Ethics of Childhood, Misc

Neste artigo, abordarei, por meio da Teoria Crítica, o processo de construção do trabalho do professor de Educação Infantil no Brasil, fazendo um breve histórico da educação infantil, que tem seu início marcado pelo assistencialismo. Também será abordada a enorme feminilização dessa categoria profissional, que permanece muito forte, por meio do mito da “mãe cuidadora”. Por todo esse histórico, a desvalorização do professor de Educação Infantil é maior do que de professores de outros segmentos. A recente profissionalização e a rotina (...) de trabalho automatizada contribuem para que tal prática pouco tenha sido alterada. O objetivo desta pesquisa é estudar como esses fenômenos e principalmente a profissionalização dos professores de educação infantil contribuem para tornar mais alienado o trabalho em creches e pré-escolas – que às vezes, como veremos, sequer é visto como trabalho. (shrink)

Abstract Following a review of the changing uses of narrative in moral development research, a personal narrative from an interview with a secondary teacher, who is also a parent of an adolescent is analyzed. Without standard question interruptions, the narrator crafts an ironic tale of contradictory feelings and actions. Trust is proposed as both an affective and evidential/proof dimension of the relationship between adolescents and adults, as well as among all concerned about moral development and education.

Abstract This article reviews recent research focused on kibbutz youth at that stage of life between high?school graduation and their early thirties. Their attitudes and behaviour were analysed at four biographical substages: (1) voluntary community service, (2) military service, (3) leave of absence from the kibbutz and (4) higher education. It shows that there is an association between the ability of the socialising agents in the kibbutz to develop and encourage adolescents? identity and their personal democratic resources, and the attitudes (...) and values of kibbutz youth in relation to social issues, democratic obligation, commitment to the community and responsibility. (shrink)

No es la «facilidad» en el aprender -el hecho de que sea habitual hacerlo- lo que justifica un pensamiento sobre educación, sino la experiencia de su dificultad. Esta es la raíz del argumento que se pretende desarrollar en este texto. De modo específico, se trata de una reflexión que toma como punto de apoyo y raíz de su argumento la experiencia humana, no de la normalidad, sino la de la excepcionalidad, entendida como experiencia de lo frágil y de lo vulnerable. (...) Se trata de situar esta experiencia de lo frágil como un ejercicio de pensamiento en relación con la pedagogía, que, en ciertos formatos discursos inaugura el gesto perverso de introducir a los jóvenes dentro de las escuelas para, cerrando las puertas de las aulas después, impedirles su salida al mundo, convirtiéndoles así en eternamente menores de edad. Eternos aprendices. Pero también en relación con la filosofía, que se vuelve incapaz, en sus aspiraciones de construir un pensamiento adulto y organizado, de decir nada ante quienes tienen una voz al borde de la palabra. Frente a toda una tradición que, tanto en la filosofía moral, como en la filosofía política y en la filosofía de la educación, ha pensado los asuntos que les concernían desde la experiencia de un cierto orden de lo normal, o de lo normalizado, se trata, entonces, de pensar la educación como una experiencia del «cuidado de sí» y del «cuidado del otro» que toma como punto de apoyo y reconocimiento ético lo vulnerable, lo que deviene otro como accidente. (shrink)

Although researchers working from the cognitive-developmental and domain perspective have contributed significantly in presenting insights on children's moral knowledge, specific questions about how caregivers' language-based input facilitates their children's understanding of moral knowledge have not been examined. This article explores how language-based socialisation patterns play an important role in care-givers' and children's construction of socio-moral meanings. I argue that it is through participation in communicative and narrative practices that children begin to understand cultural meanings about morality. By drawing on theories (...) and research conducted in the field of language socialisation, I demonstrate the mutual interdependence between the construction of moral meanings and communicative practices. Examples that demonstrate the various ways in which communicative practices provide the foundation for the co-creation of moral meanings between Hindi-speaking Indian caregivers and their children are discussed. (shrink)

