Philosophical Foundations of Education
Naturalism bases schooling on the premise that the natural world is the primary text. Its key dimensions are Metaphysics (reality is material, law-governed), Epistemology (truth is distilled from sensory experience and experiment), and Logic (the scientific method). Those commitments align most neatly with the educational philosophies of Realism (mind-independent facts), Functionalism (prepare learners to adapt and survive), and a hands-on strain of Pragmatism (ideas prove themselves in fieldwork and labs). A Naturalist classroom is an outdoor lab or workshop where students observe, measure and tinker until concepts fit the evidence.
Existentialism turns the lens inward, asking each learner to forge meaning in a contingent world. Its centre of gravity is Axiology (authentic choice, personal responsibility), backed by an Epistemology that trusts lived experience over inherited dogma and a thin Metaphysics that insists freedom precedes essence. On your second list it sits squarely in Existentialism itself, but it also rubs shoulders with Pragmatism (testing values in action) and Reconstructionism (acting on one’s choices to reshape an unjust society). Here the classroom is a dialogue circle: students journal, debate dilemmas and design projects that express who they decide to become.
Perennialism argues that every generation must grapple with the same “great ideas.” That spotlight falls on Axiology (timeless truths and virtues), Epistemology (reasoned inquiry and, for some, revelation), Logic (Socratic analysis of texts) and Metaphysics (universal human nature). It is, of course, already on your educational-philosophy list, but it allies closely with Idealism (mind/spirit over matter) and sometimes Realism (objective moral order). A Perennialist classroom is teacher-guided but intellectually vigorous: students wrestle with Plato, Rizal or Confucius, not to memorise the past but to join an unending conversation about what it means to live well.
