Isnin, 29 Julai 2019

The philosophical foundation of curriculum and the contribution of Abu Nasr al- Farabi , Confucius and Rabinddranath Tagore.



Introduction.
The philosophical foundation of curriculum helps to determine the purpose of education and the purpose to set goals of curriculum.  Thru philosophy suggestion education should calculate concepts of morality, goodness, knowledge and trust. 

Philosophy
The word ‘philosophy’ comes from the Greek word ‘philosophies’ which is made up of the words “phileo” meaning love and “sophia” meaning wisdom. Thus, the literal meaning of philosophy is ‘love of wisdom” (Power, 1982).  Each individual has an attitude toward life, children, politics, learning, and previous personal experiences that informs and shapes their set of beliefs. That why philosophical of foundations of curriculum are involve the values, traditions, culture factors and forces which influence the contents of the school offers to the student.



Philosophy of  Education.
Curricula of education not only focusing the student gain knowledge and skill.  The hidden curriculum cultivate the value.  In other word change the behavior of learner too.  Eventually philosophical foundation of curriculum encourage all student to the greatest possible in their life as holistic person.

Philosophy and Curriculum
These educational philosophies focus on what an educator should teach according the curriculum aspect. The major four philosophies of curriculum development include Perennialism, Essentialism, Progressivism and  Reconstructionism.

                    i.        Perennialism.
Perennialism means “everlasting’ and most conservative educational philosophy.  It is root in the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle.  Robert Hutchins and Mortimer Adler are two modern proponent of  parennialism.   Their aim of education is a common nature of man.  It advocates the permanency of knowledge that has to be test of time. 

Implication for perennialism in the curriculum following ‘The Great Books’ programme called the liberal arts discipline their mind and cultivate the intellect. Here is subject centered and emphasices teaching learning languages, literature, science and arts.  But teach subject in separate form like history as history.  The teacher teach student to inquire represent basic knowledge.  Example Plato’s Republic for student to read, the content can be simplified for young readers  in terms of level of complexity of word.  Where student achievement assist him/her to explore knowledge and discover their niche in life.

                  ii.        Essentialism.
Essentialism advocate instilling basic academic knowledge and character development. Because student need to become model citizen.   The teacher should instil traditional values such as respect for authority.  Essentialism focus on instruction in nature science  to understanding the world. 

The curriculum proposed the basic of subject mathematic, nature sciences, history, foreign language and literature.  Essentialism  programs are academically strict for all learner because it emphasize academic subject in school and colleges.   Teacher play importance role, whom serves as the intellectual and moral role model for student.

                iii.        Progressivism.
Progressivisms 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 student interests and questions. The scientific method is used by progressivism educators so that students can study matter and events systematically and first hand. The emphasis is on process-how one comes to know. John Dewey was its foremost proponent. One of his tenets was that the 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 tools, rather than authority.

                iv.        Reconstructionism.
Reconstructionism is a philosophy that emphasizes to create a better society and worldwide democracy. Reconstructionist educators focus on a curriculum that highlights social reform as the aim of education.  Means that to  preparing people for creating this new social order.

For reconstructionists  curriculum focuses on student experience and taking social action on real problems, such as violence, hunger, international terrorism, inflation, and inequality.  It known as Community-based learning and bringing the world into the classroom are also strategies.

Three figures in the of philosophy and curriculum.
The philosopher is thoughtful, remains in a thoughtful mood, being in search of new ideas, new knowledge with the help of his growing wisdom. Philosophers are interested in the first principle and the final conclusion of all branches of knowledge.  Philosophies vary from culture to culture, place to place and time to time. Thus different person having their different ideologies, ways of life.

Here are three figures in philosophers of curricula in an education.  They are Abu Nasr Al Farabi, Confucius and Rabindranath Tagore.

        i.            Abu Nasr Al Farabi



Figure 1: Modern imaginary portrait of Al-Farabi (Source).

Abu Nasr Muhammad al-Farabi, known as Alpharabius, was a Muslim polymath and one of the greatest scientists and philosophers of Persia and the Islamic world in late 9th and early 10th century. He was also a cosmologist, logician, musician, psychologist and sociologist.

