Social foundations approach to educational psychology: Basis for educating the critical reflective educator

Educational Foundations, Spring 2001 by Tutwiler, Sandra Winn

A number of social foundations scholars teach courses in the "twin" foundational areas of social and psychological foundations that are normally a part of teacher education programs. Those of us who straddle the social and psychological divide are likely looked upon with suspicion by scholars in both camps, as the early 1930s move on the part of Teachers College at Columbia University to advocate two separate foundational areas continues to influence notions of rightful content, methods, and perhaps functions of the foundations in support of teacher education (Tozer, Anderson, & Armbruster 1990). Social foundations, through a cross-disciplinary approach, would focus on social and cultural phenomena as a means for understanding educational policy and practice, while the psychological foundations would address human learning and related psychological processes. Both would elevate the status of teacher education by connecting the perceived applied profession to the more respected fields of humanities and social sciences.

Recent efforts by social foundations scholars to sustain and clarify the distinctive nature of social foundations of education include delineation of standards appropriate for teaching social foundations at various levels (e.g., teacher education, doctoral study); identification of the disciplines that are a part of the cross disciplinary characteristic of social foundations; and reiteration of the position that educational psychology not be interchangeable with social foundations (CLSE 1997). A number of foundations scholars have also been critical of teacher education courses that are an amalgamation of social foundations content, teaching as a profession, lesson planning, and classroom management, for example, but are meant to be the "foundations" component for the program. They are concerned that these courses are often taught by individuals not having terminal degrees in foundations (e.g., social, historical, or philosophical foundations of education), and thus who are less likely to emphasize the interpretive, normative, and critical perspectives believed to be definitive of foundations instruction.

While the most recent Standards for Academic and Professional Instruction in Foundations of Education, Educational Studies, and Educational Policy Studies (CLSE 1997) recommends that one and preferably more than one foundations course be required of preservice teachers, the flexibility in courses meeting the foundations requirement may actually confound attempts at clarity. For example, preservice teachers may study school-society relationships, philosophy of education, policy studies, and/or history of education. Some planners of teacher education programs misinterpret flexibility in content with importance of content, and thus feel freer to add non-related content to courses intended to serve as the foundations component of the professional sequence. Although it is stated that the goal of these courses is to "...introduce students to interpretive uses of knowledge germane to education and to establish a basis for lifelong learning through normative and critical reflection on education within its historical, philosophical, cultural, and social contexts" (CLSE 1997 p. 10), foundation scholars have not gone far enough to stress the relevance of this process to teacher education and practice.

Issues of turf notwithstanding, Tozer's challenge to foundation scholars to clearly articulate "...why foundation instruction should remain a vital part of teacher preparation and development" (1993 p.12) is left unmet. The emergence of foundations occurred as a result of a perception that social science and humanities disciplines provided teachers an academic basis for practice-moving beyond knowledge of subject matter to be taught and instructional techniques as the primary basis for learning to teach (Tozer, Anderson, & Armbruster 1990; Shulman 1990). Excellent progress has been made in assuring social science content (e.g., historical, social, philosophical foundations) be required professional knowledge for teacher candidates. Standards related to social foundations content are clearly articulated in Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Standards Consortium (INTASC) and National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) documents. Currently, schools, colleges, and departments of education (SCDE) seeking initial and continuing NCATE accreditation are required to provide evidence that their students have opportunities to learn foundations content. With the advent of NCATE 2000 however, programs will need to provide evidence that program completers are able to use acquired knowledge and skills to impact learning of students they teach. Additional work is needed among foundation scholars to promote the notion that the dispositions and habits of thinking inherent in social foundations instruction is critical to development of reflective teachers, and critical to their ability to impact learning of greater numbers of students in elementary and secondary learning environments.