Exploring the connections between Philosophy for Children and character education: Some implications for moral education? (original) (raw)
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Philosophy with Children as and for Moral Education
Kindheit – Bildung – Erziehung. Philosophische Perspektiven, 2021
Philosophy with Children as and for moral education With his leer of sympathy he [Mr. Forbes, the teacher] contemplated the small, smiling, incommunicable, deprived morsel of humanity beside him. Curdie's smile was notorious: other teachers called it sly and insolent; it was, they said, the smile of the certified delinquent, of misanthropy in bud, of future criminality, of inevitable degradation. Forbes refused to accept it as such; to him it indicated that this slum child, born so intelligent, was not only acknowledging the contempt and ridicule which his dress and his whole economic situation must incur, but was also making his own assessment of those who contemned and ridiculed. The result was not a vicious snarl, but this haunting and courageous smile. It was possible, it was likely, that the boy would ultimately become debased. Who would not, born and bred in Donaldson's Court, one of the worst slums in one of the worst slum districts in Europe? There rats drank at kitchen sinks, drunkards jabbed at each other's faces with broken bottles, prostitutes carried on their business on stairheads, and policemen dreaded to enter. Most children brought up there were either depraved or protected by impenetrable stupidity (Jenkins, 1989, p.2). Here, in the beginning of Robin Jenkins' book The Changeling, we see various versions of 'the child'. The child, latent with badness, ordained to be worthless. The child with intelligence, stymied by circumstance. The child, as observer, as cynic, looking at the world with wisdom beyond his years; the puer senex (Cunningham, 2006). The child both as victim and not. The child, with potential; potential to overcome the context in which he finds himself. And it is the adult, Mr. Forbes, the boy's teacher, who sees this potential, who sees an opportunity to rescue the boy Tom Curdie from his surroundings and to preserve a childhood innocence he thinks is there. Mr. Forbes, in the remainder of the book, sets out to do just that. He seeks to lift Curdie from the sanctuary of what he knows by taking him on holiday with his middle-class family to the countryside where innocence and childhood can blossom. As Forbes sadly discovers, any innocence that was once there cannot be recovered and is ultimately lost in the final and tragic scenes where Curdie, recognising his own lack of childhood innocence or that what awaits him in adulthood is far from desirable, takes extreme action to avoid fulfilling the potential Forbes may have recognised in and for him. This sense of the child as potential is one that pervades the academic literature in the field of childhood studies and philosophy of childhood (
Islamic Education, 2018
The present article aims at identifying the opportunities and threats of religious and moral education in the philosophical curriculum for children based on the goals of Islamic education and training. To do so, we used descriptive-analytical method with the approach of text analysis. The research domain includes the scientific sources related to the subject and the high documents in the realm of education and training, especially the Natio\nal Document of Education as well as the opinions of the experts and authorities in the field of research; we used purposeful sampling method for the research. To evaluate the findings, we prepared a questionnaire based on the text analysis and handed it out among the authorities and experts specialized in the sphere of research. The findings show that the opportunities in philosophical curriculum for children in the realm of religious and moral education including reinforcement of willingness to seek truth and liberality, preparing the ground for knowing, developing individual abilities, reinforcing individual dynamism and nurturing moral perception. The threats in that curriculum in the abovementioned spheres include diffusion of skepticism, leaning towards dominance of thinking and weakness in commitment to morality in all affairs. Considering these opportunities and threats assists the policy-makers and programmers of the educational system of our country to take an intelligent approach to properly exert the philosophical curriculum for children.
Exploring the context of teaching character education to children in preprimary and primary schools
Social Sciences & Humanities Open
The objective of this study was to explore the contents of moral and character education for children and the pedagogy or approach employed by parents and teachers to teach character and moral education for children. The study was conducted in 18 schools found in East Gojjam, West Gojjam and Awi administrative zones. Preprimary and primary school teachers (N = 272) and one of the parents of children (N = 272) participated in the study. Concurrent mixed design was employed and quantitative and qualitative data were gathered using questionnaire and document analysis respectively. Descriptive statistics was employed to analyze the quantitative data and thematic analysis was applied to analyze qualitative data. The study found that among the six categories of character (caring, honesty, emotional intelligence, responsibility and respect) parents emphasized on teaching children to be honest (M = 2.6,SD = 0.46) and responsible M = 2.48,SD = 0.38) to their actions and behaviors. Teachers give high emphasis for teaching children to be respecting and caring to others and to Fairness (M = 2.62, SD = 0.43) and Respect (M = 2.63,SD = 0.37). Advising is the most frequently used common approache used by parents and teachers. Besides, using fairy tales with animal characters and songs are mostly found to be important approaches to teach character education about right and wrong behaviors to children. The study reveals that there are pieces of moral and character contents included across different subjects. Yet, there is a challenge in providing character and moral education as a separate subject in schools and failure of parents and teachers to be good role models for children. This implies that the Ministry of Education shall plan character and moral education to be offered as a separate subject for preprimary and primary school children and parents and teachers need to work in collaboration to teach character and moral education for children.
