Ethics of Childhood

This paper endeavors to carry out a philosophical analysis of the current state of civic education in Western democracies, in order to deal with the problematic dualism between extreme individualism and endogamic communitarianism, which alters the relational modalities and specific lifestyles that characterize human plurality. As such, the intention of this article is to understand how the formation of citizens supported by the practice of philosophy can cultivate a dialogical, open, and pluralistic community capable of facing this duality. For this (...) purpose, we carried out a systematic and critical analysis of books and articles that, in dealing with the relationship between the individual and the community, aim to overcome the above-mentioned problematic dualism. Among the results of this study, we found that Matthew Lipman and Ann Sharp’s Philosophy for Children (P4C) program contributes significantly to the empowerment of citizens, and supports the development of their ability to engage in dialogue in search of creative and ethical solutions in the diverse circumstances of daily life. Moreover, P4C contributes to the achievement of communities characterised by solidarity, plurality, openness, and self-correction, and which are oriented toward the rigorous search for the common good. Therefore, we conclude that community-based philosophical practices such as P4C can contribute to civic education and the formation of responsible citizens, offering a possible paradigm to develop the humanistic axis of the individual and promote openness to diversity. (shrink)

The environmental crisis—because of its complexity, urgency, unpredictability, and scale—requires a defence of the educational role of philosophy and an account of how to implement philosophical pedagogy in the exploration of environmental issues. This is the aim of this paper. As we face an uncertain future, all educators must consider what knowledge and “know-how” young people need, and what kind of people they need to become, if they are to survive and thrive in this changing world. Philosophical educators cannot assume (...) the ongoing utility of their practice, nor can they expect that their practice should remain the same. In the context of the current crisis, the philosophical exploration of emerging environmental issues raises challenges for those who work in the spirit of Community of Enquiry and these challenges require both discipline and flexibility from practitioners and participants. This paper outlines some of the adaptations that I have used to try and respond flexibly to this predicament. But I also defend an issue on which I believe philosophical educators should hold the line—namely the importance of being non-directive on matters that are philosophically contentious. I defend the view that despite the existential nature of this emergency and its profound urgency, it is not the role of philosophical educators to convince or coerce philosophical learners to adopt particular views on the philosophical questions that this crisis raises. This is because all philosophical enquiry involves creating an environment of freedom and responsibility with respect to what participants believe to be right and true and what they do as a result. Participants in enquiry must be epistemically free to explore and evaluate philosophical questions as they see fit, but they must also be epistemically responsible for the evidence and arguments on which their provisional judgements rest. Equally, participants in enquiry must be ethically free to respond to philosophical problems in ways that express and cultivate their authentic character and commitments, but they remain ethically responsible for their true motivations, their professed values and for the real-life consequences of their words and actions, and their silences and inaction. This paper explores some ways to optimise freedom and responsibility in all forms of philosophical enquiry, drawing specifically on examples of my work with young people on philosophically contentious environmental issues. These examples also highlight some of the adaptations that I have developed to address the challenges that environmental enquiry brings. (shrink)

This paper argues that the concept of primal wonder in P4C, proposed by Thomas E. Jackson, can be seen as a “sprout” or seed of intellectual virtue. My understanding of his insight is inspired by Mengzi’s view of moral cultivation and Aristotle’s eudaimonist account of virtue ethics. According to Mengzi, all humans possess four innate sprouts of virtue, and the aim of moral education is to nurture these moral sprouts so that they can grow up into fully ripened virtues. In (...) terms of P4C, Jackson contends that all of us are born already with a special feeling of wonder which he refers to as “primal wonder”. Synthesizing his statement with Mengzi’s agricultural metaphor of moral sprouts, I shall take one step forward by arguing that the innate sense of wonder within every child can be seen as a sprout of virtue. Additionally, once children’s primal wonder has been transformed into a virtue through implementing P4C in the classroom, this admirable character trait, I suggest, should be understood as an intellectual virtue according to Aristotelian virtue ethics. This is because the virtue of wonder can promote children’s intellectual flourishing, which is fully endorsed by Aristotle’s contention that the happiest kind of life is a philosophical one, and that philosophy begins in wonder. In short, if primal wonder as a sprout of intellectual virtue can lead to the highest good for human beings, then one of the main educational goals of doing philosophy with children, I suggest, is to turn their primal wonder into a virtuous habit so that they can live an examined life. (shrink)

Although the Philosophy for/with Children (P4wC) movement seems to have overcome two major points of criticism, these critical concerns can still be found in the literature today. The first question is whether P4wC can be placed in the field of philosophy at all, and the second asks whether children possess the cognitive abilities necessary to engage in philosophical discourse. One of the more recent articles voicing these concerns is authored by Caroline Heinrich, who describes P4wC as “an assault on philosophy (...) and an assault on children” and argues that P4wC is a “concept imposed by adults on children.” She maintains that P4wC ignores “children’s thinking, questioning and play.” Furthermore, Heinrich states that P4wC cannot be called philosophy because children are not able to philosophize. In most of her argumentation, refering to Jan Piaget’s theoretical account of the cognitive development of children. Although the P4wC discourse has already dealt with these questions over the last few decades, it seems that there is still a need for further clarification. This paper provides an overview of the main points of criticism, which form the starting point of the author’s Polylogical Process Model of (Elementary-)Philosophical Education (PPEE model). This interdisciplinary approach, which is based on the constructivist conceptual change/growththeory of Stella Vosniadou and William Brewer, attempts to add new perspectives to two central questions addressing the P4wC movement: first, can P4wC actually be called philosophy?; second, do children have the cognitive abilities to engage in philosophical discourse? In addition, the question arises as to which pedagogical considerations based on constructivist learning theory could be added to P4wC methodology? The aim of the interdisciplinary PPEE model is to build a broader scientific foundation that has the potential to reduce the main points of criticism of the P4wC movement. (shrink)

The Creative Citizenship project was founded to promote critical, ethical, and creative thinking in early childhood, and to recognize and encourage children as social actors and peacebuilders. In concert with the methodology of North American philosopher Matthew Lipman's Philosophy for Children (P4C), Creative Citizenship seeks to promote in children the ability to think critically, ethically, and creatively in and from their own realities, and to exercise multidimensional thinking skills in the various areas of their daily lives. The research documented here (...) adopted a qualitative approach in so far as it sought to inquire about the character of those relationships, particularly among boys and girls, that promote their identity as social agents. As such, it examined training processes and generated theoretical perspectives in the interest of promoting social transformation through the empowerment of multidimensional thinking. The article begins with a review of the concept of Creative Citizenship and ends with that of Peacebuilding. Three theoretical categories have been applied in order to situate the inquiry within the framework of the realities of childhood, and to chart the pedagogical interventions by adults that occurred throughout the implementation of the project. The first focuses on the development of children’s thinking per se, the second on children's capacities for creative problem-solving in social environments, and the third on the concept of peacebuilding as a commitment to practicing philosophical dialogue among children, which is understood as a form of discourse that builds the capacities of citizens to undertake individual and collective actions that allow them, in turn, to create and re-create scenarios of peaceful coexistence. (shrink)