In this article, I contextualize the community of inquiry approach, and Philosophy for Children, within the current milieu of education. Specifically, I argue that whereas former scholarship on Philosophy for Children had a tendency to critique the problems of teacher authority and knowledge transmission, we must now consider subtler, learner-centered scenarios of education as a threat to Philosophy for Children. I begin by offering a personal anecdote about my own experience attending a ‘reverse-integrated’ elementary school in 1968. I use this (...) anecdote to show the detrimental aspects of the turn to learning—and the concomitant turn away from teaching—over past five decades. I go on to detail what I call “the logic of learning.” The logic of learning has five components: 1) That learning has a theory, or ‘logic,’ in other words, that learners can be figured out. 2) That learning is instrumental, that people need to learn things in order to acquire something that will be obtained after the learning is complete. 3) That learning concerns normation, or, some people get learning ‘right’ while others do not. 4) That teaching is the same as instruction, so that teaching always means delivering knowledge to students. 5) That authority should reside as a possession of the learner, and thus authority is understood as a thing rather than a relation. I show that these elements of the logic of learning stand in the way of the goals of Philosophy for Children, and that opponents of Philosophy for Children have used these elements to assail the Philosophy for Children project. I continue by describing a relational understanding of authority. I demonstrate the importance of relational authority and relational teaching as key components of Philosophy for Children. In conclusion, I argue that Philosophy for Children needs to spearhead a movement of relational teaching. (shrink)

_Growing up with Parents who have Learning Difficulties_ uses a life-story approach to present new evidence about how children from such families manage the transition to adulthood, and about the longer-term outcomes of such an upbringing. It offers a view of parental competence as a social attribute rather than an individual skill, assessing the implications for institutional policies and practices. The authors address the notion of children having to parent their disabled parents and argue for a shift in emphasis from (...) protecting children to supporting families. This innovative book provides a fresh approach to a subject rife with prejudice and challenges us to think again about many taken-for-granted ideas about the process of parenting and the needs of children. It also demonstrates the power of narrative research and its capacity for bringing alive people's experience in a way that enables us to better understand their lives. (shrink)

This essay is the result of reflections, readings and discussions on a compulsory subject for a doctorate in education. In reflections woven search yourself a chance to give the term a broader meaning care that 'caring for the body' aiming thereby problematizing the trivialization of this care in the educational field and, more particularly, the field of childhood studies. To guide these reflections, crossing issues such as childhood body and teaching, it seeks a dialogue with Michel Foucault, especially his writings (...) in which he brings the self care as a practice of freedom. Whereas the practice of self-care allows you to communicate with others, being at the same time, an individual and social practice, one can understand the care of itself as a way to become the subject, not a subject subjected, but a guy free and emancipated. Based on this understanding it is thought as a fruitful possibility of moving the ethics of self-care for children education, seeking his connection with the care of each other in daily educational activities with children. (shrink)

Kindergartens in Norway are looked upon as the first step in children’s education. There is a discussion in the early childhood field about how to best prepare children for lifelong education. In this paper we want to discuss critical thinking in relation to children’s everyday life in kindergarten. We want to focus on how kindergarten teachers can practice critical thinking together with children by using documentation as a starting point. We wish to emphasized children’s active participation in relation to critical (...) thinking, and further on we points out some aspects that we find important in doing critical thinking in kindergarten. We would argue that critical thinking must take into account the social practice of the thinking; both the power relations in the dialogue and children’s movement, experimentation and way of being. It seems to be important to fight for children’s rights when political goals seems to reduce children’s active participation, and it is in relation to this we find it interesting to discuss critical thinking, and how early childhood teacher’s best can arrange and prepare for such thinking in kindergarten. (shrink)

This cross-cultural study of the moral judgements of Mainland Han-Chinese, Chinese-Canadian, and Euro-Canadian children aged seven to 11 examined the evaluations of narrative protagonists? modest lies and self-promoting truthful statements in situations where they had done a good deed. The story characters had thus either lied or told the truth about a prosocial act that they had committed. Chinese children judged modest lies more positively and boastful truths less positively than Euro-Canadian children. Chinese and Chinese-Canadian children rated immodest statements more (...) negatively than did Euro-Canadian children. The cultural differences were greatest with the oldest children. Chinese children rated modest lies significantly more positively than either Canadian group who did not differ from each other but an interaction between age and culture revealed the three groups to be significantly different at age 11 with Chinese children most positive, followed by Chinese-Canadian children, and with Euro-Canadian children evaluating modest lies least positively. Cultural strictures and acculturation factors respecting modesty and self-enhancement are reflected in these differences. (shrink)

