The aim of this paper was to examine and understand the connection between the educational philosophies of secondary school teachers and teaching strategies for encouraging the development of students' social competence. For this reason, the research adopted a combined approach in methodology, in such a way that first the quantitative phase of the research was carried out, and then the qualitative one. Quantitative data were collected using a questionnaire consisting of two assessment scales: the Philosophy preference assessment scale (Çetin et al., 2012, according to Gezer, 2018) and the Scale of the frequency of implementation of teaching strategies to encourage social competence (modified Questionnaire for teachers, Blažević, 2015a). An interview protocol was created for the qualitative part of the research. The sample for the quantitative phase of the research consisted of 355 high school teachers in Split-Dalmatia County, and qualitative data was collected through interviews with 4 high school teachers. The results of the research indicate that teachers express a higher degree of agreement with contemporary educational philosophies than with traditional ones, and the variables that proved to be statistically significant for the degree of agreement with educational philosophies are the type of school and the subject area. In their teaching, teachers often use teaching strategies to encourage the social competence of students (they often use the strategy of socialization, and they always use the strategy of individualization whenever possible). The variables that proved to be statistically significant for the frequency of using certain teaching strategies to encourage the social competence of students are the type of school, the subject area and the years of work experience in teaching. Teachers' educational philosophies and teaching strategies for encouraging students' social competence are partially related. The strategy of individualization correlates moderately positively with contemporary educational philosophies and correlates low and negatively with traditional educational philosophies. The socialization strategy correlates moderately positively with contemporary educational philosophies and does not correlate statistically significantly with traditional educational philosophies. The results of the qualitative part of the research indicate that teachers do not have exclusively traditional or contemporary beliefs, but that, although they dominantly represent beliefs that are the basis of contemporary educational philosophies, they also possess some beliefs that are the basis of traditional educational philosophies. The complexity of experiences, which are identified through some internal and external factors, contribute to shaping the educational philosophy of teachers and individual beliefs about some educational issues. Teachers' beliefs about the role of students, teachers and school, as well as some personal experiences and challenges of the time contribute to the fact that teachers consider it important to encourage the social competence of secondary school students, and different contextual conditions contribute to the fact that teachers choose certain teaching strategies to encourage the social competence of students.