Abstract
Philosophy for children is an educational movement that includes diverse goals that are not always clearly articulated by theorists and practitioners. In order to navigate the multitude of aims found in the philosophy for children literature I propose distinguishing between the following categories of goals: aims of education; educational goals of philosophy for children (internal and external); goals of a community of philosophical inquiry (procedural, epistemic, encounter, community, telos); goals of the facilitator; and goals of the children. The definitions of these various types are given along with some examples of how the distinctions between them can be of aid in understanding the approaches, criticisms, and practice of philosophy for children.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
I refer to the various practices which claim to engage children in philosophy in an educational setting, ‘philosophy for children’, but the focus of my discussion is on those approaches that rely on the use of the community of philosophical inquiry dialogue.
E.g., camps, after school programs, museum programs, etc.
I use the words ‘goal’ and ‘aim’ as synonyms.
Reznitskaya (2005) notes the importance of assessing both the discussion (e.g., the use of reasons in the dialogue) and the educational outcomes of the philosophy for children programs which she characterizes with the question: “Have students participating in dialogical discussions internalized useful strategies that would allow them to perform better on reasoning tasks when social support is no longer available?” (p. 8). This implies a distinction between the goals of a CPI and the educational goals of philosophy for children.
For example, in Brenefier’s video recorded philosophy session with high school students https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqNLlf7hJkI. Accessed 07/18/19.
References
Biesta, G. 2017. Touching the soul? Exploring an alternative outlook for philosophical work with children and young people. Childhood and Philosophy 13(28): 415–450. https://doi.org/10.12957/childphilo.2017.30424.
Carvalho, M., and W. Kohan. 2019. Finding treasures: Is the community of philosophical inquiry a methodology? Studies in Philosophy and Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-019-09659-y.
Chetty, D., and J. Suissa. 2017. ‘No go areas’: Racism and discomfort in the community of inquiry. In The Routledge international handbook of philosophy for children, ed. M. Gregory, J. Haynes, and K. Murris, 11–18. London: Routledge.
Chetty, D. 2018. Racism as ‘reasonableness’: Philosophy for children and the gated community of inquiry. Ethics and Education 13(1): 39–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449642.2018.1430933.
Education Endowment Foundation. 2015. Philosophy for children: Evaluation report and executive summary. https://v1.educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/uploads/pdf/Philosophy_for_Children.pdf. Accessed December 2017.
Gardner, S. 2015. Commentary on ‘Inquiry is no mere conversation’. Journal of Philosophy in Schools 2(1): 71–91.
Goering, S., N. Shudak, and T. Wartenberg. 2013. Philosophy in schools: An introduction for philosophers and teachers. London: Routledge.
Golding, C. 2012. Epistemic progress: A construct for understanding and evaluating inquiry. Educational Theory 62(6): 677–693.
Golding, C. 2017. Getting better ideas: A framework for understanding epistemic progress in philosophy for children. In The Routledge international handbook of philosophy for children, ed. M. Gregory, J. Haynes, and K. Murris, 65–73. London: Routledge.
Gregory, M. 2011. Philosophy for children and its critics: A Mendham dialogue. Journal of Philosophy of Education 45: 199–219.
Gregory, M. 2013. Wisdom and other aims for precollege philosophy edcuation. In Philosophy for, with, and of children, ed. M.B. Glina, 3–19. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Johansson, V. 2018. Philosophy for children and children for philosophy: Possibilities and problems. In International handbook of philosophy of education, ed. P. Smeyers, 1149–1161. Berlin: Springer.
Karaba, R. 2012. Reconceptualizing the aims in philosophy for children. Thinking: The Journal of Philosophy for Children 20(1–2): 50–54.
Kennedy, D. 2015. Practicing philosophy of childhood: Teaching in the evolutionary mode. Journal of Philosophy in Schools 2(1): 4–17.
Kohan, W. 2002. Education, philosophy and childhood: The need to think an encounter. Thinking: The Journal of Philosophy for Children 16(1): 4–11.