In this paper, I critically explore Ann Sharp’s conception of personhood as it figures in the theory and practice of the community of philosophical inquiry (CPI). Through surveying Sharp’s rich and varied philosophical output, it will be shown how Sharp’s conception of personhood as a trilateral relationship (between self, other(s), and community) maps onto “the Three C’s” of critical, creative, and caring thinking that make up the practice of Philosophy for Children. After thus presenting Sharp’s conception of personhood, the paper (...) brings into view an aspect of said conception which could benefit from further development. This potential shortfall in Sharp’s thought is identified as “the problem of closure”. In highlighting the problem of closure, I will indicate how Sharp marshals the concept of faith in her conception of CPI as a spiritual community, a relationship that is coincident with personhood itself, as it stands for the bond that ties together the individual (self and other(s)) and the collective (community) dimensions of CPI. I argue that faith serves, among other things, as an agent of closure between the individual and the collective in Sharp’s thought. In considering the function of faith in CPI, I will suggest an avenue of possible resolution to the problem of closure in Leonard Nelson’s conception of “the Socratic spirit” as the embodiment of “reason’s self-confidence”. Finally, the paper looks ahead to David Kennedy’s writings on the intentionality structure that governs the relationship between the individual and the collective in CPI as a resource that promises to offer a more rigorous and systematic treatment of the problem of closure. (shrink)

There is broad agreement that child labor is wrong and should be eliminated. This chapter examines the three main moral objections to child labor and considers their limitations: harm-based objections, objections from failing to benefit children, and objections from exploitation. Harm-based objections struggle with baselines for comparison and difficulties with Non-Identity problems. Even if child labor is not harmful, it may be wrong because it prevents children from enjoying other benefits, such as schooling. However, is schooling necessarily more beneficial for (...) children than work? Some kinds of child labor may not be harmful, and may benefit children, but they may still be wrong because they are exploitative. I consider some ways to address exploitative child labor, inspired by campaigns led by child workers. The chapter ends with a surprising conclusion that challenges the broad consensus with which we began: we may have duties to promote child labor. (shrink)

We present results from a single case study based on semi-structured interviews with a student (a boy in school year 3) diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and his school staff after participating in a short and small-scale intervention carried out in a socio-economically disadvantaged Swedish elementary school in 2019. The student participated in a seven week long intervention with a total of 12 philosophical dialogues (ranging from 45 to 60 minutes). Two facilitators, both with years of facilitation experience and teacher (...) degree and at least BA in philosophy, facilitated the majority of the dialogues and mainly followed a ”routine” procedure. The student was interviewed in direct connection to the end of the intervention about his experiences from the dialogues and his perceptions about whether and how the dialogues had influenced him. The student’s two teachers, who had participated in the dialogues as participants, were interviewed as a pair, also in direct connection to the end of the intervention, while the school principal was interviewed two years after the study. These staff interviews concerned the staff’s experiences of the influence of the dialogues on the students within the intervention as well as transfer effects to other contexts in school. The data from the study include detailed elaborations from a student perspective of different effects on the student’s communicative and cognitive development, which are in several respects supported also by staff reports. The results show that the student was able, interested, and willing to participate in philosophical dialogues, and our data point to several positive outcomes for the student in the communicative and cognitive domains. (shrink)

In this essay we expand the notion of thinking by emphasizing the provocation and urgency to think and by reconceptualizing thinking as an embodied practice. The aim is to expand Lipman and Sharp’s approach to philosophical inquiry with children and show how other ways of thinking can be included. We strive to unfold a way of “thinking” that is both different from rationality (critical thinking) as well as from creative and caring thinking. In the first part of the paper, we (...) discuss the merits of Lipman and Sharp’s critical, creative and caring thinking within the Community of Philosophical Inquiry (CPI). We then expand Lipman/Sharp’s philosophical method through Ekkehart Marten’s Five-finger Model, which allows for different philosophical approaches. In the second half of the paper, we draw on Martin Heidegger’s What is called thinking? to develop his concept of the “call” to think together with its related notions of provocation and urgency. Building on this, we draw on Maurice Merleau-Ponty to show how this call is not an intellectual activity or mere exercise of the “mind” but rather affects our entire existence. As such, thinking becomes a response to an existential urgency that is an embodied practice. Using concepts like embodiment, affect, and sensibility, we try to widen our conception of thinking in a CPI. Finally, we hope this will allow facilitators to hear the unique voice of every child so that no one is left unheard. (shrink)

The article intends to discuss processes of political subjectivation of children and young people based on excerpts from a research carried out within the scope of a master's degree in education, presenting a cartography of the political participation of children and young people living in vulnerable territories of the municipality of São Vicente, on the south coast from São Paulo, members of collectives and educational actions of the Instituto Camará Calunga. The concepts of mobilization and subjectivation are presented as important (...) elements of politicization processes, portraying the way in which children and young people engage politically in different ways, coordinated or supported by adults, representing themselves or supporting adults in their demands, opposing the notion that children do not act politically or that the ideal way for children and young people to participate would be to produce consensus and there would be no room for contestation. The research took place in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, essentially in a virtual way, but it traces a continuity with the Institute's participation practices in the pre-pandemic period. The research made use of the cartographic method, in a virtual and face-to-face way, in the context of live work, of daily living with children, young people and educators from Camará, through semi-structured interviews and field diaries. (shrink)

Since the turn of the millennium, a new phenomenon has arisen on the global stage, as girls have increasingly begun to raise their voices. In an effort to achieve new philosophical understandings of contemporary childhoods in a post-truth era, the present article examines this Girl Rising movement from an existential perspective. In doing so, the article aims to problematise children’s right to be heard and listened to, as enshrined in Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. (...) More specifically, the article explores children as rights-holders and their rights-subject position and how these positions are supported (or not) by adults in different ways. Throughout the analysis, Greta Thunberg is used as a case study to illustrate the phenomenon under study. This new movement highlights children’s right to be heard as a valuable right. The defence of this view relies on the claim that at the heart of adult’s acknowledgement lies the uniqueness of each child and the implications of this uniqueness. Taking into consideration the realisation of children’s rights, powerful stakeholders who seek to silence children’s voices are also identified, as are worldwide adult acknowledgements intended to empower girls to exist ‘in’ and ‘with’ the world in a ‘grown-up’ way. (shrink)

This article is part of a research project guided by a methodology for the production of images by children from 2 to 6 years old, developed in the Zona da Mata, in Rondônia. Children's filmic and photographic image productions inspired this inquiry, and suggest a novel way of thinking about children, childhood and research. Based on the questions, What can children's image productions tell us in a survey carried out in periods of social isolation? and What do children’s representations tell (...) us about their lives beyond school? we trace the thematic pathways taken in their production of photographic images and short videos, following our subjects as they engender themselves through the production of images and through their verbal commentaries on those images. What can a child do with a camera in her/his hands? Observing the patterns of their image-making allowed us to enter temporalities and spatialities that suggest other ways of being in the world, particularly in a time of pandemic. What these young children communicate to us through their images and video footage is the power of experience, of traces, remnants and scraps, revealing a capacity for astonishment at things that may go unnoticed by adults. They invite us to experience other ways of seeing and relating to the world, creating other senses and sensations for research, or even for life itself. (shrink)