Il testo si apre con una nota introduttiva nella quale l’autrice, che sperimenta da diversi anni i programmi del curricolo, motiva le proprie scelte pedagogico-didattiche sia nell’affermare che i percorsi attivati le hanno sempre dato la possibilità di costatare crescite dinamiche e multidimensionali del pensiero individuale e collettivo degli alunni e di lei stessa docente e facilitatrice, sia,soprattutto,hanno continuamentegarantito potenzialità maggiori da esplicitare, quali, ad esempio, la capacità di trasformare e di trasformarsi,che, unitamente alla consapevolezza della necessità di talicambiamenti,agevola e (...) migliora la relazionalità con se stessi e con gli altri.Il testo riporta inizialmente le affermazioni che un gruppo di bambini ha elaborato nel corso di una sessione, in quanto è proprio la pratica filosofica quel contesto di situazioni e circostanze che consente all’ autrice di cogliere costanti riferimenti al pensiero di Wittgenstein, sollecitandola, altresì, verso un’indagine riguardo alla possibilità di un rapporto tra il filosofo austriaco ed i presupposti che sono alla base della P4C e che ,fanno ,essenzialmente, riferimento al pensiero di Lipman.Le tematiche di fondo si snodano,quindi, nell’evidenziare nei due filosofi affinità di pensiero, sia relativamente al linguaggio che al mistico, individuandone analogie e trovando corrispondenza nella stessa idea di filosofia che appartiene ad entrambi.Lipman afferma che la e la filosofia per Wittgenstein è attività chiarificatrice del linguaggioche ha per scopo la chiarificazione logica dei pensieri.Nelle il linguaggio viene definito una struttura unitaria che rappresenta un insieme di relazioni, così come l’argomentare delle CdR si caratterizza in un insieme di relazioni collegate nei rapporti e nei significati. Il linguaggio sia in W che in L recupera una stretto rapporto tra la teoria e la prassi, diventando produzione sociale , strumento dell’agire quotidiano.La potenzialità espressa dal linguaggio può essere comparata alla potenzialità espressa dalla CdR nel suo cammino di ricerca-azione.Relativamente, poi, alla dimensione dell’inesprimibile, il mistico e la meraviglia dei bambini raccontata da Lipman si incontrano in quello stupore che ambedue generano, in quel desiderio di conoscenza che li coinvolge, nel mistero che li associa, diventandone quello sfondo sul quale ed attraverso il quale tutto ciò che proviamo ad esprimere, comunicare, essere acquista significato. The text starts with an introductory note in which the author, who has already used the the curriculum she will discuss, clarifies her didactic choices in two ways. Her primary motivation was 1) to assist in the dynamic and multi-dimensional growth of her students’ individual and collective thinking, and of her thinking as well; and, 2) to give them the tools through which they could reach their own potential through continual transformation and renovation of both their individual and social lives. The text begins with the philosophical statements which a group of children have offered in the course a session, which the author connects to the thinking of Wittgenstein, which leads into an inquiry about the relationship between the thinking of the Austrian philosopher and Matthew Lipman. Basic shared themes and analogous approaches are identified in the areas of mysticism, language, and the goals of philosophy. Lipman says, for example, that "Philosophy for Children aims at being a total, thinking-in-language experience," while for Wittgenstein, philosophy is an activity of clarification through language whose purpose is to make thoughts clear via logic. In his Philosophical Investigations, for example, language is understood as a unitary structure that represents a set of relationships, just as in the community of inquiry, dialogue is understood as a set of relationships between multiple meanings. For both philosophers, language restores the relationship between theory and practice, and as such is a social production and an instrument for the transformation of daily behavior. The therapeutic potential that Wittgenstein finds in language can be compared to the potential for reconstruction that the community of inquiry explores through its practice of collective action-research into the construction of meaning and value in everyday life. The capacity for wonder that Lipman attributes to children is seen in relation to Wittgenstein's concern for "what cannot be said," and is understood in both philosophers as the exploration of that mystery which serves as the ground on which and by which everything that we strive to express, to communicate, and to be, acquires a meaning. (shrink)

Of Jewish-German origin, Jona Oberski was born in Amersterdam. During the Nazi rule that coincided with her childhood she was arrested by the Germans and deported to the Bergen-Belsin concentration camp after having also spent time in the Westerbork camp. While at Belsen her father died at the camp, and her mother later died in 1945, after the liberation. Oberski was adopted by a couple from Amsterdam, and years later dedicated herself to the studying of Physics, the area in which (...) she currently works. Through the lens of a little protagonist, and the “ignorant” lens of the infancy of the atrocious reality in which it lives preserves only some details, impressions, and lived experiences that are narrated as if they had occurred in the present, even though they have passed. This article enters into this dialogic process and tries to establish new beginnings, negating or affirming old standards and models, notions and visions, questioning and answering old and new questions. (shrink)

