The Humanistic Foundations in Teacher Education.

Overview & Synopsis

This paper explores the role the foundations studies might play in the preparation of teachers. It concentrates on the humanistic foundations of education, which are defined as the history and philosophy of education and the social foundations of education. Part I beiefly surveys the status of the humanistic foundations as currently taught in teacher preparation programs. Part II examines criticisms and responses to criticisms of teaching in the humanistic foundations as they are formulated by writers from outside the field of professional education. Part III examines and evaluates several reasons for having prospective teachers study in the humanistic foundations of education which have been offered by scholars working within the separate foundations fields. The final section presents a reformulation of the humanistic foundations of education which builds upon the thinking cited earlier, but which lends itself more directly to helping prospective teachers reorganize and meet problems that typically arise in the course of their practice. (Author/RT)