This article considers children’s status in society and how this may be elevated with a view to imagining a possible future. Children’s status is such that the structures and systems under which they live diminish their agency. In so doing, their opportunity to contribute to the shaping of what appears to be an uncertain future is limited. The article proposes that looking towards children as saviours of our tomorrows is misguided and that a healthier view is to recognise the networked (...) nature of children, which recognises children’s humanity and sees them as connected to the world in which and of which they are a part. By accepting the networked nature of children, adults may come to think and behave differently towards children, beginning to see themselves and children as ‘one among many’. This perspective allows for compassion, a notion that supports our living together. This article proposes that Philosophy with Children may offer an approach to engaging in community and dialogue that allows us to think our way to a future that is epistemically inclusive. Ultimately, engaging with children as potential knowers demands that we are more overtly political in the ways in which we engage with Philosophy with Children. (shrink)

The paper arises from a shared event that turned into an experience: the finding of a childlike piece of paper on our way to a conference about philosophy in schools and how it affects our educational ideas and research practices on listening to children. Triggered by the question of what it means to listen, we are led to the exercise of self-questioning inspired by some of the authors that have already written about the topic, specifically in the context of the (...) community of philosophical enquiry. The thinking unfolds with the telling of the story about the found piece of paper, crossing different layers of questioning and trying to keep the enquiry open for the readers: what is it that we do not know about listening to children? And to what extent might that, which we do not know, be the cause of biased and adultist practices? Is it necessary to return to what philosophy is and where one can find it inside the school environment? Is it already there when the adults arrive? Are we not listening to it? Or are there specific places for philosophical conversations, such as the classroom? Is philosophy also invited to the margins of those spaces? Who decides what counts as philosophical? It is not about answering questions and giving closure to our concerns as educators and researchers, but rather sharing with the readers how even in the least suspected place - an academic event about bringing philosophy to school - one might still not be listening to children. In returning to this self-questioning movement, we want to echo some of the troubling in the thinking and practices of listening in the so-called movement of Philosophy for/with Children: this for/with phenomenon, its politics and relations; some of the assumptions that might be present in the dilemmas in practice for educators and researchers; but also its aesthetics resonances, the sheer beauty of troubling, the (out of) tune of self-questioning, the questions it raises for us as researchers and the space of doubting and uncertainty it offers, like a hesitation or a breathing space. And perhaps, we wonder, it is in-between spaces, in its cracks and transitions, that important things can find their way into our thinking and conversations about childhood. Just like a piece of paper in a hotel room. (shrink)

The article analyzes some of the results that emerged from a questionnaire administered in the academic year 2021/2022, aimed at investigating the point of view of primary school teachers regarding experiences of philosophical reflection with children.The idea of focusing attention on teachers lies in the belief that they are the main protagonists of philosophical practices with children, and that it is important to hear their voices. This contribution analyzes issues such as the training of teachers who intend to engage in (...) these teaching experiences; the benefits that philosophy can bring transversally to improve learning in other disciplines; the possibility of developing critical thinking capacities in children; the increase of logical and argumentative skills; and finally the development of citizenship and social responsibility skills. A positive picture seems to emerge from the results of the questionnaire, where teachers show themselves to be proactive with respect to the possibility of understanding philosophical dialogue as a discourse that can be conducted with children of all ages. This leads, in turn, to the need to revisit normal teaching practices, and to the need for teachers to question themselves through targeted training. It is believed that the survey has positively stimulated teachers, even those who have never had direct experience with children's philosophy, and that it has shown how in a changing society, the figure of the teacher must change as well. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to present an ongoing research project that aims to uncover meanings about the figure of the teacher in the community of philosophical inquiry. What is unique about this figure? What constitutes this figure? How is this figure configured and reconfigured in her own practice? and how is she configured and reconfigured in her own practice? The article begins by describing what characterizes, defines or constitutes the figure of the teacher as facilitator outlined in the (...) initial Philosophy for Children program. It also addresses some critical perspectives on the notion of facilitating and seeks to propose an alternative to the figure of the facilitator which, far from attempting to define a taxonomy of teaching philosophy with children or to establish a model of teacher, allows us to think of a figure of schoolmaster who is sensitive to encounters and who, through them, also finds other ways of being and doing. In this sense, a reflection is also proposed on what an educational encounter can mean and what is the place of schoolmasters in these encounters. Finally, some possible conditions of/for the encounter are proposed as starting points that allow us to promote and sustain the encounter, such conditions are: commonality, equality, listening and unpredictability. (shrink)

This paper has two objectives: to explore how inverting questions in the Community of Philosophical Inquiry (Kennedy, 2004) can be a useful tool for triggering thought processes; and, more generally, to explore the importance of inverting the role traditionally given to children as bystanders to their own education and thought processes. On this basis, we will assume that children have an epistemic and political voice and that this voicing, placed on equal standing with the adult voice, is long overdue. It (...) is undeniable that questions have a central role in P4C sessions (Costa-Carvalho E Mendonça, 2020; Costa-Carvalho E Kohan, 2020) and that, in the context of any given community of philosophical inquiry, they can trigger (Kennedy, 2004) a wide range of thought processes. Some questions may be too vague and require sharpening to adequately address the problem at hand, while others may promote a metacognitive approach to the issue under discussion, and to the entire thought process that sustains it. We will explore how inverting questions may be useful in this context. Moreover, we will consider how this thought anastrophé may emerge in concrete philosophical discussions with children. Our argument will, therefore, navigate the intersection between language and thought, logic and semantics, and theory and practice. Assuming that the term “inversion” may offer different understandings, we will try to outline this rhizomatic approach (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987) to the concept. We will focus primarily on the child’s point of view, which we hold to be epistemologically privileged (Kennedy, 2020). It is our core belief that children´s voices should be granted scientific and political standing and that an epistemic inversion between adulthood and childhood in education must be explored. (shrink)

This article considers two of the methodological steps in a Community of Philosophical Enquiry: developing the questions and voting on the questions. Both of these practices are enacted by the 8-9 year old children who are the participants in a philosophical enquiry, which I facilitated at a government primary school in South Africa. Matthews (1994) reminds us that children as philosophical thinkers/doers have been left out of the dominant narratives about children and childhood. A question that guides this research is (...) where is the place for philosophical questions (developed by children) and the kind of philosophical thinking/drawing/creating/being for child (and adults) in schools? How do we make space for such questioning–so that the richness of these pedagogical encounters can really matter and make a difference to the teaching and learning taking place? Gandorfer in an interview with Barad (2021), suggests that critical thought “is to encounter what is unrecognizable and imperceptible, yet sensible and constructive of sense without separating it from the physical world” (p. 20). I would agree and apply this to the critical thoughts of child. This thinking is not located in the child, in their mind and does not emerge only through the thoughts, child verbalises. A critical posthumanism theory/practice analysis ensures that as researcher, I do not stand outside of the research peering in at a distance. Similarly the children, the questions, the voting and the enquiries are not separate from the world, they are all already entangled with the world. When the children are voting on the questions, this performs as a pedagogy of interruption (Michaud, 2020). As the facilitator, I do not know which question will receive the largest number of votes for the philosophical enquiry. This makes possible an emergent curriculum in its be(com)ing. Toby Rollo’s (2016) formulations about child as political agent and not just moral agent and the implications for more democratic and just schooling are theorised in this paper through the act of the children voting on the questions. I argue that children are not just excluded from participating in decisions about what and even how they are learning at school but from most pedagogical practices in classrooms and schools. I show how the children creating the questions and voting on the questions can be democratic practices with political and moral implications in a community of philosophical enquiry. (shrink)