It has been asserted in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child that children’s voices should have a place in society and that their views and opinions should be taken into account by policy makers and those others in authority. This paper suggests that children need to be empowered and enabled to become active, participative, political agents within society. Within certain countries – in this instance, those constituting Great Britain – Education for Citizenship is on the Governmental agenda. (...) In order for children to be educated for citizenship, it is argued that they are treated as citizens not in the future, but citizens in the present. Additionally, to further enable younger members of society to partake in the role of citizen it is here suggested that the practice of Community of Philosophical Inquiry be utilised to promote the necessary skills for full participation. (shrink)

This article aims to present part of the results from the Scientific Initiation research entitled Logical Foundations of Education for Thinking. Specifically, the exposed contents are the logical ones developed by Matthew Lipman in his philosophical novel Harry Stottlemeier’s discovery. The text is divided in three main sections: formal logic, logic of good reasons and logic of rationally acting. In the first one, we map the contents of formal logic present in that novel. In this context, we studied Aristotelian logic (...) in a progressive manner, passing from the simplest elements to the more complex, namely: the categorical propositions, the reversal of categorical propositions, standardization, the table of opposites, the logic of relations and, finally, the Aristotelian syllogism . After that, we deal with other aspects of formal logic worked in Lipman’s view. They are: the hypothetical syllogism, induction, the logical relationship between part and whole, the four possibilities and tautologies. In the second section, we present an approach about the logic of good reasons. Finally, the third and final section, entitled The Logic of rationally acting, the emphasis lies in the constant and daily use of reflection, in other words, we see that the logic of rationally acting is targeting the use of reflective thinking to obtain a reasonable behavior. (shrink)

Vygotsky’s concept of the zone of proximal development has brought wide attention to the role of adults in children’s learning and development. The author proposes that beyond understanding its mechanism, its use is influenced by various factors which the adult needs to be sensitive to. Through integrating related literature on the zpd and on adult-child interactions, this paper aims to shed light on the nature of adult sensitivity in actualizing the zpd. The concept is first analyzed theoretically. Two types of (...) sensitivity will then be discussed: adults’ self-awareness and their awareness of children as active players in the interaction process. Sigel’s concept of distancing is suggested as a means of enhancing one’s sensitivity. (shrink)

This review makes a case for holistic education and calls for revamping Indian education, using the pedagogical methods available in this book.

Nonostante tutti i tentativi recenti di riscattarla e di metterla nuovamente al centro dell’attenzione politica e accademica, l’infanzia continua a situarsi al margine delle preoccupazioni “serie” del mondo adulto. É un fatto che non ha bisogno, mi sembra, di prove ulteriori rispetto a quelle che quotidianamente si traggono dalla lettura delle pagine economiche e politiche dei nostri giornali. É tuttavia necessario rinunciare ad una lectio universale di questa assenza, che pretenda di generalizzare sistematicamente e in tutti i campi questa esclusione (...) del mondo dei bambini. É all’interno della tradizione della cultura occidentale, della quale la filosofia, quella con la ‘F’ maiuscola, é allo stesso tempo promotrice e prodotto, che possiamo tentar di comprendere l’ampiezza del problema. E anche in questo caso va ricordata l’assenza continua dei bambini dai testi classici della filosofia occidentale. Anche se non assenza della pedagogia, nel seno della ricerca di tekhnai educative che permettevano di “inquadrare” l’infanzia in una società o in un’altra, l’assenza dei bambini é più che altro esclusione dal protagonismo, dalla centralità del suo mondo specifico, dalla rilevanza epistemologica di questo modo di vita in relazione alla “veritá” come tale. Ma anche un’affermazione come quella appena accennata, rischia di riprodurre acriticamente slogan politico-pedagogici poco utili. Senza negare tale assenza e le sua gravi conseguenze per società ancora troppo “adultiste”, quello che si vuol fare é cercare, in una “discesa libera” nella storia del pensiero occidentale, segnali di “altre possibilità”, di equivoche presenze, di sorprendenti centralità del bambino e de suo mondo. Solamente un ritorno all’origine del pensiero occidentale permette uno sguardo allo stesso tempo ingenuo e profondo verso la contraddizione radicale dell’esistenza umana. In queste ricerca, la figura di un “divino bambino” emerge, riflessa nello specchio, da antiche favole da sempre raccontate. Raccontate ai bambini, sì, per dormire. Ma soprattutto agli adulti, perché possano capire. (shrink)