Kohan, W.O., and M. Costa Carvalho. 2019. Finding treasures: Is the community of philosophical inquiry a methodology? Studies in Philosophy and Education 38(3): 275–289.
Kohan, W. 2014. Philosophy and childhood: Critical perspectives and affirmative practices. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Lipman, M., A.M. Sharp, and F.S. Oscanyan. 1980. Philosophy in the classroom. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Lipman, M. 1988. Philosophy goes to school. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Lipman, M. 2003. Thinking in education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lipman, M. 2008. Philosophy for children’s debt to Dewey. In Pragmatism, education and children:international philosophical perspectives, eds. M. Taylor, H. Scheier, P. Ghiraldelli Jr, 143–152. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
MacIntyre, A. 1984. After virtue, 2nd ed. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
McCall, C. 2009. Transforming thinking: Philosophical inquiry in the primary and secondary classroom. London: Routledge.
Murris, K. 2013. The epistemic challenge of hearing child’s voice. Studies in Philosophy and Education 32(3): 245–259.
Murris, K. 2016. The Posthuman child: Educational transformation through philosophy with picturebooks. London: Routledge.
Murris, K. 2008. Philosophy with children, the stingray and the educative value of disequilibrium. Journal of Philosophy of Education 42(3): 667–685.
Newby, A., S. Gardner, and A. Wolf. 2018. Using communal inquiry as a way of increasing group cohesion in soccer teams. Analytic Teaching and Philosophical Praxis 39(1): 34–45.
Noddings, N. 2005. Happiness and education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rainville, N. 2001. Philosophy for children in native America: A post-colonial critique. Analytic Teaching and Philosophical Praxis 21(1): 65–77.
Reznitskaya, A. 2005. Empirical research in philosophy for children: Limitations and new directions. Thinking: The Journal of Philosophy for Children 17(4): 4–13.
Rondhuis, T., and K. van der Leeuw. 2000. Performance and progress in philosophy: An attempt at operationalisation of criteria. Teaching Philosophy 23(1): 23–42.
Sharp, A.M. 1987. What is a ‘Community of inquiry’? Journal of Moral Education 16(1): 37–45.
Sharp, A.M. 1992. The community of inquiry: Education for democracy. Thinking: The Journal of Philosophy for Children 9(2): 31–47.
The Philosophy Foundation (nd). Thinking changes: Intellectual virtues. Retrieved from www.philosophy-foundation.org/our-mission.
Topping, K., S. Trickey, and P. Cleghorn. 2019. A teacher’s guide to philosophy for children. New York: Routledge.
Trickey, S., and K.J. Topping. 2007. Collaborative philosophical enquiry for school children: Cognitive gains at 2-year follow up. British Journal of Educational Psybchology 77(4): 787–796.
Välitalo, R., H. Juuso, and A. Surinen. 2016. Philosophy for children as an educational practice. Studies in Philosophy and Education 35: 79–92.
Välitalo, R. 2017. Internal goods of teaching in philosophy for children: The role of the teacher and the nature of teaching in philosophy for children. bienes internos de la enseñanza de la filosofía para niños y niñas: El papel del profesor y la profesora y la naturaleza de la enseñanza en filosofía para niños y niñas, 13(27): 271–290. https://doi.org/10.12957/childphilo.2017.27353.
Vansieleghem, N. 2005. Philosophy for children as the wind of thinking. Journal of Philosophy of Education 39(1): 19–35.
Vansieleghem, N., and D. Kennedy. 2011. What is philosophy for children, what is philosophy with children—After Matthew Lipman? Journal of Philosophy of Education 45(2): 171–182.
Worley, P. 2016. Ariadne’s Clew absence and presence in the facilitation of philosophical conversations. Journal of Philosophy in Schools 3(2): 51–70.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Anderson, A. Categories of Goals in Philosophy for Children. Stud Philos Educ 39, 607–623 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-020-09724-x
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-020-09724-x