Abstract

Many of the philosophical debates that have surfaced in the educational arena today tend to center around the differentiating points of view of diverse populations. Perhaps it would be more salient to examine the commonalities rather than the differences of these points of view and to investigate the implications of these commonalities on educational practices. ;The purpose of this particular study was to determine the world views, or philosophical belief systems, of urban elementary teachers and parents of urban elementary students as measured by an informal world view scale. Along with a frequency distribution, a series of Chi-square analyses and t-tests were conducted to investigate statistically significant differences between the responses elicited from these two groups. A compatibility measure was also devised to suggest commonalities and to relate these commonalities with parent satisfaction with their child's education. Commonalities among the two sets of responses were investigated. An attempt was then made to link the implications of these commonalities to educational practices. ;It was found that: Commonalities appear to exist between urban elementary teachers and parents of urban elementary students. Parents and teacher express a similar profile of the characteristics of a Supreme Being . Parents expressed some degree of satisfaction with their children's education. Parents agreed that teachers shared world views similar to their own. Teachers agreed that parents shared world views similar to their own. Parents and teachers felt students should be exposed to world view questions concerning values, morality, philosophy, and religion. No significant differences were found between parent responses to variables of satisfaction and those of compatibility. No significant differences were found between the continuous variables of parent agreement that teachers shared similar world views and satisfaction with their children's education. ;The world view scale utilized for this study was devised by Dr. C. Alan Riedesel, University at Buffalo. The basis of this scale include the various domains of human nature, one's perceptive of nature, death, purpose in life, and belief in a Supreme Being as established by Dr. James W. Sire