Description
Philosophy with Teenagers offers a clear introduction to the theory and practice of the Community of Philosophical Enquiry (P4C). This book explains how P4C can facilitate young people’s exploration of key ethical concerns of our time, such as sustainability, justice, and intercultural and interfaith understanding . It considers why exploring such issues philosophically with their peers, can help young people with the process of growing up into confident individuals and responsible citizens. Further the book discusses the significance of philosophical enquiry to the educational needs of the 21st century.
The authors provide practical examples for practitioners wanting to develop philosophical enquiry in their context, including secondary teachers looking to implement new curriculum demands in compelling and inspirational ways. The book provides useful insights for all those working directly or indirectly, formally or informally, with young people including teacher educators at university level, policy makers, parents and social and youth workers.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface: Ann M. Sharp
Part 1: The Community of Philosophical Enquiry
Chapter 1: Background and history of P4C
This chapter will offer a brief background and history of the Philosophy for Children programme as developed by Matthew Lipman at the University of Montclair in New Jersey and as has developed in the UK. The original programme, later developed in collaboration with Ann M. Sharp, aimed to develop skills of sound reasoning, to raise awareness of philosophical concepts and problems and to nourish an ethical learning environment. In the Community of Philosophical Enquiry children and adolescents are have the opportunity to think together with their peers about the questions that have engaged human beings now and through the whole of history.
Chapter 2: Identity development in adolescence: parenting styles and the community of philosophical enquiry
This chapter explores how the work of the community of philosophical enquiry can facilitate identity development and so nurture confident young people who will live responsible lives.
Part 2: Hearing and responding to the experience of young people today
Chapter 3: Education and young people in the light of the impact of globalisation
This chapter considers the variety of experiences young people may have in Britain and the world today in the light of globalisation. It relates developments in current educational thinking about student voice and personalised learning, to desired outcomes for education which is fit for the needs of the 21st Century. We need to understand the situation of young people in order to appreciate the imperative to reform the way we are educating the next generation if we are to secure the well being of future generations on the earth.
Chapter 4: Building on hope, reforming the curriculum
This chapter discusses recent reports about our global future in terms of the environment and links this closely with questions of our ability to modify our behaviour It acknowledges the dangerous consequences of violent responses to human misunderstanding. We consider in addition, the connections between the influence that increasing globalisation is having on young people today and what skills and capabilities will be needed by the next generation in order to navigate their way to a sustainable future. Finally this chapter looks at recent examples of curriculum reform which have the intention of supporting young people.
Chapter 5: Education for a global imagination
This chapter will bring together sections 1 and 2. It links recent national and international moves to reform the school curriculum with other European and UNESCO initiatives and then makes a case for a key role for philosophy in secondary schools. The chapter will explain how embedding the Community of Philosophical Enquiry into the curriculum and developing the capacity for philosophical thinking can support young people in becoming imaginative and responsible citizens.
Part 3: Developing opportunities for philosophical conversations with young people
Chapter 6: Theory into classroom practice
This chapter develops some practical principles which can support the task of developing the community of philosophical enquiry in the secondary school. This includes practical suggestions for developing schemes of work together with some strategies for assessment and evaluation.
Chapter 7: Embedding the community of philosophical enquiry in cross curricular projects and themes
Chapter 8: Embedding the community of philosophical enquiry in cross curricular projects and themes
This chapter considers two practical examples whether the community of philosophical enquiry has been developed into cross curricular projects
* A model for education for Sustainability Science, Geography Ethics
* Creativity in the classroom. ‘Enquiry School’ Project.
Chapter 9: The philosophy club
Chapter 10: Opportunities for developing the community of philosophical enquiry into international linking
Chapter 11: Implications for teacher training and professional development
This section will explore the consequences of this changing approach to the secondary education structure. There will be consequences for both the initial training of teachers and the continuing professional development. Working with this process changes the way teachers relate to young people and the way young people relate to teachers.
Chapter 12: Student voice: case studies of students who have been involved in philosophical enquiry
Appendix
Further reading and websites
Bibliography
Author(s)
Patricia Hannam, Patricia Hannam is County Inspector for RE and History in Hampshire. As head of a large RE department in South Cumbria, she embedded an enquiry approach to learning and supported its development in other subject areas. She is an experienced SAPERE trainer and has written for SSAT and Professional Council for Religious Education.
Eugenio Echeverria, Eugenio Echeverria is director of the Latin American Centre for Philosophy for Children (CELAFIN), which publishes all the P4C materials used in Mexican schools. He has worked with P4C for over 30 years. Recently he has been advisor to the new Intercultural Universities developing across Mexico.
Reviews
This work by Patricia Hannam and Eugenio Echeverria is one of the first attempts to show us how we might use the Community of Philosophical Inquiry to go about a reconstruction of education that would render students the cognitive, social and emotional skills they need to live consciously and actively in a globalized world.
Ann Margaret Sharp, Montclair State College, USA,
Nurturing philosophical enquiry and developing international partnerships across schools ensure that young people explore the moral dimensions of global citizenship.
Olga Stanojlovic, Director, Schools in Education, British Council,
A timely and very welcome book, Philosophy with Teenagers shows how philosophical enquiry offers a way of developing and nurturing the skills and moral sensibilities needed to thrive as an adolescent in an uncertain and demanding age. Intellectually coherent, perceptive and bursting with good sense, it will be an invaluable source of inspiration for hard-pressed secondary teachers looking for practical ways to reconcile their own educational values, the demands of the 21st century classroom and a world needing as never before to find ways of talking and listening to its many peoples.
Dr Barry Hymer, Director of Still Thinking UK,
"One sees the experience of the authors shining through the text, the practical has been tested, and presumably works in certain circumstances with certain young people. It has the air of authentic education, which resonated with my own work both with young people and undergraduate students - I could imagine that it would work for me." Richard Davies, BERA, 2009.
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'This book will be of value to any school or teacher looking to develop the community of philosophical enquiry in their context and the book has many features which can be easily translated into practical settings and many other pointers for further developmental work. The section on different subjects raises further questions on how the approach could come to characterise the approach to study in that subject area... The book succeeds, in only 180 pages, in whetting the appetite and providing clear ways forward for the practitioner as well as thought through rationales. The combination of the two authors, one an experienced UK practitioner who is familiar with English school systems, the other a Latin American Director of a Centre for P4C, provides a welcome breadth which ranges from English policy to UN education developments. While it is written with the English curriculum in mind, it will have wider application'
ESCalate,
"Hannam and Echeverria offer an introduction to the 'community of philosophical enquiry' (P4C), a framework for teaching thinking skills. Such communities set the stage for teachers and students to become co-enquirers together in a safe environment where philosophical topics are discussed following the lead of student interest. Educators, mostly secondary teachers, find this method to be one whose exploration model complements the adolescent identity search and development. Likewise, students benefit from examining and practicing the kind of critical and clear thinking demanded by life in a changing global world. Opportunities are also suggested for applying philosophical inquiry to specific subjects, to cross-curricular projects, and to general classroom practice." -Eithne O'Leyne, BOOK NEWS, Inc.
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