This article presents the emergent findings of research conducted in Iran. It’s main objective was to investigate whether adolescents' thinking could turn polyphonic in CPI and what processes, thinking would go through to achieve this objective. Seventeen adolescents, ten girls, and seven boys participated in fourteen sessions with three iranian and three foreign novels as the materials of inquiry. The sessions were videotaped and analyzed by the researchers. The findings discovered out of pre-determined objectives revealed that CPI was effective in (...) developing adolescents' polyphonic thinking, and polyphonic thinking processes at work were also revealed. At the same time, some unexpected data emerged which gave rise to some emergent findings, among which was that meaning-making is not limited to what happens “inside” the CPI, but some events before, after, and during the sessions are decisive in meaning-making within this communal circle and formation of CPI. We named them ‘paratexts’ of CPI that included WhatsApp chats, religious, educational, scientific, and gender discourses, the extension of issues discussed at CPI to school and home, adolescent dialogues before and after the sessions, and their reading of philosophical ideas and literary commentaries on the materials of inquiry. Gérard Genette, giving currency to the term ‘paratext’, conceives of it as an undefined zone between the inside and the outside of a printed work that forms the complex mediation between book, author, publisher, and reader. It is a border zone in which text and off-text enter dialogue the paratexts associated with CPI directed us to reconfigure the practice in reconsideration of the facilitator’s roles and positions. On this account, the facilitator is someone who needs to be able to actively listen both to the voices of the group members and the voices of existing paratexts, and to manoeuvre between multiple roles and positions as the situation demands. (shrink)

What challenges does the political participation of children pose to the Philosophy of Childhood? What challenges does the Philosophy of Childhood pose to children's political participation? This text is inspired by the idea that “research is not about enumerating situations, but making researchers lose their sleep”. It is divided into two distinct parts. In the first, we introduce the theoretical framework that orients our research group and our work with children in the philosophical research community. We posit a link between (...) listening to children's voices, the conditions of listening, and the location of their political participation in public space. The second part is comprised of a creative illustrated narrative in the form of a dialogue. From the coast of what could be called the territory of political participation, two characters - Sentinel and Walker - discuss the waves of children that crash onto the territory. To what extent does creating space and time for listening to children open polyphonic movements and enable the construction of new forms of polis: poly(s)phonies? In what ways does the Philosophy of Childhood challenge itself in the creation of poly(s)phonies where the participation of children sets the tone? In what ways does the Philosophy of Childhood in turn challenge us to create poly(s)phonies? (shrink)

The paper begins with the concept of voice and questions its different meanings, especially in educational settings, to propose a philosophical framing of people-of-young-age’s material voices. It then proposes to understand those voices as disruptive differences or opportunities to (re)think about our roles as educators and, most of all, to return to the question of what a philosophical approach to childhood might disrupt. In doing so, it outlines some ideas about “voice” as sound and materiality (Cavarero, 2005) and also about (...) “listening” as a permanent attention to what might emerge (Nancy, 2002; Davies, 2014), to then extend particular meanings of these concepts to the practice of thinking philosophically with people of different ages in the community of philosophical inquiry educational setting (Kennedy & Kennedy, 2012). It also builds on the concept of “event” by Gilles Deleuze (Deleuze, 2013), as a potential immanent within a confluence of forces, to then ask how we can foster a philosophical way of living (in) education that takes people-of-young-age’s material voices as something we cannot afford to lose. Finally, the paper proposes to frame the community of philosophical inquiry as a philosophical community of voices, in the sense of an opportunity to experience the materiality of all the voices as something that matters in the shared thought of its participants. (shrink)

Today, people are better informed about environmental degradation than ever before. However, this does not imply that people are more engaged toward ecological issues nor are they more committed to achieve greater ecological justice. In this respect, environmental education is paradigmatic: the current generation of young people is, by far and without any doubt, the most knowledgeable and aware of environmental problems thanks, among other things, to the presence since the end of the 20th century of environmental education in primary (...) and secondary school. However, levels of commitment to ecological issues that are significantly higher than before are not observed, except when it comes to individual pro-environmental behavior. How to link environmental awareness with a collective, political, ecosocial and ecocitizen commitment? In order to advance avenues for reflection on this issue, firstly this article presents the elements that characterize the current ecosocial crisis. Secondly, it addresses the ecosocial crisis as a crisis of knowledge that ultimately points to the challenge of transforming the visions of the world. Thirdly, it considers the ecosocial crisis as an opportunity that opens up the possibility of creating new worlds on the planet. Fourthly, the ecosocial crisis is presented as a crisis of contemporary education. Fifthly, it summarizes the two risks to consider in the practice of ecosocial education: the risk of dogmatism and the risk of blaming individuals for global problems. Finally, some clues are proposed that point to the Philosophy for children program as a program that can support the educational practice needed by the current educational and ecosocial crisis, as well as limits recognized risks of ecosocial education. (shrink)

In this paper we argue that, if it is true that maximum self-development is better both for individuals and society, and if it is true that that self-development is being seriously curtailed by pervasive environmental tech forces, then clearly educational systems, since they are guardians of “developing” young humans, have a moral imperative to push back against forces that diminish the self. On the other hand, if it is not true that “more self is always better,” that perhaps “goodness of (...) fit” between self and society is optimum, then education systems are justified in continuing to pay scant attention to the forces of self-development (or lack thereof). In line with Sherry Turkle’s (2011) argument that tech forces are diminishing the sort of reflective reasoning necessary for self-development, we will argue that since communicative interchange is necessary for self-development, and an ever-developing self is necessary for ever deeper and more meaningful dialogue (hence forming a dialectic), the fact that social media and other forms of tech connection stunts deep and meaningful interchange has serious implications. Specifically, we will argue that, in contemporary high-tech society (what we are calling Society 2.0), the dialectic between self and communication is going the “wrong” way; that genuine dialogue is becoming ever more rare, which in turn is resulting in “diminished-I’s,” which in turn is resulting in ever more complacency in the face of utterly superficial communicative interchange. We will begin with an overview of what we mean by a “diminished-I,” and then follow by noting how social media, the reading vacuum, roboticism, crowd communication, and decreasing social capital are resulting in diminished-I’s. Since this is resulting in an “I-diminished” society, we will reflect on the question of whether those dialogical educational initiatives that promote self-development are, in fact, making dodos, i.e., making youngsters unfit for the environment in which they find themselves. Ultimately, we will argue that, if educators choose to fight back against the I-diminishing forces of Society 2.0, they need to take selves seriously and actively engage youngsters in dialogue with those with opposing viewpoints. Ultimately, youngsters in Society 2.0 will need all the assistance educators can muster to fight the addictive, literally mind-numbing forces of being “happily” “alone together,” and instead chose the riskier often unhappy-making option of diving into the truth-seeking process with varying coalitions of the willing. (shrink)

