is to help students define their
own essence by exposing them to various paths they may take in life and
creating an environment in which they may freely choose their own preferred
way. Since feeling is not divorced from reason in decision making, the
existentialist demands the education of the whole person, not just the mind.
There are five characteristics of this ideal that are
formulated by this existential framework. These include :
1.
becoming more
authentic.
2.
more spiritual.
3.
having a critical
attitude.
4.
having a clear sense of
personal identity.
5.
a developing empathetic
awareness towards others.
The existentialists want to give full freedom to the
child. But the child should know the nature of his ‘self’ and recognize his
being and convert imperfection into perfection. They do not want the child to
become selfish, autocratic and irresponsible. Freedom is needed only for
natural development. Education should be provided according to the child’s
powers and the needs. The relation of the child with his ‘self’ should be
strengthened rather than severed. The child has to make ‘choices’ and
decisions.
The school should provide an atmosphere where the
individuals develop in a healthy way. Any subject in school (even extra
activities like athletics, music etc.) can present existential situations for
teaching and the development of human beings. The aim of school tasks should be
to nurture self-discipline and cultivate self-evaluation.
The
schedule must be flexible and open. Democratic ideals should pervade the
school. Democracy must be the soil in which the individual grows. It should be
the democracy of unique individuals who value differences and respect one
another. Self-government, pupil
participation in planning and the encouragement of a free atmosphere
characterize the school.
THE
IMPLICATION OF EDUCATION.
The school has been alleged to be unable and
inefficient in helping our children master the knowledge and skills they need to
live in a highly technological and constantly changing society. This attack is coming
from the humanistic educators who claim that today‟s schools are not only repressive
but mindless and inhumane because it has destroyed children‟s spontaneity,
inquisitiveness, and creativity. This is coming at a time when th e world is
faced with a lot of natural and economic disaster leading to despair, angst and
anguishes in the minds of individuals. therefore the position of the formal
school system in view of existentialism becomes impaired. even envisioned the
elimination of the formal school system in education.
An
existentialist educator in
terms of pedagogical
praxis would encourage
students to engage
in philosophizing about the meaning of human existence of life, love and
death through a dialogical process. He can also raise pertinent and crucial
life questions before the students in order to engage their minds. Of course
the outcome of the answers to these questions will be personal and subjective
for each individual and could not be measured on an objective test.
Humanistic educators generally agree that education
can be made more meaningful to the learner‟s life if it is “humanized”. Thus
Maslow (1971) opines that “education should be a matter of learning what is
desirable and undesirable, learning what to choose and what not to choose”[8].
As a humanistic psychologist, Abraham Maslow states that in this kind of
education, the child‟s self-knowledge and introspective ability are more
important than what he or she can acquire through associative learning, or
operant conditioning. This is not to say there are no useful skills and
knowledge one can gain through associative learning. But such learning is
deemed insignificant, because the most important purpose of education is to
make people become better persons and live a fulfilling life.
References
Baniwal, V. 2013, Existential Philosophy of
Education: A Buberian Response, India : University of Delhi.
Ekanem, Francis E. Educational Existentialism. Nigeria : University Of Uyo, 2012.
Kline, Kip and Abowitz, Kathleen Knight, 2013, Moving Out of
the Cellar: A New (?) Existentialism for a Future Without Teachers, Lewis
University and Miami University.
Lazarov, Ivaylo. ON THE EXISTENTIAL AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL IDEA OF TIME. Bulgaria :
Varna Free University.
Magrini, James, 2012, Existentialism,
Phenomenology , and Education, united states : College of DuPage.
Malik, G. M. Akhter, Rukhsana. Existentialism And Class Room Practice.
Kashmir : 2013.
Michelson, Stephan, 1970, The Existentialist
Reality of Educational Production
Nelson, Leif A. Existential Pedagogy: Personal
Meaning and Technology in Education, united states : Boise State
University.
Rossenberg, Arnold j. 1973, educational
existentialism and the sudbury valley school.
Seshadri, C. 2008, Philosophy of Education as
a Knowledge Field. New Delhi : National University of Educational Planning
and Administration.
[1] G. M. Malik and Rukhsana Akhter, Existentialism And Class Room Practice ( Kashmir : Kashmir
University R. IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS)
Volume 8,
Issue 6, 2013 ), Page. 87.
[5] Francis E. Ekanem, Educational Existentialism (
Nigeria : University Of Uyo, IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science (JHSS), 2012), Page. 22.
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