This article is an evaluative synthesis of my masters dissertation entitled “Body: possibilities of thinking and teaching philosophy: Philo-drama as an experience of formation”. This text proposes to think of the body in a specific relationship with philosophy, studying an aesthetic proposal – philodrama – which proposes dramatic games and textual transpositions to understand philosophical concepts. In what ways can philosophy in school contribute to the direction of a “hearing of one’s own body” making new forms of subjectivity possible so (...) that these new ways of “hearing”counterbalance the instrumentalization of the body or the idea of the body as an object of consumption? (shrink)

Russell Hoban’s famous children’s novel, The Mouse and His Child, centers around a child’s quest for family, community, and self-awareness. This paper works to describe the novel as philosophical insofar as the novel takes up themes and elements of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s essay “The Child’s Relations with Others.” Because the mouse and his father are joined at the hands, because they find their motion to be a problem, and because they work through ambiguity toward a loving community, the novel puts particular (...) emphasis on what Merleau-Ponty calls intercorporeality and the way a child’s perception of ambiguity can lead to a non-pathological engagement with others in a loving, thoughtful way. Ultimately, this paper argues that the novel ought to be read and taught to children because it represents to them the emotion, language, and desire of a child as being a catalyst even for adult growth. (shrink)

This article explores the meeting of two approaches towards philosophy and education: the philosophy for children approach advocated by Lipman and others, and Schmid’s philosophical concept of Lebenskunst. Schmid explores the concept of the beautiful or good life by asking what is necessary for each individual to be able to develop their own art of living and which aspects of life are significant when shaping a good and beautiful life. One element of Schmid’s theory is the practical application of philosophy (...) through the notions of Bildung, reflection, prudence and practical wisdom, as well as the requirement for each individual to take responsibility for actively shaping their life as an artwork. In this sense, each person is the artist responsible for living their own beautiful life. We argue that there are useful parallels between Schmid’s concept of the art of living and P4C, such as the ideal of a holistic philosophy that is “lived.” The pragmatic approach of P4C focuses on the embodied learner who practices critical, caring and creative thinking. Both P4C and Schmid’s theory are reminiscent of the Aristotelian notion of practical wisdom, which allows for an approach to an education for life that prepares students to develop their own art of living. (shrink)

According to a number of international organizations such as UNESCO, the development of critical thinking is fundamental in youth education. In general, critical thinking is recognized as thinking that doubts and evaluates principles and facts. We define it as essentially dialogical, in other words constructive and responsible. And we maintain that its development is essential to help youngsters make enlightened decisions and adequately face up to the challenges of everyday living. Our recent analyses of exchanges among pupils who benefited from (...) philosophical praxis showed that dialogical critical thinking comprises four thinking modes and six epistemological perspectives that range from the simplest increasing in complexity to the most complex . Relativism merits special focus in that a majority of the pupils’ interventions that we analyzed are situated within this perspective, and in that relativism is charged with both positive and negative meanings. In its positive meaning, it is associated with reflection, plurality and open-mindedness, but in its negative sense, relativism refers to arbitrary decisions, to indifference and the status quo. This is why we maintain that relativism must be transcended. In this respect, we suggest two series of open-ended questions that are designed to provoke a disequilibrium in pupils’ certainties and, by so doing, stimulate their reflection towards inter-subjectivity. These questions are associated with the diversification of thinking modes and the increasing complexity of these modes. (shrink)

RPC.2 The individual’s measure of consequences is proportionate to the circle of his outlook. His horizons may lie so near that he can only measure at short range. But, whether they be near or far, he can only judge of consequences as proximately or remotely touching himself. His judgment may err; his motive remains always the same, whether he be conscious of it or not. RPC.3 That motive is necessarily egoistic, since no one deliberately chooses misery when..

The attempt to convene a discussion about childhood suggests a plurality of educative issues and raises important problems in the context of basic education. To recognize children in their specificity, and to engage and encounter them beyond the discourses produced about them seems to be a challenge today, most especially in the field of childhood education. The large majority of educational discourses assume a notion of childhood as inserted in chronological time, associated with the future, and constituting a doubtful minority. (...) The objective of this paper is to understand what significations and meanings are configuring the discursive practices maintained among teachers about the childhood.I start with the hypothesis that, despite the reconstitution of meaning that has occurred in the field, educators still associate the concept of childhood and its formation with the idea of becoming adult, and presume to explain the notion of childhood technically, in terms of a body of “scientific” knowledge. The research described here is based on an inquiry that took place in various Childhood Education Centers of the Public Municipal Network of the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. Although it is unfinished, this research, based on interviews, suggests that teacher discourses inhabit two discursive temporalities, and two childhoods: on the one side, the affirmation of the same, of unification, of linearity; on the other, the affirmation of difference, of novelty, of the singular. Although they enunciate different meanings for childhood, these meanings are not in themselves contradictory. They do, however, function in some way to maintain a form of schooling that lacks sensitivity to children and a more affirmative relationship to childhood in general, and which encloses itself in an adult vision of what children’s needs might be the. I try to show that those needs exceed the specificity of the teaching and learning typically encountered in schools, and to evaluate to what extent they are affirmed by scholarly notions of childhood. (shrink)