The Case for Philosophy For Children In The English Primary Curriculum
2016
The introduction of the new National Curriculum in England, was initially viewed with suspicion by practitioners, uneasy about the radical departure from the previous National Curriculum, in both breadth and scope of the content. However, this paper will suggest that upon further reflection the brevity of the content could lend itself to a total re-evaluation of the approach to curriculum planning in individual schools. This paper will explore how, far from creating a burden of extra curriculum content, Philosophy for Children (P4C) can in fact be a driver for the whole primary curriculum. With the renewed focus on Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development (SMSC) in England, it will investigate the potential for P4C to engage and enhance these areas, which often are neglected or side-lined in the primary curriculum. It will consider the benefits to a class, and indeed school, of creating communities of enquiry and how they can influence school ethos, values and vision. The p...
Moral Development : A Case for Character Education
2008
This paper makes a case for character education as a model for moral development. It essentially gives the state of art of the literature on character education by incorporating recent findings, for example, in the area of when does moral education begin. It summarizes criticisms against the dominant and influential moral education models values clarification and Kohlberg's cognitive stage theory of moral development, and argues for an Aristotelian virtue-ethics approach to moral development and education. The role of religion is also discussed in the context. Some remarks on implementing a workable and effective character education program is given in the conclusion.
A philosophical approach to moral education
Journal of Philosophy in Schools, 2016
Moral education needs to be distinguished from moral training and to find its way into the school curriculum. It should meet academic standards relating to knowledge and understanding of the moral domain in much the same way as do other areas of study. This paper briefly explores the aims, subject matter and methods of such an undertaking from a philosophical point of view. The approach helps to overcome the common dichotomy in which students are regarded as moral beings so far as their general conduct is concerned and as amoral beings when it comes to the subject matter that they study. When integrated into the curriculum, it brings out the moral aspects of various areas of study and assists students to understand them.
Journal of Educational Psychology Studies, 2016
The aim of present investigation is the study about effectiveness of teaching “philosophy for children” (P4C) on student’s moral development. In order to this aim two classroom in grade five in a primary and male school were selected by random selection. One of these classrooms as experimental group taught in 9 session of P4C. 16 students in any classrooms selected for interview by random selection. moral reasoning was examined (level of moral development, moral autonomy, subjective moral reasoning) of this children in pre test and post test in control and experiment group by parallel forms of Kohlberg and Piaget moral dilemmas and clinical interview of children’s moral reasoning after their judgment. But multiple covariance analysis didn’t show any significant difference between moderated post tests in any of variables so there didn’t prove any hypothesis of this study. It seems that the execution of “philosophy for children” in Iran education tissue needs to more sever manipulation and more consideration.
Chapter 10: Philosophy for Children
Developing Active Learning in the Primary Classroom, 2013
This chapter introduces the practice of philosophy for children. Whilst best practice requires undergoing professional development training, it indicates how practitioners can develop techniques that are useful in the classroom. Some context is provided to understand the philosophy for children movement and from this it is emphasised that a practitioner's attitude is as important as their skill. Two case studies are provided from contrasting settings. One school in the east end of London begins philosophy for children from nursery age and sees it as vital in building a community and individual aspiration. The other school is in a rural, south of England setting and for them philosophy for children is at the heart of producing tomorrow's citizens. The chapter concludes with references and suggestions for future reading.
Child, Philosophy and Education : discussing the intellectual sources of Philosophy for Children
2007
The study analyzes the theoretical basis of the Philosophy for Children (P4C) program elaborated by Matthew Lipman. The aim is, firstly, to identify the main philosophical and pedagogical principles of P4C based on American pragmatism, and to locate their pedagogization and possible problems in Lipman's thinking. Here the discussion is especially targeted to the thinking of John Dewey and George H. Mead as well as Lev Vygotsky, whom Lipman himself names as the most pivotal sources for his own thinking. On the other hand, the study aims at opening up new perspectives and thematizations on P4C from the viewpoint of the continental tradition of thought. The essential principles of P4C connected with reasonableness and judgment are ultimately interpreted as a neo-Aristotelian effort to contextualize philosophy by tracing it back to moderation, the man's ability to consider and solve problems that he meets in practical life kata ton orthon logon – by doing right things in the rig...
Practice and Theory in Systems of Education
Douglas Martin (an editor) wrote a memoir in New York Times about Matthew Lipman, the founder of philosophy for children, today’s classic thinker. Lipman’s death brought attention again for the philosophy for children’s status among professionals. Later one of the most prestigious international educational periodical review, the Journal of Philosophy of Education published a special edition - on account of Lipman’s death - about the analysis of present and future problems of philosophy for children. Paul Standish, the editor in chief, enhances Lipman’s thought in the Introduction, if the ability to think critically was not established in childhood: it would be unlikely later to flourish. Hence, he hit upon the idea of teaching philosophy to children, and the course that he developed spread, in its original or derivative forms, to more than 4,000 schools in the United States and more than sixty foreign countries, its materials translated into forty languages. The question has to be a...