In "Becoming Question: Philosophy and childhood between school and university" Laura Agratti approaches the teaching of philosophy from the question: why and how was the presence and permanence of Philosophy with Children (PwC) possible in the Joaquin V. Gonzalez School? The author manages to contextualize and conceptualize her rich experience with the project, reviews and analyzes the historical path that allowed its development while traversing the intellectual path of her professor Guillermo Obiols, who inaugurated the debates and reformulated the proposals (...) on how to teach philosophy in Argentina. The book shows the transformative and emancipatory effects of the Philosophy with Children project in the teaching of philosophy, as well as its ability to modify conceptions about it, generate tensions over the traditional knowledge taught by the school and impact on teaching subjectivity. Without diverting the focus of the research on the practice of PwC, Agratti focuses on the possibilities of self-transformation that this activity of thought grants to the teacher. In her research, the need to choose a broad and plural meaning of childhood is perceived, which includes both the chronological and the non-chronological sense of the term. In this way, Agratti considers that “Philosophy with Infancies” is an expression that makes visible to all the people involved in the practice (teachers and students), understanding the classroom as a space in which age infancy and existential infancy converge. Her deep, profound and detailed vision of the PwC project highlights the importance of the philosopher teachers in the first school,the space where the relationship with knowledge begins, so that it can take place a philosophical education that allows one to know oneself and based on that, maintain a relationship with others, with the world, with knowledge; Asking questions that lead to new ideas. (shrink)

In the last two decades, some authors in the philosophy for children movement have theorized that the community of philosophical inquiry can be a form of spiritual practice, of the care of the self, or a wisdom practice (De Marzio, 2009; Gregory, 2009, 2013, 2014;Gregory & Laverty, 2009). Yet, it is unclear if philosophy for children is, by itself, a form of spiritual education, or if it requires some sorts of modification to be one. And, if it is or can (...) be a form of spiritual education, we can interrogate in what ways and to what extent is it one. It is these questions that this text aims to explore. To do so, we will first clarify the meaning of spiritual education through the presentation of two authors who have explicitly written on that topic. The first is Parker J. Palmer, who has developed a perspective on what it means to reclaim the spiritual roots of education, derived from his study and practice of Quaker spirituality. The second is Pierre Hadot, who has explored how the practice of philosophy in Western antiquity was a form of spiritual exercise. From our presentation of these two authors will emerge a particular perspective of what spiritual education means. In the last section of the text we will use this presentation to examine in what ways philosophy for children can be a form of spiritual education and if requires adaptations to be one. (shrink)

This paper documents an encounter with some issues that deal with the education of children as mentioned by Hannah Arendt in her essay "The crisis in education." Arendt’s invocation of "the obligation that the existence of children imposes on the whole society" is a key element of an ethical and political commitment to the education of new generations—especially in a world disillusioned by the estrangement of the human, and in which the undeniable criteria that the past – as authority – (...) bequeathed to us as support for action and judgment on the world has faltered. If education should not be entirely responsible for the world, at least it should be able to insert children into a public culture that allows them, in turn, to appropriate it. The issues addressed by Arendt, although full of criticism and redolent with paradoxes, move us to think that only an education founded on a public horizon is able to educate children in a way that allows them the opportunity to act in the world, and to be able to discern civilization from barbarism, the fair from the unfair, truth from lies, and good from evil. On the one hand, her reflections reveal the utopian aspect of her thought, while on the other they make clear the collective responsibility that the arrival of children in a pre-existing world imposes on every human society. (shrink)

We approach in the essay the temporality of childhood, taking as horizon the language and experience. Walter Benjamin and Giorgio Agamben are the main thinkers who help us to address the fragile experience in contemporaneity, in the sense that the current ways of life are full of everyday practices that are not transformed into experience. To restore experience it is necessary to understand childhood as a condition of existence that accompanies all life; it is a subject who is exposed to (...) historicity and who makes history, discontinuous history and singular event. With this in mind, through Manuel de Barros' poetic power we rekindle the relationship between childhood temporalities, language and experience, because ins this relation present itself the intensity of a lived that is devoid of a successive and chronological time. The creative power of this language has in the becoming-child the artisan for the creation of another perspective in the search for the inaugural source of words: to advance to the beginning and reach the childing of words. From these constructed approaches, we understand that together, Walter Benjamin, Giorgio Agamben and Manuel de Barros invite us to resume our childhood, in the search for the first meaning of words, which we only find with the presence of childhood. Here, it is not about establishing an absolute truth about childhoods and their times, but of finding ways to think about how to constitute other relationships with and in time. (shrink)

Recently, an increasing number of researchers in different parts of the world have been studying childhood from a point of view that highlights children who are considered “peripheral” – far from the ideal model associated with Western countries. We began with the intention of getting to know African children in Angola, informed by the belief that the preservation of languages is important in maintaining social knowledge and traditions. This text describes a preliminary study carried out in a culturally rich location (...) with strong traditions, but which is also marked by processes of cultural denial and devaluation. According to Ndombele and Timbane (2020), most Angolan children learn Portuguese at age seven, when they start school, especially in rural areas. This fact hinders the literacy learning process, and presents the risk of the disappearance of some native languages. Many schools teach children only in Portuguese. When visiting a school in Ganda, a rural area of Benguela, we found a group of children who, primarily through the games they played, keep the Umbundu language alive, and with that the identity and culture of their ancestors. Building on this, these children and their teachers created a syllable association game based on the music sung as they played. The game had two modalities - in the Umbundu language and in the Portuguese language – and functioned as a bilingual pedagogical tool. In the initial moment of offering the game for testing with the children, it was discovered that by singing the song of the game and discussing the possible solutions by themselves, they were able to make correct associations of the syllables in Umbundu, which they then translated into Portuguese. Thus, a resource was created together with the teachers, which, in addition to valuing the native language of the population, allowed the use of children's knowledge to create a didactic resource. In addition, it was possible to encounter the concept of childhood in the current world, deconstructing the idea of a single and ideal model, especially in light of those children who bring habits from home that do not always harmonize with the school routine, and often clash with Euro/Western model, which is based on age separation of classes as a requirement to guarantee learning, and tend to devalue other exchanges that help children learn. (shrink)

This article problematizes work practices with children, analyzing especially adult-centric practices and the ways in which they characterize public policies aimed at childhood in Brazil. Our study was based on the cartography method, which made it possible to monitor the uncertain psychosocial landscapes caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. It used methodological concepts from Institutional Analysis and the Sociology of Childhood, which intersected with elements of Afroperspectivist philosophy, such as represented among the Ibeji and the Erês. The methodological tool adopted was (...) the Conversation Circle, carried out online, which operated as a group apparatus characterized by welcoming and sharing, where it was possible to gather and analyze data on adult-centric practices among workers from different public agencies in health, social assistance and education, aimed at children in the state of Espírito Santo. Research diaries were also produced, which were referred to in the analytic process. The text identifies several aspects of Erean adult’s views of childhood, and offers insight into the knowledge and practices that contribute to the process of becoming-Erê, a possibility that can be exercised at any stage of life. (shrink)