In a situation of living-together such as an “ecole maternelle,” organized philosophical discussions help young children to construct their personalities in the context of the group, and thus promotes individual autonomy. This innovative methodology tends to promote in children skills of negotiation and capacities for self-restraint. It places the pupils in issue-situations that require working in groups, and coming to a reasoned understanding before proposing possible solutions. Philosophical discussions help children develop their own thinking processes, as well as increased fluency (...) in oral communication, such that they can be better understood by and better understand others. This paper is divided between a description of our activities in the shape of workshops that determine everyone’s role in such discussions and provide experimental practice in the discourse; and an analysis of the experience itself, which identifies possible problems in implementation, and proposes solutions. We make it clear that we do not oppose the imaginary and syncretic thinking of children to a discourse about the “real” or the “reasonable,” since kindergarteners tend to live in a world that does not separate the two, and it would seem injudicious to arbitrarily cut children off from a natural form of concept exploration and psychological functioning. Rather, what is needed is to teach children to better control and navigate within their own thinking; this will not be a result of repressing the imaginary but rather of becoming conscious of their own poetic process, which develops in connection with the growth of reasoning and awareness. (shrink)

The article presents an initial discussions held at the end of the project of citizenship education called Poli§ofia. In the project Poli§ofia the Municipal Council of the Children in the town of Rovigo and the counselors’ classes had been converted into the Community of Philosophical Inquiry, to develop in the students the argumentative and reasoning skills necessary for a public decision-making dialogue, through the implementation of the methodology known as Philosophy for Children . The P4C has been interpreted as a (...) teaching and educational support to promote complex thinking declined in its critical, creative and caring dimensions, considered fundamental for the development of active and reflexive citizenship. Starting from the words used by children in the letters written at the end of the project, I proposes a change of perspective in the relationship between Child and Cities as proposed in the UNICEF program "Child Friendly Cities". The change of perspective is justified in Habermas’ definition of the interests of knowledge: instrumental, hermeneutic and emancipatory. In this theoretical framework the philosophical dialogue becomes an dialogical, hermeneutic and emancipatory activity. The focus of this educational proposal is the meaning construction generated by the inquiry, a path that follows the arguments offered by participants during the dialogue, and recover the etymological meaning of the word community as a gift, in order to building the conditions for participation in public life based on a feeling friendship to oppose at the model of phobia that seems, however, to characterize the meeting with other and the coexistence in our society. (shrink)

That we treat children differently from adults is clear. The attitude of increased paternalistic standards can be seen in a number of cases – be it the rights which children have in terms of medical treatment, decisions about their lives which are left up to parents or guardians, or the prohibition of certain activities before a certain age. However, we can only treat ‘children as children’ if we can prove that this stands in great enough distinction from the adult. Either (...) it can be shown that children are significantly unique (and certainly so in relation to adults) such that different treatment on this basis is justified, or, if it cannot be shown that children are different to adults or we cannot say who is and who is not a child, then the second conclusion must be that we cannot justify children as deserving of paternalistic treatment, and must either reject paternalistic intervention altogether, or else look for a new criteria upon which to base the application of these increased paternalistic standards. The second of these conclusions is that which I will defend in this paper, and will argue that we replace the notion of childhood with that of developed agency. (shrink)

In this paper I explore what the P4C philosophical novel can contribute to deciding how we should use ethical rules in moral education. As I see it the philosophical novel urges us to regard ethical rule-following with some suspicion. Instead we are directed to appreciate the particular contexts and circumstances of ethical thinking, saying, and doing. But if we don’t teach ethics by the rules, then what is the alternative pedagogy? One possibility is to cultivate ethical expertise by analogy to (...) an epistemic skill model of practical activity, as some moral particularists have urged. Employing a skill model has significant implications for teaching ethics in a wide range of institutional settings where general rules and principles typically prevail. (shrink)

