Existentialism

V. Martinez
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Beliefs
Nature of
Knowledge
Educational
Aims
Methods of
Education
Curriculum
Role of the
Teacher
Research
Approach
Philosophers
Critiques
Personal
Observations

Beliefs

Existentialism began in the nineteenth century, but

was more throughly developed in the twentieth
century by philosophers such as Martin Buber, Karl
Jaspers,and Jean Paul Sartre. It is often considered
to be a protest type of philosophy. Most philosphers
ponder the nature of knowledge, but existentialists
ask how the nature of knowledge is educationally
significant to the lives of individuals. The
existentialist sees the individual as lonely and livng in
a meaninless, absurd world. They have a sense of
moral uncertainty about existence. While the idealist
might say "I think therefore I am", the existentialist
might respond, "Who am I?". Existentialists
recognize individual differences and believe that
there is no one true life style. They believe that the
more tragic side of life more clearly describes
human existence and human existence is filled with
anxiety. Many existentialists agree with Karl Marx
that religion acts as a drug that allows them to cope
with the world, with the result that many people are
exploited by the few who have power and wealth.
According to Ozman and Cramer "existentialists call
people to examine their lives and break away from
superficial beliefs and uncommitted action."
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Nature of Knowledge

The existentialist appears to believe that

knowledge exists as it relates to the individual's
interpretation of it. Science is not a big issue
because philosophers such as Sarte saw science as a
human creation. Kierkgaard thought that education
should be subjective and religious. And Buber
considered that there should be a sharing of
knowledge used for the good of man which will only
happen in a subject to subject relationship where
individuals should not be treated as objects.
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Educational Aims

Because humans have created ideas that are

harmful, they can also create ideas that will replace
them and thus create a better world. The job of
education is to help the individual examine who they
are and what their purpose in life truly is. A good
education emphasizes the individual and helps them
to understand themselves. It should also help them
understand anxiety because much of life is filled with
tension. There should also be an emphasis on
"possibility" as a goal in education, enabling learners
to become "wide awake" to the possibilites according
to Maxine Greene. By being constantly aware of all
conditions and interpreting daily experiences
passiveness about extremes in life conditions can be
overcome. Teachers should not accept administrative
hierarchies as inevitable. State mandated testing and
limiting curriculums are all up for examination.
Education should not be like a fish factory that
produces many cans of the same product. All students
should not have to come out of an education with the
same information, values, and goals.
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 Methods of Education

Progressive schools are what existentialists

espouse. Children are individuals. No two children are
alike, therefore they are going to learn differently.
Education should accomodate these needs and
students should be encouraged to do things because
they want to do them. According to Cramer and
Ozman "There should be freedom of choice,
spontaneous play, open expressin of feelings, and
student participation in the democratic control over
community life in the school." There should be
diversity in the curriculum and in the manner in which
things are taught. Teachers should treat students
humanely, as people, not objects. A relationship
should be developed between the student and the
teacher in order to promote the goals of education.
Existentialist believe that the authority/control
method of teaching tends to prohibit the attainment
of knowledge.
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Curriculum

The humanities play an important role in the

existentialist curriculum because they help to see
humankind as it really is. There are no definite rules
for curriculum content because much of the content
should be centered around the needs of the children.
The curriculum should revolve around the standpoint
of the learner rather than be a collection of
"discrete" subjects. The disciplines involved in the
curriculum should provide learners with opportunities
to make sense of the world around them. Literature
has an important role in this instance because
learners can use the various genres as a way to
interpret the experiences of others.
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Role of the Teacher

In the existentialist world the role of the teacher

is to provide diversification within the curriculum to
the individual learners. Each child as an individual has
a unique way of learning. When discussing types of
teaching methods to be used, one size does not fit all
learners. The teacher needs to focus on children as
individuals and interact with them as "subjects" and
not "objects", personalities and not numbers. The
teacher has permission to become the learner and
the learner to become the teacher. But because the
teacher has more experience in life perceptions, it is
her job to promote an awareness of the possibilities
of the world through an openess to past, present, and
future possibilities. Teaching children to
communicate through effective language practices
becomes very important as children to learn to
communicate effectively for true self expression.
The teacher is an "enabler who helps the student
appropriate, internalize, and make over."
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Research Approach

Phenomenology seems to be one method used to

investigate educational problems from an
existentialist view point. Problems are analyzed from
the view of the lived experiences of a child. The
emphasis is on understanding how individuals come
the be whatever they are in the world.
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Philosophers

Existentialist Philosophers

Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

 Kierkegaard developed a philosophy of the lonely
individual against a science oriented world. He was
brought up as a Christian, but went to extremes with
his beliefs holding that the objectivity which science
supported had adversely affected society .
Kierkegaard felt that Christians should accept God on
faith alone and restructure their lives so that
Christian principles were the basis. All individuals
face choices and they alone are responsible for the
results of those choices. He described three stages
in life. They were the aesthetic stage, the ethical
stage, and the religious stage. He described the path
to God as a long one that could only be crossed
through a journey of strong faith which must be
passionate in its intensity. Therefore he felt that the
role of education was subjective and religious and
should develop the student's relationship with God.
It was his opinion that science and technology had
produced instruments of destruction that ended in
war and pain in the world.

