Two opposing philosophical visions of education.
In 1987, American economist and author Thomas Sowell published a book called “Conflict of Visions”. In it, he defines visions as intuitive feelings that people have about human nature; the often unconscious assumptions that we have before making decisions, reading research, understanding our reality and our world.? For Sowell, visions are almost never questioned. He wrote the book in an attempt to get people to start looking at their own perceptions, and perhaps better understand why they act the way they do. He concluded that there were two visions that we held which he called the constrained and the unconstrained.
The constrained vision begins with the assumption that human nature is fixed, and oftentimes very flawed. The best one could do is to create systems and scaffolding to maintain and limit us on such a nature. Their motto is “There are no ideal solutions, only trade offs”
?For the unconstrained viision, there is this idea that human nature can be improved. Through education and proper guidance from experts, a human being can better him or herself fundamentally. Their motto is: “There is a solution to every problem”.
These visions bring forth separate world views when it comes to education, its goal, its purpose, and its practical applications. Let’s explore both versions of education following Sowell’s perspective.:
The constrained worldview starts with the idea of the fixed human nature that people are self-interested.? This applies to every stakeholder in the school system: students, teachers, parents and administrators. There is an important need to use education as a scaffolding against this reality of self-interest. ? Teachers with this view will look to prepare students for the future job market, not particularly to inspire them. They will also see their students as naturally trying to achieve the most they can in their class with the least amount of work…. Where they can get the greatest ROI.? In the classroom, constrained teachers will keep expectations in check and will understand that they can only meet students half-way. Student failure is mostly because the student failed to put in their half of the effort.? The constrained teacher will not necessarily think that they can change the student, or even better their lot, but that they can help the student engage a bit better through practical and applicable skills. ? In turn, the constrained administrator willl adopt a philosophy that their job is to “put out more fires than they start''. If they are able to reach this, they can call their day a success. Adherents to this particular vision will often be seen try to correct other disagreeing stakeholders as “naive”, or perhaps that they are not seeing “the realistic picture”.
Countering this view is the unconstrained worldview that starts with the idea of human nature essentially perfectable. This means that every stakeholder has the ability to become more “enlightened”,? or even “ more educated on a topic”. For them, human nature is essentially good and large institutions (like schools, districts, State Departments of Education) are restricting human potential and goodness. Some collateral damage is acceptable when it comes to perfecting students and bettering their natures. This damage can come with off kilter work-life balance for the school’s staff or the overextension of teachers as they try again and again to reach students who have proved themselves to be intransigent. After all, nothing is too good if it means a better outcome for the students. This perspective will lead to the identification of the specific individuals who are further along this process of improvement (“experts”). For an unconstrained administrator, such “experts” can and should lead the school’s philosophical approach to education and culture. Any disagreement between administration and teachers, or between the school and parents will lead the unconstrained individual to assume that all the other side needs to do is to “educate themselves better” and that they would see eye-to-eye.? Adherents to this particular vision might be heard saying things like “follow the educational research”,? or? “I’m data driven”.?
In a sense, the unconstrained educator will ask: "How is it possible that this student, with so much potential is still not learning at the level where s/he should be". They will seek causes for this issue and will look for solutions to this problem, since, as Sowell puts it, for those with the "unconstrained vision, there are no intractable reasons for social" problems. Opposing this is the contrained educator who will say "How is it possible that this student, with all of his/her issues, has been able to acheive so much", even though it may be incomplete or limited. For the contrained educator, a well functionning classroom setting, and the proper and demonstrable passing on of knowledge to the students is a minor miracle, when looking at the flawed and self-centered nature of all of the students, and when considering everything that could have gone wrong.
Finally let’s take a look at the constrained/unconstrained tendencies of the various school stakeholders:
Parents (in a private school setting)-? They hold solidly towards an unconstrained view, seeing their investment in the school (time, money, energy) as a solid rationale.?
Teachers- Those who entered the profession for an idealistic reason ( “to help the unfortunate”, “to inspire the young”, or “to make good citizens”) will lean solidly unconstrained. Those who opted to become teachers out of enjoyment of the craft or for the pay/benefits/time off will lean constrained.?
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Administrators- They will claim an unconstrained point of view publically, but will often act in a constrained manner.?
Limitations to this article's premise: It should be added that no stakeholder will adhere 100% to one vision, as they lay on a spectrum.?
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