Abstract Two first grade teachers were trained in the use of a social cognitive model developed by the present author. The teachers were instructed to use the model in the naturalistic context of the classroom whenever interpersonal difficulties arose in order to increase the students? levels of interpersonal conceptions and social problem solving abilities. For the first 11 weeks, Class 1 was an experimental condition and Class 2 was a control. After the 11 week period, Class 1 was higher than (...) Class 2 in interpersonal conceptions, social problem solving, and moral judgment, but not in vocabulary. For the next 11 weeks Class 2 started the educational programme and Class 1 continued the programme. At the end of this period, Class 2 was equivalent to Class 1's scores after its first 11 weeks in interpersonal conceptions, social problem solving, and moral judgement. Class 1 maintained its original social cognitive gains. The findings support the model's effectiveness in promoting children's social cognitive development. (shrink)

Many philosophers believe that the relationship between a parent and a child is objectively valuable, but few believe that there is any objective value in first creating a child in order to parent her. But if it is indeed true that all of the objective value of procreative-parenting comes from parenting, then it is hard to see how procreative-parenting can overcome two particularly pressing philosophical challenges. A first challenge is to show that it is morally permissible for prospective parents to (...) procreate given that adoption takes us much closer to both environmental and social justice. A second challenge is to show that it is morally permissible for biological parents to parent their biological child given that other prospective parents are willing and able to do a much better job at furthering the child's interests. In this essay, I argue that there is value in procreative-parenting, and that this value is of sufficient magnitude so as to block both the case against procreation and the case in favour of child re-distribution. (shrink)

This article focuses on the notion of affectivity, which over the last few decades has become an increasingly popular lens through which to study various themes in the humanities and social sciences, notably with respect to labour. The notion of “affective labour” has been deemed to encompass both work that requires emotional investment and work that is intended to produce emotional responses yet explorations of such work, though varied in schope, have generally not widened their breadth to include the field (...) of education, inviting the question: Can educators and their pedagogical outputs be analyzed through the same affective lens used to study other professions? The Philosophy for Children program created by Matthew Lipman and Ann Sharp represents an interesting case study of education as affective labour since it involves not only live educative encounters with groups of children but also virtual ones portrayed through its curriculum of philosophical novels. This article positions the Lipmanian philosophical novel as a form of affective labour both in process and in delivery . Drawing on the ideas of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, it seeks to demonstrate how the philosophical novel captures the liberating potential of affective labour—relational autonomy within a strong community—while avoiding its negative outcomes of exploitation and alienation. In doing so, it strives to articulate what the philosophical novel has already enabled and what it should aim to make possible in its future renditions. The article begins with a brief account of affective labour as an opportunity amidst risk then proceeds to examine the philosophical novel as a writing endeavour that “authors” affect and subsequently “facilitates” affect among children engaged in collaborative dialogue. (shrink)

What is it about a person's becoming an adult that makes it generally inappropriate to treat that person paternalistically any longer? The Standard View holds that a mere difference in age or stage of life cannot in itself be morally relevant, but only matters insofar as it is correlated with the development of capacities for mature practical reasoning. This paper defends the contrary view: two people can have all the same general psychological attributes and yet the mere fact that one (...) person is at the beginning of a life and another in the middle of one can justify treating the younger person more paternalistically than the older one. Recognising the moral relevance of age, moreover, is crucial if one is to accommodate both the liberal moral ideal of respect for autonomy and our demanding educational aims, given that these otherwise come into conflict with one another. (shrink)

I wish to carry out a philosophical inquiry into contemporary intercultural public spheres. The thesis I will support is that the achievement of inclusive public spheres (namely, with respect to our European and Western experience, the accomplishment of democracy) largely depends on one’s willingness and capacity to foster an “appreciation of diversities” by first, enhancing policies and forms of cooperation between the citizens’ emotional and motivational resources, and then enhancing their cognitive competences. More specifically, my proposal is to understand such (...) an effort from the viewpoint of postWeberian responsibility, that is of an ethics and politics that overcome the traditional divisions between theory and practice, cognition and emotion, “Verantwortung” (responsibility) and “Gesinnung” (conviction), and therefore succeed in enhancing the citizens’ awareness and attitudes as – in Habermas’ words – “democratic co-legislators”. Fiinally, a case study of Matthew Lipman’s “Philosophy for Children/Community of Inquiry” succeeds precisely in embodying this cultural project. (shrink)

The article assumes that Lipman’s paradigm of ‘Philosophy for Children’ as a ‘Community of Inquiry’ is very useful in extending the range of philosophical practices and the benefits of philosophical community reflection to collective life as such. In particular, it examines the possible contribution of philosophy to the practical and ethical dynamics which, nowadays, seem to characterise many deliberative public contexts. Lipman’s idea of CI is an interesting interpretative key for such contexts. As a result, the article highlights the possibility (...) of understanding a CI essentially in terms of an ethics of responsibility. (shrink)