The earth is the archetypal image of the origin of humanity, but throughout the history of Western culture it has given way to other, more heavenly allegories. Enlightenment as a paradigm of knowledge consolidated itself in Western philosophical thought in a very convincing way as a production of meanings. Through this rereading of the first Greek metaphysics, thought gradually distanced itself from its materiality, from its humanity, from the possibility of admiring the concrete world, getting closer and closer to the (...) need to create abstract objects, which, as ethical limits, political, aesthetic and epistemological, we end up meeting again in our lives. Visibility seems to be the basis of a Western mental habitus: recognition, officiality, legitimacy and certainty become visible signs with which we compare and validate our own experiences. The earth, as a less transparent element, with greater ability to hide, occult, encrypt represents, however, an image that is better suited to the discussion plan proposed in this text. The relationship with reality, in terms of visibility and invisibility, requires a new perception of the world: the underlying structure no longer assumes a transcendent level, but is understood as a plane of immanence, in which meaning is interior, produced by compositions; an amalgam of networks that intertwine in an imperceptible, invisible underground plane. What we propose here is not a vertical perspective, but a horizontal one like the ground. It is from this earthly thought that we want to reflect on what happens in philosophy and childhood; in philosophy with childhood and in the childhood of philosophy. In the present attempt of an ecophilosophy of education, the discussion plan requires a deviation from the guiding images with which we learn to do research. The intention of the following investigation is to look for another type of map: a kind of subterranean cartography, which pays attention not to what we can see, which has well-defined names and categories, but to what is hidden and inhabits a plane that is muddy, earthly, indistinguishable and absolutely alive. According to the Lipmanian model of Philosophy for Children, the subterranean and rhizomatic processes of the research community will be examined, comparing them to other collective movements that characterize the vegetable communities of plants that inhabit the natural world. Finally, three concepts considered relevant to escape the limits found in some contemporary pedagogical postures will be illustrated, suggesting other paths in the relationship between philosophy, childhood and education: reciprocity, passivity and invisibility. (shrink)

Watching children at play is favorite pastime for many elderlies. However, the growing safety concerns have prompted parents to become increasingly resistant to the idea of having strangers watch their children in parks and playgrounds. This creates an intergenerational gap in communication with potentially detrimental consequences for all social groups. Oral interviews were conducted and written surveys distributed that validated the hesitance of seniors, especially in the United States, to spend time at children’s playgrounds despite their finding the vicinity of (...) children stimulating. Behavioral observations were conducted at playgrounds to quantify the positive and negative effects of supervisors’ ages on children’s play and thus indirectly assess whether there can be mutual benefits of making the presence of older people at playgrounds, which is customary in many countries, more culturally acceptable. Observations focused on the behavior of a pair of siblings showed that there is an increased probability of both conflicts and joyful expressions when the children were in the presence of a middle-aged person than when they were watched over by the elderlies. This has suggested that freer expressions stimulated in the presence of parent-like figures simultaneously induce the undesired and the desired behavioral patterns in the form of propensities for conflict and propensities for expressions of joy, respectively. This has confirmed that the observational stance has a critical effect on the observational outcome and that the age of the watchers has an effect on the behavior of children at play, with the age correlating directly with the calmness of the play, but also with a lower degree of exhilaration. (shrink)

This text was written after hearing a childlike question about voice, a question asked by Lara, a girl at a “basic” school in a rural area of the Azores islands that resulted in a diferent way of understanding the motives and intentions that are implicit in the way we practice community of philosphical inquiry with children and adults. This question also unveiled important aspects of the way we construct ourselves as adults who believe in the importance of teaching philosophy in (...) elementary school. This text describes an attempt to follow the trail of inquiry triggered by Lara’s question, and documents three moments or possibilities of re-questioning. These moments – which are not understood as forming an orderly sequence, but rather represent inroads into the initial question – emerge as possibilities marked by the rhythm of inquiry that followed. Those questions were: What do we hear when we talk about voice? What do we say when we talk about listening? And what do we think about when we share voices and listen actively? The text invites us to focus on voice as a concept aligned with a certain paradigmatic model of thinking commonly referred to as “philosophy,”and also invites us to consider the concept of listening as a construct that returns us to the origins of western philosophy. Finally, the text invites us to consider different ways of understanding voice and listening as based on the idea of thinking as an in-between space of sharing, focusing specifically on activities centering philosophical dialogue with children. (shrink)

This article explores the nature and consequences of being a successful child YouTuber as a new form of both child labor and play in the social media era. This new child activity can in principle act as an enhancer of child autonomy, creativity, and some specific goods of childhood, such as play, and exploration. However, the impact of becoming a micro-celebrity as a video blogger at a young age is to some extent underexplored. Thereby, I bring into the ethical discussion (...) the specific conditions of this activity, such as overexposure, and adultization. By doing so, I show how it can turn out to be a threat to child’s well-being and well-becoming, especially in relation to the identity construction and intrafamily dynamics. I highlight its double role as both an enhancer of childhood’s specific goods and child vulnerability, especially when it becomes a silent form of subjugation. Thereby, I suggest that the strong version of the precautionary principle could be a normative guide to balance the children’s need to explore and autonomy without jeopardizing other specific goods of childhood and their well-becoming. (shrink)

One scene from Wim Wenders’ film “Alice in the cities” provokes us to think again about childhood. It’s a fresh polaroid snapshot, where we can see the faces of an adult (Phillip Winter) and a child (Alice) blending and mixing. Starting from this image, this paper makes its way through the movie’s plot, reflecting on the power of freedom that arises from an encounter with children and childhood. First, we examine the relationship between Winter and his job as a photo-journalist, (...) discussing the character of his existential anguish and his supposed indisposition to becoming, which seems to be clear in the way that he reads his own photographs. In a second moment of the film, we understand Alice’s arrival on the scene as something capable of dispersing the circumstances that are constraining him by hurling him into the unpredictable. This event is crystallized in one poetic gesture: the girl confronts the adult with her own face by drawing a self-portrait. Facialization and deterritorialization are twoconcepts that we weave into our discussion, working off the philosophical thinking of Georges Didi-Huberman, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Finally, we propose that worry as a value, characteristic of children and travelers, can produce an opening that offers an escape into a freedom of release–or, so to speak, a defacialized freedom. (shrink)

This article aims to present a discussion about childhood from the issues raised by the short film entitled Alma, directed, produced and scripted by the filmmaker André Morais. In the work, we experience a day in the life of a girl who lives with her grandmother and who, throughout the plot, weaves questions about her own existence, the senses of life and the dimensions of the relationships we establish with each other. It is discussed in this article, therefore, the power (...) of cinema and childhood as dimensions that invite a dialogue capable of converging art and life, also revitalizing the field of science, from the reflections that are dear to the dynamics of human experience. What conceptions of childhood are presented in the production? In what ways does the chosen approach broaden the discussion about childhood and cinema as potencies? To what extent do the questions raised by the child connect their childhood experience to the experiences of those who watch it on screen? In order to mobilize the discussion, the text is organized from scenes, which characterize the sequence of events that give meaning to what the film wants to express. In the first, the central theme is presented; in the second, the questions for which the short awakens us throughout the narrative; and in the third, it seeks to expand the possibilities of reading, rather than closing them. These scenes support the discussions brought here through Walter Benjamin, Mikhail Bakhtin, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Aristotle and Hannah Arendt. (shrink)

Walter Benjamin is a seminal philosopher whose work makes us think about the concepts of experience, child, and childhood. A journey through his life experience and personal narratives brings us closer to the world of his own childhood. As such, it is a philosophical journey in the sense of taking us towards something that is unknown to us and that in the end can transform us. We will travel through the following texts by Benjamin: Children’s Hour Radio Narrative (2015), Berlin (...) Childhood: around 1900 (2013), Reflections on the child, the toy and education (2009), One-Way Street (2013) and The Storyteller:Reflections on the works of Nikolai Leskov (2018). To navigate these texts is to allow and encourage us to experiment with other ways of looking at and being in the world. His narrative allows us to experience the experiences of the child Benjamin, to traverse its unique and sparsely inhabited places, and thus to travel through any child’s world, feeling a child’s temporality and a child’s gaze. According to Jorge Larrosa (2003), childhood is an enigma. Benjamin’s narratives allow us to enter this enigma, to unveil images redolent with the experience of children and childhood, and thereby to approach this mystery that is both philosophical and pulsating with life, like the life of this philosopher himself. (shrink)

