Abstract

Filipino philosophy of education involves layers of meanings blurred by foreign assumptions. Any study that enlightens this theme is relevant and necessary. Hence, I intend to contribute to the aim of shedding light and exploring the richness of this discourse. Specifically, I focus on the historicity of Filipino philosophy, particularly under its colonial past. The literature suggests that education has been shaped by the colonizers, in particular, Christianity by the Spaniards and Pragmatism by the Americans. Albeit systematic, these philosophies of education did less to alleviate national consciousness that could have developed into genuine economic progress, ethical mindfulness, and quality living for its people. I argue that this dissonance between theory and practice is entrenched in adherence to distant educational philosophies. This study proposes to address the issue by returning to Filipino indigenous teachings. Jeremiah Reyes (2015) identifies two Filipino virtues: loób and kapwa, which I attempt to appropriate in the contemporary pedagogy amidst the worldwide capitalist environment. This return to indigeneity further hopes to shape a critical yet optimistic trajectory of Filipino philosophy of education in the future.