He also known as Al-Farabi, was born in Wasij, in the province of Farab in Turkestan, in 872 AD (259 AH) of a noble family. He died at the age of 80.  His father, of Persian origin, was an army commander at the Turkish court. (Sherzai Dilawar ,2013).

Al-Farabi studied grammar, logic, philosophy, music, mathematics and sciences at Baghdad .  He also was a great translator and interpreter of Greek philosophy of Abu Bishr Matta b. Yunus. Then he studied under Yuhanna b. Haylan, abaut Nestorian, in Harran. Thereby he is affiliated to the Alexandrian school of philosophy.  As a result of these years of study, he accumulated such knowledge of philosophy that he earned the name of the ‘Second Teacher', by reference to Aristotle as the ‘First Teacher'.  His despair at reforming his society that inclined him towards Sufism.    

Al-Farabi had great desire to understand the universe and man.   As such he conducted the meticulous ancient philosophy, which Plato and Imam Al-Ghazali. Past youth absorbing component philosophy of Platonic and neo-Platonic solids and integrated into the Arabic-Islamic civilization.  His philosophy of community and national unity be achieved by unity of thought, wisdom and religion, respectively.  The foundations of the unity and the establishment of an impartial governess.  Entirely based on the source of the Quran and science.

He was founder of a new school that is called Islamic Philosophy, and Al-Farabi was a Muslim philosopher. Al-Farabi has also mastered to philosophy and believed to Islamic sources, and accept them with reason and logic

In  education,  the most important social phenomena in al-Farabi's philosophical system is concerned with the human soul and makes sure that the individual is prepared from an early age to become a member of society, to achieve his own level of perfection, and thus to reach the goal for which he was created (Sherzai Dilawar ,2013)..

Indeed, the whole activity of education, in al-Farabi's view, can be summed up as the acquisition of values, knowledge and practical skills by the individual, within a particular period and a particular culture. The goal of education is to lead the individual to perfection since the human being was created for this purpose, and the goal of humanity's existence in this world is to attain happiness, which is the highest perfection—the absolute good.

According to al-Farabi, the perfect human being (al-insan al-kamil), is the one who has obtained theoretical virtue—thus completing his intellectual knowledge—and has acquired practical moral virtues—thus becoming perfect in his moral behaviour.  So this perfection which he expects from education combines knowledge and virtuous behavior; it is happiness and goodness at one and the same time (Sherzai Dilawar ,2013)..

Al-Farabi also inroduce of technical terms in education to describe concept such as;
Table 1: Technical terms in  education
Consept in education
Al-Farabi ‘s technical term
discipline
ta'dib
correction/assessment
Taqwim
training
Tahdhib
guidance
Tasdid
instruction
ta'lim
exercise or learning
Irtiyad
Good manners or culture
adab

His opinion the true educational are the combination of all the good qualities, while discipline is the way of creating the moral virtues and the practical is a arts in the nations.

Al-Farabi believed that the main objective of education is to bring people happiness include mysticism, belief and obey to the right (God).  He added that with the knowledge it can lead the mind, body and soul throughout the regeneration, achieve the highest perfection, and the purpose of social education.


      ii.            Confucius



Qiu or Ch’iu is the traditional name of Confucius and his formal name is Zhongni, or Chung-ni.  He was born in 551 BCE (lunar calender) in the feudal state of Lu, in modern Shandong Province. He was the son of 63-year-old clerk, ex-warrior Shuliangh.  His married with 17-year-old pretty girle named Yan Zhengzai.  Confucius lost his father when he was three years old, and then his mother took him and left the fiefdom. They lived in poverty and when Confucius was seventeen years old, his mother died of illness and overwork.

Ch’iu was a self-educated youth, raised by a poor family in the state of Lu. In his teenage years, he had an administrative position with the local noble, managing his agricultural accounts. It was here that Ch’iu started developing a passion for ethical philosophy.  Later he known as Kong Qui or K’ung Fu-tzu. 