Clarifying the concept of emotions is an essential task of 21st century societies. We cannot continue living if we ignore the importance they have in our everyday thinking and acting. Emotions are fundamental both to the private and the public sphere It is becoming increasingly important to learn to identify what we feel and what those around us feel, how we express these feelings and understand their consequences, in order to enable us to transform harmful emotions into others more favorable (...) to the well-being of our personal relationships and our relationship with the environment. With this objective in mind, my text proposes a form of emotional education in the framework of peace education, initiated in early childhood, which acts to develop the emotional capacity required for the realization of a form of critical, ethical and creative global citizenship. This work recovers the methodology of the school of philosophy with children, which gives a great sense of philosophical praxis to the text, by putting it in dialogue, also, with studies in philosophy for peace. Thus, it is essential to vindicate empathy and moral imagination from the time we are children. Through thinking based on care, fthe cultivation of an emotional education will stimulate to wonder about other emotional alternatives, escaping from our own limits and exploring the perspectives of others until we come to merge with their horizons. (shrink)

In this paper, I endeavor to evaluate the ethical-political consequences of the metaphor of "teacher-midwife" awarded to Plato’s Socrates in Theaetetus and its use by different scholars to describe the role of teacher in a Philosophy with/for children context. The paper is divided into three sections: first an approach is made to the figure of Socrates in Meno, to the critique of his method as expressed by Jacques Rancière in The Ignorant Schoolmaster, and to the echoing of that critique by (...) Walter Kohan in his evaluation of the pedagogy of Pf/wC. Next, different descriptions of the teacher’s role in Pf/wC are reviewed, emphasizing the elements that emphasize the Socratic figure. For Matthew Lipman, one of the keys to turning classrooms into communities of philosophical inquiry was to substantially modify the teaching role. Because, on Lipman’s account, the teacher should not teach in the traditional sense, different metaphors have been sought to describe her role. In section, I argue that a description of the teacher as "guide" can be applied to many features that characterize Socrates. I analyze in depth the metaphor of the "teacher-midwife" establishing the links with those developed in and. Emphasis is placed on the ethical-political consequences of equating the teacher with a "teacher-midwife", especially if we take into account Plato's complete description of pedagogical maiusis in Theaetetus, and the centrality of the metaphor in Pf/wC pedagogical practice. Finally, I consider the very different image of the “birth” metaphor that is suggested by Hannah Arendt’s concept of “natality,” and explore its implications for a pedagogical alternative to the Socratic. (shrink)

In the period from January 1920 to December 1921 a cooperation between Jessie Fauset, Augustus Dill and W.E.B. Du Bois resulted in the publication of a periodical called “The Brownies’ Book” the first publication for North American black, and not white children and young people. The creation of “The Brownies' Book” was a pioneering event in African American literature in general and, more specifically, in the field of African American children's literature, as it was the first periodical composed and published (...) by African Americans for black children who, until then, searched in vain for material that included a perspective on their experience and history. This article argues that the TBBs were one of the harbingers of the movement called the Harlem Renaissance, constituting a children's literary materialization of the path towards the emergence of what the philosopher Alain Locke called the New Negro. What was being formulated was both the deconstruction of stereotypes associated with blacks and the active projection/creation of a positive identification with their local and ancestral community. This paper seeks to identify the post-WWI discursive strategies and practices of de-racialization proposed for “the children of the sun”, as W.E.B. Du Bois called them, in order to stop seeing themselves “through the eyes of others”. (shrink)

This paper acts as an introduction to a dossier centered on the ethical implications of Practicing Philosophy with Children and Adults. It identifies ethical themes in the P4C movement over three generations of theorists and practitioners, and argues that, historically and materially, the transition to a “new” hermeneutics of childhood that has occurred within the P4C movement may be said to have emerged as a response to the ever-increasing pressure of neoliberalism and a weaponized capitalism to construct public policies in (...) education on an over-regulated, prescribed, state-monitored, model. Could a new relationship to childhood provide the ethical and political agenda that our times require for doing philosophy with children with integrity? Could a radical listening and openness to childhood—which has been an intrinsic confessional characteristic of P4C pedagogy from the beginning--sustain the movement through these dark times? Finally, the paper presents a set of articles written in response to these questions: What, if any, should the ethical commitments of the P4C facilitator be? Is political/ideological neutrality required of the P4C facilitator? Is political neutrality possible? What constitutes indoctrination in educational settings? Are children more vulnerable to indoctrination than adults, and if so, what are the implications of that fact for the practice of P4C? What are the uses of P4C in the dramatically polarized ideological landscape we currently inhabit? What, if any, are the ethical responsibilities of a teacher engaging in philosophical practice? Are the philosophical practitioner’s ethical responsibilities similar or different when the subjects are children or adults? Does every methodology have a “hidden curriculum”? If so, what is the hidden curriculum of P4C? What distinguishes dialogical from monological practice? May one have the appearance of the other? Is the “Socratic method” as we conceive it dialogical? What, if any, are the uses of irony in philosophical practice? Should Socrates be considered a model for P4C practitioners? (shrink)

This paper consists of an initial investigation about the meaning of a good childhood following the ethical ideal of authenticity. In this introduction to a philosophy of childhood and authenticity, the central theme is to investigate how the authenticity ideal is already presupposed in the contemporary discourse on what constitutes a good childhood. In the emerging field of philosophy of childhood, the capacities of children for agency, autonomy, and committing and the fundamental role of parents in guaranteeing possibilities to exercise (...) them are being increasingly highlighted, together with a discourse that there are some intrinsic goods of childhood. These developments parallel contemporary reconstructions of authenticity as an ethical ideal. Current debates emphasize the importance of a person finding, creating and constructing their originality, and how to realize it. At the same time, this search must recognize demands emanating from something more than human desires: from one’s culture and community. The parallel dynamics between these two discourses - children-parent and individual-society - point to a direction that applying the concept of authenticity to the construction of novel interpretations and practices of a good childhood can bring fruitful results. After examining such parallels, some of these practices that emerge from the analysis of good childhoods as authentic childhood are pointed out, such as the importance of cultivating children’s moments of caring and committing, and the development of personal projects. The paper concludes by exploring some limitations of the applied methodology and how it can be a strength in future research on this topic. (shrink)

This essay discusses the possibility of turning what Henri Bergson, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari called “fabulating” into a collective research method, insomuch as Deleuze and Guattari identified it as the invention of a collectivity that does not yet exist, a people to come. Given our current situation, in which the vital force of contemporary collectivities is undermined by the capitalist machine, this text inquires into the possibilities of an insurrection that begins with life in schools. If, as Bergson claimed, (...) fabulating has a dark side that is inclined to the regulation of life, a philosophy of difference, on the other hand, conceptualizes the possibilities inherent in lived immanence. To fabulate would be, then, a question of creating possible existences. As such, this text proposes to fabulate, together with students from a suburban school in the municipality of Cariacica-ES, possible conditions of collective life in the school itself. Faced as it is by the market imperatives that govern the school and its curriculum, fabulation offers an approach and a methodology that promises to overcome this negative educational climate by fashioning larger than life images that transform and metamorphose conventional representations and concepts of collectivities, thereby enabling the invention of a people to come, and the creation of a commons and of a collective body capable of creating cognitive and affective domains that expand the limits of life. (shrink)