Betrayal trauma theory suggests that psychogenic amnesia is an adaptive response to childhood abuse. When a parent or other powerful figure violates a fundamental ethic of human relationships, victims may need to remain unaware of the trauma not to reduce suffering but rather to promote survival. Amnesia enables the child to maintain an attachment with a figure vital to survival, development, and thriving. Analysis of evolutionary pressures, mental modules, social cognitions, and developmental needs suggests that the degree to which the (...) most fundamental human ethics are violated can influence the nature, form, and processes of trauma and responses to trauma. (shrink)

From 2004 to 2008, a study was conducted with fifteen students who used philosophy on a regular basis during the past four years. Originally, the study was designed to examine how these students use their critical thinking skills on three school subjects, namely philosophy, science and history. They were observed within five problem-based learning activities. To complete the data collected, three focus groups were conducted. These interviews were designed to help students express their views on their role inside each school (...) subject involved in the study, on the epistemic conception they have for each of them and on the way they use their critical thinking skills inside of each. Pupils were also questioned about learning they perform in community of philosophical inquiry: Is it useful in other school matters? If yes, how? If not, why? Do they use it in their daily life? If yes, how? If not, why? The answers they have provided to these questions are revealing. According to them, it is in their everyday life that the teaching from philosophy is the most useful. Furthermore, among all the things they learn at school, it is those in philosophy that they use the most outside school. Those indications show the importance of integrating the community of philosophical inquiry into the students’ general education. Indeed, according to what they say, the philosophical practices are the school experiences that prepare them most for life. This last issue will be the focus of this paper.Entre 2004 et 2008, une étude a été menée auprès de quinze élèves ayant pratiqué, depuis quatre ans, la philosophie sur une base régulière. À l’origine, cette étude visait à examiner comment ces élèves mobilisaient leurs habiletés et attitudes de pensée critique à l’intérieur de trois matières scolaires, à savoir la philosophie, les sciences et l’histoire. Les élèves ont été observés à l’intérieur de cinq activités d’apprentissage par problèmes. Afin de compléter les données recueillies, trois entretiens de groupe ont été menés. Ces entretiens ont été l’occasion de les questionner sur les conceptions qu’ils ont de leur rôle à l’intérieur de chacune des matières scolaires impliquées dans l’étude, sur les rapports aux savoirs qu’ils y entretiennent ainsi que sur la place qu’ils accordent à l’exercice de leur pensée critique à l’intérieur de chacune d’elles. Les élèves ont également été questionnés sur les apprentissages qu’ils effectuent en communauté de recherche philosophique : Sont-ils utiles dans les autres matières scolaires? Si oui, en quoi? Si non, pourquoi? Ont-ils recours à ces apprentissages dans leur vie quotidienne? Si oui, en quoi? Si non, pourquoi? Les réponses qu’ils ont fournies à ces questions sont révélatrices. Selon eux, c’est dans leur vie de tous les jours que les apprentissages effectués en philosophie leur sont le plus utiles. Bien plus, parmi tous ceux qu’ils font dans le cadre scolaire, ce sont ceux effectués en CRP qu’ils mobilisent le plus souvent à l’extérieur des murs de l’école. Ces indications posent avec d’autant plus de pertinence l’importance d’intégrer les CRP à la formation générale des élèves, puisque, selon ce qu’ils affirment, les pratiques philosophiques sont les expériences académiques qui les préparent le plus à la vie. C’est sur cet aspect que portera l’article que nous proposons. (shrink)

Considering dialogue as a fundamental philosophical experience, this paper aims to understand the possibility of a radical and emphatic dialogic practice in the formation of the educator-philosopher. “Educator-philosopher” is the term used to detach the importance of a dialogic specialization in philosophy so that the teacher’s teaching practice becomes a philosophical activity, and he finds himself as a philosopher in the ways of philosophy. The transdisciplinary perspective announced is configured as an epistemologic field of a dialogue methodology practiced at all (...) ages of basic education. It has to do with an understanding of philosophy as an apprenticeship of appropriative thinking, which requires of the educator-philosopher a radical transformation, because only the one who learned to be a philosopher – the one who learned to investigate the "what" of things, investigating thoughts themselves – can favor the event of a dialogic practice whose focus is the apprenticeship of the articulator thought: to learn to learn with the seriousness of a child. (shrink)