The Skillful Teacher

Why a Working Philosophy Is Important
A working philosophy is a set of values, beliefs, insights, and con-
victions about the essential forms and fundamental purposes of
teaching. Embedded in it are criteria for judging how far your prac-
tice exhibits features you feel are essential to good teaching and a
set of purposes towards which your efforts are geared. When you
consciously hold to such a philosophy, you have an organizing
vision of what you are trying to do, how you are trying to do it, and
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why doing it is important that you can present to your students,
your colleagues, and yourself with conviction and clarity. This is
important for several reasons: it helps you maintain a sense of sta-
bility and coherence in the face of constant chaos, it acts as a hedge
against being forced into uncongenial, immoral, or harmful prac-
tices, and it imparts a confidence-inducing sense of direction to col-
leagues and students.
One way to think of a working philosophy is to compare it to
the kind of computerized navigation instrument that allows air or
sea pilots to maintain direction in the midst of a storm. Classrooms
are like storms or squalls—full of surprises, of unexpected events
that throw our neatly conceived plans into confusion. To teach
while constantly feeling that things are out of control, or that life
is constantly sabotaging your carefully conceived plans, can be
extremely debilitating. It’s the pedagogic feeling of flying into a hur-
ricane with no cockpit navigation devices and no air traffic con-
troller to guide your progress. Without the steering device of a
working philosophy, it’s much easier for others to define your path,
your aims, and your roles and functions for you. You will be like a
rudderless vessel tossed around by the winds, waves, and currents of
whatever political whims and curricular fashions are prevalent at
the time.
We will never lose the sense that classrooms are full of surprises,
but holding a working philosophy will help us endure the episodes
of apparently directionless confusion that are the inevitable accom-
paniment of such surprises. Even if no clear resolutions suggest
themselves during such episodes, you can resolve to conserve your
energies for the time when practicing your philosophy will become
more possible. At times when we feel we are swimming against a
massive tide of pointless, immoral, or harmful institutional imper-
atives, a working philosophy is likely to suggest small, contained
steps we can take that will allow us to feel we are staying true to our-
selves. So a distinctive organizing vision—a working philosophy of
why we’re doing what we’re doing that we can call up in times of
crisis—is crucial to our personal sanity and professional morale.
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Politically, a working philosophy is a useful hedge against insti-
tutional pressures that are trying to force us into working in com-
promised ways. Just as conscientious objectors need a strong spiritual
or secular rationale that can be articulated as a defense against con-
scription into an immoral war, so principled teachers need to
express a strong rationale that explains why certain things asked of
them are impossible. Sooner or later (hopefully later) you will find
yourself pressured by powerful figures in your institution to do things
(such as introduce poorly developed, inaccurate, and exclusionary
curricula, apply evaluative standards that are irrelevant or harmful,
or adopt teaching methods you find ineffective or immoral) that you
feel strike against what you think it means to be a teacher. Some-
times there is little you can do short of quitting. At other times,
however, your working philosophy, which you have repeatedly and
clearly expressed over the months and years you have worked at the
institution, can be strongly cited in your defense. At the very least
this can buy you time while you build alliances, make necessary
reforms, or look for another job. And occasionally it may help you
win your case.
When combating pressures imposed from above, it is enormously
helpful to express your opposition in terms of a confidently articu-
lated rationale. Even if you don’t win your case, you will be com-
municating a credible and clear-headed sense that you know why
you are a teacher. Opposition to wishes of superiors that is clearly
grounded in a well-developed and carefully conceived philosophy
is less likely to be interpreted as sheer stubbornness or a lazy desire
to get out of doing more work. You may not win over your enemies,
but they will be more likely to respect you for taking a consistent
and principled stand and less likely to conclude that you’re not a
team player or just looking for the easy life. Being respected for the
strength of a thought-out commitment is important both for your
own self-esteem and your long-term political survival.
Pedagogically, having a clear rationale for practice helps you
judge whether you are having the kind of effect you wish on the
world around you. The criteria for judging good teaching embedded
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in your philosophy may sometimes diverge from those that are insti-
tutionally applied to determine whether you deserve reappointment,
promotion, tenure, or merit pay. When this happens you may find
yourself on the receiving end of poor evaluations. Let’s assume for
the sake of argument that these evaluations are not a sign that
you’re lazy or incompetent but are due instead to the fact that the
institution’s aims have started to diverge from your own. Developing
a clear working philosophy—being able to say to yourself, “Well,
even though no one else seems to understand what I’m doing, at
least I know it’s right for me and my students, and I can explain to
anyone who asks precisely why it’s so right”—is one important layer
of the thick skin you need to protect yourself against the temporary
debilitation of a poor evaluation.
Knowing clearly why you feel it’s so important to teach in a cer-
tain way also helps when you are forced to choose between the con-
flicting claims and priorities advanced by superiors, colleagues, and
students. When your department head warns you to teach in one
way and your students ask you to take another approach, it is impor-
tant that you have some criteria you can use to help you make your
choice. A large part of teaching is finding partial resolutions—the
best we can come up with at the time—to essentially irresolvable
dilemmas. In the struggle to balance the risks and consequences of
different courses of action, it is very helpful if we can assess the con-
sequences in terms of how they connect to what we view as the
essential purposes of teaching.
Finally, a well-thought-out, clearly articulated working philoso-
phy has a powerful effect on learners. When students are suffering
confusion and uncertainty about what they’re doing and why they’re
in college, they can draw strength from the clarity of your conviction.
Students have the right to ask you to explain why you feel it’s impor-
tant that they should learn something and why you’re asking for that
learning to be conducted in a certain way. They may be worried 
that the content you’re proposing to cover is irrelevant to their learn-
ing needs. They may feel that the learning activities you’re asking
them to engage in are inappropriate or that the criteria their efforts
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are being judged against are unfair or unrealistic. In response to stu-
dents’ expression of such legitimate concerns, it is very reassuring to
them if you can demonstrate that you have a clear and well-worked-
out reason for each of the things you’re asking them to do. Even
though they may not agree with your explanations and justifications
of your actions, they are likely to feel reassured if you can express
these clearly, confidently, and understandably.
Demonstrating that you have a well-developed and deeply felt
conviction about the importance of your teaching is an important
element in imbuing students with a perception of your credibility.
Showing that you know where you’re taking students, and why you
believe it’s important for students to get there, plays a big part in
developing confidence on their part. They realize they are under the
direction of an experienced, insightful, and committed professional.
This is essential if they are venturing into perilous intellectual and
affective terrain (which is how many students view new learning).
When embarking on what is likely to be a difficult journey, no one
wants to feel that the guide is inexperienced, unsure, or uncon-
vinced as to whether the journey is worth the effort. Having a clear
working philosophy that explains where the journey is leading and
why it’s important to take is crucial when students feel lost, afraid,
and confused along the way.