In this article, we seek to discuss the recurrence of racism and prejudice toward black lives and childhoods, in spite of repeated initiatives to overcome it by social and educational policy-makers. Following the investigations launched by Michel Foucault on the biopower hypothesis, we revisit some of his interpreters, with the objective of discussing the challenges posed by racism to pedagogical provisions for black children and—following on a concept offered by Emmanuel Levinas--an education of the Face, as a weapon in the (...) political field of struggle against the thanatological dimension of biopolitics. To do so, we retrace some scenes from the history of inclusion devices – especially those policies aimed at black populations. We reflect on the racism embedded in our historical unconscious and discuss how it affects the education of the black Face in our country. We problematize the peculiarities of Brazilian racial prejudice and explore its necropolitical positioning when it comes to the governance of black childhoods. We conclude that the current form of governmentality and education needs a movement of de-rostification—deconstuction of the black Face--in order to identify a future for black children that makes it possible to rise up against the hegemonic order of the white-male-heterosexual-christian-European, and to create processes of subjectivation that can build solidarity with the multiplicity of others-becoming-minoritarian. (shrink)

This text proposes some lines of reflection and action related to a project that links philosophy and childhood, whose pedagogical and investigative activity has been developed in the province of Córdoba, Argentina, for more than twenty-five years. To do this we recover an experience of workshops with children and adults, in a continuous process of reflection on childhood and how children think about themselves. That experience focuses on imagining a particular space and time – living together on an island where (...) adults cannot be found--and from there question the forms of decision making and participation – of political action – that children perform in the territories they inhabit. Here it is proposed that the circumstance of incompleteness regarding issues such as politics and sexuality encompass all age situations and, therefore, it is more appropriate to let ourselves be traversed by restlessness and doubt than to accept a preconceived world in which problems quickly find answers, and what you do not know or cannot be located in a fixed category is unknown, ignored, or remains hidden. We propose to start by not postulating any pre-conceived notions regarding childhoods--thinking of them as hypotheses with unexplored names, bodies and thoughts to get to know. Likewise, it is assumed that reflection on teaching practice relocates philosophy teachers as intellectuals who keep universal explanations in their “professorial pockets,” and reinvent themselves by dealing with specific problems, the small discoveries one makes through exchanges with others--those others that, as in the case of children, there is much to learn about and from. This is the ethical and political task that emerges from a continuous reflection on shared action. Welcome, then, to the island where everything is to be decided and participated in, the island of Serendipity. (shrink)

The article discusses how the emergence of the term "minor" in Brazilian society, from the mid-nineteenth century, forged mainly by the practice of legal and medical discourse, outlined a path of institutionalization for poor children; first, in the post-abolition period of enslavement until the thirties of the last century and, later, until the period of democratization of Brazil, considering the promulgation of the Federal Constitution of 1988. The analysis for the proposed periods was based on the concept of disciplinary power (...) and biopower, both coined by Foucault. Furthermore, the emergence of the black child was discussed, based on its status as a citizen child, contained in the Federal Constitution of 1988, and in the Statute of the Child and Adolescent created in the 1990s. From this period up to the present day, the text deals with the new devices created by the Brazilian State, which have ensured unequal conditions for black children and mainly promoted the increase of homicides among them.The analysis of the last period presented was based on the concept of “necropolitics,” developed by Achille Mbembe. Finally, we defend the principle that another childhood for black child will only be possible through a becoming-other, a new opening of the world and, above all, a decolonization of childhood for children belonging to the black ethnic-racial group. (shrink)

This paper seeks to explore the processes involved in becoming a teacher in this particular historical moment of global pandemic in Brazil. What are the challenges, limitations, possibilities and opportunities that the pandemic presents to the process of teaching work and teacher formation? A review of the literature that included contributions from Caponi, Kohan, Larrosa, Neuscharank, Vaz, Arroyo and Abramowicz suggests a dialogue between pedagogic theory, philosophy of education and the contemporary experience of political and social events in the pandemic (...) period The discussions reviewed explore the profound extent to which Covid-19 has affected our way of living, working and relating to others, and the psychological effects of social isolation. The situation demands from the Brazilian teacher an attitude of openness to change, specifically in the use of new technologies, and the extent to which they are or are not able to replace face-to-face interactions. The situation also challenges us to reconstruct, beyond the logic of neoliberalism, our notions of the type of school we have and type of school we want, the type of teachers we are and the type of teacher we want to be. We conclude that this process of thinking school again depends, if it is to escape neoliberal logic, on the capacity of understanding the vocation of the teacher to be one of “becoming-child” in the sense of experiencing an openness to and a desire for the new. As such, the “becoming-teacher” is one who allows herself to be addressed by another logic, another more sensitive and more aesthetic temporality, and who finds, in encounter with others, with art, with childhood, with becoming itself, the capacity to think, to resist, to fight for the realization of that logic. (shrink)

This article reflects on childhood times based on the words chrónos, kairós and aión, which the Greeks use to conceptualize time, in dialogue with different authors, such as Kohan, Pohlmann, Skliar, Kohan and Fernandes. In the pedagogical field, we explore how Pedagogy of Childhood has focused on the importance of childhood temporality and children’s agency, with contributions from Hoyuelos, Parrini, Aguilera et al., Barbosa, Oliveira-Formosinho e Araújo, Oliveira-Formosinho, Pinazza and Gobbi. We reflect on what forms of organizing time are possible (...) when we think about children and their childhoods. Would it be a continuous and chronological time, a time of opportunity for the instant or the timeless intensity of the aiónic? Would it be possible to open spaces in school for other temporalities, given its immersion in chronological time, and its extreme emphasis on routine? We seek a relationship between forms of temporality, philosophy, and early education in order to explore alternative possibilities in the relationship between child and the school context, and conclude that, since the child’s is the aiónic time of intense experience, it is in the heightened dynamic immediacy and the multiple symbolic languages of play that it may be possible to create pedagogical structures that provide a dwelling for childhood temporality. (shrink)

Teacher-student dialogue plays a central role in facilitating the ongoing growth of those engaged in education, particularly dialogue that invites student reflection on the instruction being given and the teacher herself. Dialogue should aid students in articulating self-awareness regarding their behaviour and learning habits and the learning process and its results at the same time as assessing their quality and the ways in which they may be improved. One of the reasons behind our increasing inability to break down the inherent (...) barrier between teachers and students is due to a lack of engagement in ongoing dialogical reflection as a means of advancing the teaching-learning process within the school. This article summarizes the philosophical concepts of a ten years of teacher education program which was designed according to the principals of Philosophy with Children. The program fostered creativity and self-reflective thinking in schools and in teacher education and offered dialogical methods. It is based also on six dimensions that are the basis of Philosophy with Children: learning from a place of questions, community of learning that resists the educational hierarchy that boasts of omniscience, coordinator as a participant in the learning process, learning in the real present, legitimization of improvisation as a way of learning, learning as liberating the learner from disciplinary boundaries. All six dimensions view Philosophy with Children as a pedagogy of searching at whose center lies the pursuit of meaning that facilitates personal development—and thus self-direction and capability. (shrink)