Categories of Goals in Philosophy for Children
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Categories of Goals in Philosophy for Children Anastasia Anderson1
© Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Philosophy for children is an educational movement that includes diverse goals that are not always clearly articulated by theorists and practitioners. In order to navigate the multitude of aims found in the philosophy for children literature I propose distinguishing between the following categories of goals: aims of education; educational goals of philosophy for children (internal and external); goals of a community of philosophical inquiry (procedural, epistemic, encounter, community, telos); goals of the facilitator; and goals of the children. The definitions of these various types are given along with some examples of how the distinctions between them can be of aid in understanding the approaches, criticisms, and practice of philosophy for children. Keywords Philosophy for children · Aims of education · Instrumentalism · Facilitation · Community of inquiry …without continual, reflective discussion of aims, education may become a poor substitute for its best vision. (Noddings 2005, p. 76)
Introduction Philosophy for children is a pedagogical movement that began over five decades ago with the work of Matthew Lipman and Ann Margaret Sharp who argued vigorously and persuasively for the importance of introducing philosophy into schools and developing classroom communities of philosophical inquiry. Their influential theoretical work is widely studied, and their curriculum materials are still in use today. However, as more people engage children in philosophy, the ways of doing so are changing to fit different cultural, political,
* Anastasia Anderson [email protected] 1
Department of Philosophy, University of the Fraser Valley, 33844 King Road, Abbotsford, BC V2S 7M8, Canada
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and philosophical perspectives. The proliferation of distinct approaches to doing philosophy with children has been described as a shift from ‘Philosophy for Children’ as a method to its current status as a movement with two or three different stages1 (Vansieleghem and Kennedy 2011; Johansson 2018). These stages are distinguished not only by variations in elements of practice in the classroom (and other settings2), but also by the differing goals and epistemological commitments of the practitioners.3 Unfortunately, the diverse aims of philosophy for children programs that contribute to making them distinct are not always clearly stated or fully elaborated. The lack of clarity about the goals of philosophy for children has the potential to present problems for advocates called upon to defend the movement, for anyone who wishes to understand theoretical and practical differences within it, and for those who wish to develop and improve their own practice. Gregory (2013) urges theorists to articulate the objectives and standards of their programs, noting that “there is no meaningful consensus about the proper aims of precollege philosophy education, and few of the aims that have been advanced h
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