What is Philosophical Enquiry?
How did Philosophy for Children begin?
Philosophy for Children began during the late 1960’s with the work of Matthew Lipman.
As professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, Lipman was concerned that the young people beginning philosophy courses with him seemed unable to think in ways necessary to tackle philosophical issues at university level. At about the same time he became concerned that his own children were not being encouraged to develop critical thinking capabilities through their own education.
Matthew Lipman resigned his post at Columbia and instead took a position in a teacher-training institute in Montclair State, which enabled him to begin developing the Philosophy for Children Programme. This programme consisted of series of finely constructed stories pitched at different ages and dealing with different philosophical themes. There are highly detailed teachers guides to go with each of these stories, giving the opportunity to develop philosophical skills in a planned and progressive way.
How has Philosophy for children developed over this time?
Philosophy for Children now exists in over 50 countries world wide, including France, Spain, Mexico, Columbia, New Zealand, Australia and Norway. In each nation Philosophy for Children is organised differently, there have been translations of the Lipman texts into many languages. Some countries use the Lipman texts as originally conceived; however other countries for example in Britain, there have been adaptations to accommodate the educational developments in those countries. However what every one will agree is that through the process of working in a community of philosophical enquiry over time There is an international organisation that works to network the various national organisation, this is known as ICPIC.
How did Philosophy for Children arrive in the UK?
It first came to the attention of a wider group in the UK in 1990 with the broadcasting of a BBC TV Series called The Transformers. One of the series called ‘Socrates for Six Year Olds’, featured the work of Matthew Lipman, and inspired many people to write to the BBC wanting to know more. A small group of people went to study for a short while with Matthew Lipman and in 1992 the UK organisation SAPERE was born.
SAPERE is Latin for Wisdom and the acronym stands for The Society for the Advancement of Philosophical Enquiry and Reflection in Education. In the UK P4C has taken on a distinctive way of working moving away slightly from the Lipman texts.
Now almost 15 years on, several thousand people have received training in Philosophical Enquiry through the SAPERE training schedule. In the North East Philosophical Enquiry is playing a large part in raising Aspirations of young people and their communities through the N.RAIS project. In the North West P4C has been taken on by the Barrow Community Learning Partnership as a major strand in developing and promoting educational achievement.
What is Philosophical Enquiry?
The Community of Philosophical Enquiry lends itself to any subject as a means of exploring both abstract ethical issues and more concrete concepts. The Philosophical skills of sound reasoning and challenging unsound assumptions can enable young people to reflect more openly about the broad experience of human kind. The Skills and Attitudes we look for in many subjects such as empathy, synthesis and analysis are also consciously developed through the process of evolving a Community of Philosophical Enquiry.
In a world where truth can appear all too relative and uncertain, Philosophy for Children can offer a means to cohere many otherwise disconnected experiences; an opportunity to celebrate shared exploration for meaning. In the Community of Philosophical Enquiry the dispositions which are essential for the well being of sustainable democratic society are nurtured. These include the disposition to accept there may be more than one point of view, the disposition to be open-minded and so on. These can facilitate the growth of democratic values of tolerance, respect and concern for others.
The structure of each enquiry is based around a model not dissimilar to the hermeneutic model, which appears in various thinking skills approaches.
In a Philosophical enquiry first a stimulus is presented to the group who are sitting in a circle. A common stimulus may be a picture book story, photograph or video clip, on which the facilitator or teacher invites the group to quietly reflect for a short while. Then in groups the students develop philosophical questions, which are written up on the board or flip chart. Some work will have had to have been undertaken with the group on the nature of philosophical questions. Through experience, students develop skills to differentiate between questions, determining which are more or less philosophical and which would therefore lend themselves to a better enquiry. The important thing about these questions is that they are open-ended and invite further exploration.
There then follows the choosing of the question for the enquiry or dialogue. The teacher becomes astute listener and facilitator, in order to enable the students to enquiry deeply into the chosen question. The expectation s that progress is made with the question, so that although there probably will not be a clear answer to the question chosen, those participating in the Community will have a sense that they have gained new insights into the question.
How does philosophical enquiry relate to broader educational thinking?
Educational philosophy in the UK over the past 50 years has been strongly influenced by the analytical school that has dominated Anglo-Saxon philosophy during this time.
In the UK trainee teachers are offered little or no time to think about the philosophical underpinning of their profession. The social and personal consequence of the educational project is given little attention.
P4C draws strongly on the educational and social thinking of John Dewey. This is a philosophy for education that is rooted in an ethical view of humanity and a vision for the whole of human society. P4C can nourish an education process where young people have the opportunity to explore and develop their own moral and epistemological view on what it means to be a human being in this place at this time. In so doing the dispositions necessary for the flourishing of a strong participatory democracy can be nurtured.