Martin Buber (1878-1965)

Martin Buber proposed a definition of the kind of

person that many folks would seek to have as
teachers for their own children because he felt that
there should be a mutal respect between students
and their teacher. He made some important points
about relationahips between people in his effort to
describe how people identify with the world. There
was the "I-It" relation where things outside of self
were to be used selfishly. When this thought process
was applied to human beings, and not just objects,
then war and destruction were the result. He felt
that this impersonal relationship also existed in some
classroom settings where there were such large
numbers of students who were known only as numbers
to their teachers. In the "I-thou" relationship each
person is treated as something special and worthy.
With respect to the student teacher relationship
there is a mutal respect and sharing of knowledge.
Both the teacher and the learner are equally human
and there should be mutal respect of the individuals
for each other as the evidence of the human belief in
the existence of God.

Martin Heidegger (1889 - 1976)

If you've ever had an identity crisis, Martin

Heidegger would be the person to see for an
understanding ear. Heidegger develped a method of
phenomenology that was extended to interpret "lived
experience" where the individual interprets and
constructs a personal world of meaning. Within that
thought there are three basic aspects. The individual
in the environment, the indvidual in relation to the
experience of others, and the individual becoming
aware of himself to the point of asking, "Who am I?".
Since this question has no answer at the level of lived
experience, it causes anxiety and distress.
Heidegger's writings did not focus on relationships in
education. If he had, it would have been interesting
to note his description of the role of the teacher.

Jean-Paul Sarte (1905-1980)

Jean Paul Sarte seems to have a theory likened in

some small amount to John Locke. Locke saw the mind
as a blank slate waiting to receive information. Sarte
believed there was no God and as a result individuals
could become whatever they wanted in life. Nothing
was predetermined, nothing was written on your slate
at birth. With that freedom Sarte believed also came
responsibility. If choices were not determined by
God's will, then the buck stopped at each indvidual's
door step. If human's create war and famine, they
could also choose to create peace and equality in all
areas of life.

Phenomenological Philosophers
Phenomenology - the science of Being

Edmund Husseri (1859-1938)

Hursseri investigated the preconceptual level of

awareness. He wanted to understand consciousness
prior to previous learning. His goal was to make
philosophy scientific but different from traditional
science by applying phenomenological methods.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961)

For Merleau-Ponty perception was primary. It has

the potential for arriving at truth as it is in the
process of being experienced. He noted that thinking
was an abstract process that occured in a concrete
world. What one perceived today may not be the
same perception the day after.
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 Critiques

Many critics believe that the existential

philosophy, particularly the thinking of Jean-Paul
Sarte, did not adequately deal with the social theory
of institutions such as schools. Others feel that
existentialism is too pessimistic by dealing with the
morbidness of life rather than things that are
hopeful and positive. Existentialists would argue that
focusing only on the positive gives a one sided view of
a situation. Many critics argue whether existentialism
should even be considered as a philosophy. It is not
systemic, but "has a strong claim as a philosophy in
the tradition of Socrates" according to Ozman and
Cramer. Existentialism is like the conscience of the
world, asking society not to take anything for
granted, least of all students. They ask society to
examine the effects of modern technology and to
question the reason for the haves and the have nots
of the world.
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Personal Observations

Throughout much of the reading of the

existentialist philosophy, I was completely turned off
by the pessimism and negativeness of many of the
thinkers. Getting through the readings was such a
chore because I do tend to be accepting of many
norms without questioning on many levels, more so in
the past than currently however. Some of the
concepts seemed to be so difficult to understand. I
usually just want to breeze through the questioning
part of anything, and get straight to the point or the
facts. Existentialists tell me to question everything.
Throughout most of my life I would never have felt
the need to question who I was. I always thought I
knew, especially after I focused on the decision to
become a teacher. But life is not static. It changes
constantly and so does our vision of who we are. So
despite the fact that I immediately scoffed at the
"Who am I?" question, I realized that we all ask that
question at various points in our lives, not only once,
but constantly. I began to realize that existentialism
encourages me to look at individuals and to realize
their potential through the development of their own
interests. The realistic side of me questions how to
do that in a classroom of twenty-eight students and
how to physically have time to create specific need
based curriclums for that many children. But I
continue to realize that all of life is about being a
work in progress and the need to continue to try to
make life fair for all people, and especially fair for
the little people that I work with and care so much
about within the context of the school environment.
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