The Tendencies of Future Educators’ Identification with an Educational Paradigm

Abstract

The article focuses on the tendencies of future educators’ identification with an educational paradigm recognizable during educational philosophy studies at BA level. The article is founded on the analyses of scientific literature discussing correlation between educational philosophy and an educational paradigm as well as on the data from the empirical study, i.e. students’ argumentative essays on educational philosophy. The empirical study was performed at the Faculty of Lithuanian Philology and Social Communication Institute of Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences. Qualitative research method has been applied in the study along with the qualitative analyses of argumentative essays as well as SOLO taxonomy as a means of assessing the complexity of learning.
 The Research Question: to what extent can teaching of educational philosophy influence the future educators’ identification with an educational paradigm? Object: The tendencies of future educators’ identification with an educational paradigm. Goal: to highlight the tendencies of students’ identification with an educational paradigm determined by educational philosophy studies.
 The objectives:
 1. To define the idea of identification with philosophical conceptions of education;
 2. To justify the importance of identification with a philosophical conception of education;
 3. To highlight, on the basis of empirical study, the tendencies among students as future educators towards identification with philosophical conceptions of education.
 The following conclusions are drawn in the article:
 As educational paradigms are considered to be variations of answers to the main questions of educational philosophy, the direct correlation between educational philosophy and educational paradigm is obvious. Therefore, by identifying themselves with an educational philosophy, educators also identify themselves with an educational paradigm.
 The subject of Educational Philosophy, taught at undergraduate level at Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences, has an effect on future educators’ identification with educational paradigms. Therefore, it is important for the lecturers to have a purposeful educational philosophy course program centering on cognition of educational paradigms and to adopt educational strategies oriented towards a student’s individuality.
 Future educators identify themselves with philosophical conceptions of education by comparing new knowledge to their present experience, such as professional teaching activities (in extramural studies) or school learning/teaching experience (in full-time studies). Therefore, there is a clear tendency that more extramural students than full-time students identify themselves with a classical educational paradigm, whereas more full-time students than extramural students identify themselves with a liberal educational paradigm.
 The qualitative analyses of educational philosophy course students’ final argumentative essays shows that nearly a half (48.06 percent) of the students who are making efforts to identify themselves with a philosophical conception of education have either reached or are approaching the third level of internalization of philosophical concepts of education, which is when they are acquiring individual believes and determination to act in accordance to these concepts and when the complete identity is developing.
 The subject of Educational Philosophy at BA level may positively influence the numbers of teachers adopting the free educational paradigm when teaching at school.