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The Epistemic Challenge of Hearing Child’s Voice

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Abstract

Classical conceptual distinctions in philosophy of education assume an individualistic subjectivity and hide the learning that can take place in the space between child (as educator) and adult (as learner). Grounded in two examples from experience I develop the argument that adults often put metaphorical sticks in their ears in their educational encounters with children. Hearers’ prejudices cause them to miss out on knowledge offered by the child, but not heard by the adult. This has to do with how adults view education, knowledge, as much as child, and is even more extreme when child is also black. The idea is what Miranda Fricker calls ‘epistemic injustice’ which occurs when someone is wronged specifically in their capacity as a knower. Although her work concerns gender and race, I extrapolate her radical ideas to (black) child. Awareness of the epistemic injustice that is done to children and my proposal for increased epistemic modesty and epistemic equality could help transform pedagogical spaces to include child subjects as educators. A way forward is suggested that involves ‘cracking’ the concept of child and a different non-individualised conception of education.

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Notes

  1. ‘Symmetrical’ in the epistemic and ontological sense, not in the political sense. Power differences between children and educators in schools of course do exist and should not be underestimated. Biesta’s proposal for education to be symmetrical compares with Fricker’s distinction between active and passive power (see footnote 5). Ontologically speaking, passive power differences between adult and child always exist in schools, despite the possibly deliberate strategies and interventions to minimise active power differences.

  2. See, for example, Benjamin and Eccheverria (1992). Although Rollins (1996) argues that the process of philosophical enquiry does not necessarily imply a deconstruction of ontological dualism. It is beyond the scope of this paper to examine and evaluate their arguments.

  3. Fricker introduces the notion of ‘identity prejudice’ as ‘a label for prejudices against people qua social type’ (Fricker 2007, p. 4). This kind of prejudice leads to testimonial injustice.

  4. She makes a distinction between active and passive social power. Power is the socially situated capacity to control the actions of others, and in schools this is the case when teachers have active power over their learners by e.g. administering punishment, but also in a more passive way: the mere capacity that a teacher can hand out punishments influences and regulates learners’ behaviour (Fricker 2007, pp. 9, 10).

  5. Academic philosophers such as Matthew Lipman, Gareth Matthews, David Kennedy, Walter Kohan, Karin Murris and Joanna Haynes have argued for ‘philosophy of childhood’ as a distinct field of philosophical enquiry.

  6. See: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkeEjZVaEqk (accessed March 2012).

  7. It is not clear for how long the teacher James Nottingham has been teaching P4C to this particular class.

  8. See: www.sapere.org.uk for a charitable organisation that promotes P4C in the UK and www.ICPIC.org for the worldwide P4C network. For lesson preparation guidance see e.g. Murris and Haynes (2010).

  9. The striking difference between government and independent schools in SA is an apartheid legacy. In many ways independent schools in SA are similar to state schools in, for example, the UK, but there are also some important differences. Unfortunately there is no space to explore this further in this paper.

  10. Minibus share taxis in South Africa are cheap, private minibuses used almost exclusively by black people.

  11. As many refugees are illegal in SA, it is impossible to quantify numbers.

  12. For an exploration of the complexity of the seemingly still prevalent practice of corporal punishment in SA schools, see: Murris (2012).

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  1. University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Karin Murris

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  1. Karin Murris
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Murris, K. The Epistemic Challenge of Hearing Child’s Voice. Stud Philos Educ 32, 245–259 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-012-9349-9

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