Confucius’ philosophy of education focused on the "Six Arts": archery, calligraphy, computation, music, chariot-driving and ritual. To Confucius, the main objective of being an educator was to teach people to live with integrity. He is the author of the golden rule of ethics. The Golden Rule is the principle of treating others as one's self would wish to be treated.  Confucius himself devoted his whole life to teaching his disciples.

The Confucianism really concerns about the aim  of  education,  curriculum,  teaching  and  learning.   The  actualisation  of  this  aim  of  education  requires  a  normative  standard  to guide  the  ruler  in knowing  whether  and  when  the  people have  been  transformed  and  their customs perfected. This standard is revealed in Xueji II to be dao (Way) that is the object of learning: “People who do not learn will not realise dao”. Dao is the the Way of Heaven (tian) or ‘guiding discourse’ (Hansen, 1989) that is passed down from antiquity. To realise dao is to understand and experience the ‘vision of human excellence’ (Cua, 1989) that forms the basis for human  transformation  and cultural  perfection.

A  Confucian curriculum  is  essentially holistic,  comprehensive  and integrated.  The holistic  curriculum  emphasises  on students’  cognitive,  affective  and behavioural  domains. Learners  are  called  to  internalise and  apply  the  contents  learnt  through  self-cultivation  and social  interaction.  The  curriculum  is  also broad-based  where  students learn  the six  arts  of rituals,  music,  archery,  charioteering,  calligraphy,  and  mathematics.  Furthermore,  the curriculum is designed in such a way that the students learn systematically and progressively by  constantly  building  upon,  synthesising and  putting into  practice what  they have  learnt. Teaching and learning  are learner-focused where  the teacher responds  empathetically  to the individual needs of students.

The ‘enlightening approach’ is recommended where the teacher encourages  independent  thinking and  guides  students  using  the  questioning  technique  and peer learning.  Confucian education also fosters critical and creative thinking, as modelled by Confucius  himself  who  challenges  the  rulers  and  social  norms  of  his  time.


      iii.            Rabindranath  Tagore  


Figure 5: Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore was born on May 6, 1861 in Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, and British India in a prosperous family. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the youngest son of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, which was a new religious sect in nineteenth-century Bengal.  At primary level his father provided him education in Sanskrit language, Indian philosophy & Astronomy.  Then For higher education he was sent to Bengal Academy where he developed an aversion to prevalent dull and rigid education.  Then he was sent to England, he further studied on his own. He turned into a poet, dramatist, philosopher and painter. He as then awarded the title of Gurudev.  He got the Nobel Prize as he translated Gitanjali in English.

The British Indian government awarded him with the degree of Doctorate in 1915 which he gave away  the Jalyanwala Bagh incident.

In Tagore’s philosophy of education, the aesthetic development of the senses was as important as the intellectual. His believe that music, literature, art, dance and drama were given great prominence in the daily life of the school.

According to Tagore, "That education is highest which not only imparts information and knowledge to us, but also promotes love and follow feeling between us and the living beings of the world.”(M. O’Connell K.,2003)

In terms of curriculum,   he advocated a teaching system that analysed history and culture for the progress that had been made in breaking down social and religious barriers. Such an approach emphasized the innovations that had been made in integrating individuals of diverse backgrounds into a larger framework, and in devising the economic policies which emphasized social justice and narrowed the gap between rich and poor. Art would be studied for its role in furthering the aesthetic imagination and expressing universal themes.

Conclusion.
The philosophy of Al-Farabi, Confucius and Tagore are in line with the diverse and diverse cultures of Malaysian society to live in harmony.

Therefore, Malaysian authorities had to deliberate a coherent philosophy of education accommodating for its multi-ethnic, religious, linguistic and cultural society, but based on the long tradition of Malay and Islamic based education and taking account of eastern and western philosophies brought by the influx of the Chinese and Indians to Malaysia. This was realized through the formation of the National Education Philosophy (NEP) according to the needs of Malaysian citizens and the country, especially for the betterment of its citizens in line with the National Principles (Rukun Negara) with ultimate aims of building a united and progressive society.





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