Just what is the relationship between the disciplines of philosophy and education? Dewey tells us that "if we are willing to conceive education as the process of forming fundamental dispositions, intellectual and emotional, toward nature and fellow men, philosophy may even be defined as the general theory of education." Just what Dewey meant by this has been the subject of controversy for most of the twentieth century. Philosophers and educators alike were puzzled by the phrase, "philosophy as the general theory of education." How could philosophy be put into educational practice? The answer is the Philosophy for Children movement.

Philosophical Inquiry is a form of thinking that finds its origins in what is uncertain in experience. It then aims to locate the nature of the puzzlement, and to generate hypotheses for a solution to be tested in action. Communal inquiry not only aims to solve common problems, but the process itself is one that cultivates philosophical and democratic dispositions and habits. Unlike other kinds of inquiry, philosophical inquiry deals with uncertainties found in widespread social conditions and aims, translating these into conflicts of organised interests and institutional claims. Because of this, philosophical thinking has two tasks: 1) to criticise existing aims, practices and institutions with respect to whether they are furthering the quality of life for all people, pointing out values which have become obsolete, and 2) constructing new values, new institutions and new relationships that would render people a better, more flourishing quality of life (Dewey, 'Democracy and Education').

Philosophy cannot achieve either of her aims without education. Why? Because there is no way that it can bring into existence the new values it intellectually constructs without engaging the energies and practices of members of the next generation. It is through education that philosophy can bring about a change of emotional and intellectual dispositions to prepare the next generation to think and act differently in their daily lives in light of new, broader and more satisfying conceptions of existence. Education then becomes a laboratory for bringing about a change in consciousness in which philosophical procedures, ideals and dispositions can become concrete and can be tested in practice. Some philosophers assert that philosophical inquiry itself arose as a theory of educational procedure. For such thinking, 'philosophy of education' is more than a sub-discipline of philosophy: it is central to the enterprise itself an explicit attempt to formulate the problems of how to cultivate and foster the right mental and moral habitual dispositions given the context and problems of contemporary social life. "The most penetrating definition of philosophy which can be given," says Dewey, "is that it is the theory of education in its most general phases."

Philosophy for Children, then, is the missing link between the disciplines of philosophy and education. Reconstruction of philosophy always goes hand in hand with the reformation of education. Basic questions regarding knowledge, the nature of personhood, language, meaning, the relationship of mind and body, theory and practice, justice and freedom, human beings and nature, self and community, the individual and the globe, and what is and what ought to be needs to be re-thought, re-conceptualised and re-constructed to meet the needs of the changing global society in which we find ourselves. Starting in 1969, Philosophy for Children represented the construction of a curriculum that would do just that. Such a curriculum would expose children to the central concepts of philosophy in such a way that they could learn how to reason cooperatively, build on each others ideas and construct meanings that would help them to make sense of their world.

By 1985, the movement had grown to such proportions that the International Council of Philosophical Inquiry with Children was inaugurated in Elsinore, Denmark, with a membership of over 20 nations (expanding to over 60 nations today). Such a movement is not only concerned with curriculum, but with the reform of education. It aims to expose children to philosophical inquiry within the context of a classroom community of inquiry from the time they can use language. In such an educational setting, children not only learn the procedures of communal inquiry, but become proficient at inquiring into the central and controversial concepts of their life experience. These concepts, such as love, time, space, nature, mind and friendship are the central links that children use in constructing a chain of meaning or a world view. In the process, they learn how to reason together in such a way that they internalise not only the procedures, but the democratic dispositions essential to communal public inquiry.

To convert classrooms into communities of philosophical inquiry is to fundamentally change our view of education. Lecturing gives way to communal dialogue, nationalistic concerns give way to global concerns, parochial consciousness to global consciousness. Instead of focusing on answers, such education is concerned with questions. Absolutism is replaced by a commitment to fallibilism, and teachers find themselves co-inquirers into the meaning of the central and controversial concepts of all disciplines, rather than sources of knowledge and authority. Values become the subject matter of on-going inquiry as new problems and issues come under consideration. Atomistic facts give way to a web of relationships which children come to discover and construct for themselves. Learning of facts gives way to critical, creative and caring thinking aimed at the making of good judgments.

Today, children are studying philosophy with their classmates in over 50 nations, at pre-school, elementary and high school level. The original curriculum was designed at the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children (1974), with a graduate Masters program in Philosophy for Children initiated some years later. From the beginning, such Masters programs was international and interdisciplinary in nature, focusing on reasoning, inquiry, concept-formation and communal dialogue.

Such programs have now been replicated in Nigeria, Australia, Canada, Mexico and Brazil, with alternative curricula for studying philosophy at elementary and pre-school level having been developed by philosopher-educators in Great Britain, Australia, Korea, Brazil, Catalonia, Germany, France and the Netherlands. In 1994, the first doctoral program in Philosophy for Children was inaugurated at the philosophy department at Ibero-Americana University in Mexico City its graduates are now world leaders in educational reform in their respective countries: Mexico, Korea, Quebec, Brazil, Argentina and the United States. In 1999, a second doctoral program, housed in the School of Education at Montclair State University, began.

This two-year residential program holds students from many countries and representing many philosophical traditions, all coming to study philosophy (both Eastern and Western), philosophy for children, linguistics, cognitive psychology and pedagogy in the hope that they can return to their countries and become educational leaders in the transformation of traditional classrooms into communities of philosophical inquiry. Candidates for such courses should have strong backgrounds in philosophy and critical thinking, and a serious commitment to educational reform. Faculty also come from many countries and philosophical perspectives, with extensive experience in implementing philosophy for children in a number of international settings.

Instead of focusing on answers, such education is concerned with questions. Absolutism is replaced by a commitment to fallibilism, and teachers find themselves co-inquirers into the meaning of the most central and controversial concepts of all disciplines, rather than sources of knowledge and authority.

 

Author:
Ann Margaret Sharp
Montclair State University
Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children