Online SOPHIA Network Meeting – 28 February 2026
This year, we are holding the inaugural online meeting on February 28th from 10:15 to 14:45 CET.
The meetings main thread is of the AI as assisting tool for P4C in classrooms.
10:15-10:30 CET
Welcome from SOPHIA president Emma Swinn & Warm up game
10:30-12:00 CET
Margarita Jeliazkova – FROM PROMPTS TO PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS:
AI-ASSISTED DIALOGUE IN DEMOCRATIC P4C IN MULTILINGUAL CLASSROOMS
12:15-13:45 CET
Adam Sturdee – USING AI AS A COACH FOR ENQUIRIES
14:00-14:30 CET
Network Announcements
14:30-14:45 CET
Closing Session
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Programme
Prompts to Philosophical Questions: AI-Assisted Dialogue in Democratic P4C in Multilingual Classrooms
In this workshop I share how I use AI-assisted dialogue to support democratic P4C with children in multilingual classrooms, including refugee and migrant students. Starting from concrete classroom examples, we will explore how prompts can be transformed into genuinely philosophical questions, how AI can help bridge language gaps without taking over the dialogue, and what democratic, ethical and pedagogical challenges emerge along the way.
Margarita Jeliazkova is an educator and researcher in philosophy and political science. Trained in Philosophy for Children by Matthew Lipman and Ann Margaret Sharp, she has worked with high school students, teachers, adults, and, in recent years, with Ukrainian families in the Netherlands, combining language learning with civic and philosophical inquiry. Her doctoral research examined citizenship education and teacher roles across European contexts. She now explores how AI-assisted dialogue can enrich P4C by helping participants formulate better questions and reflect on their reasoning while keeping empathy and moral judgment central, and is developing a book that reframes critical thinking as structured conversation among people, texts, and collective intelligence.
Affiliation: Margarita Jeliazkova Training Services (The Netherlands)
margarita.jeliazkova@pm.me
Listening Back to Thinking: Using Transcripts and AI to Support Reflective, Dialogic Practice
Adam Sturdee is Assistant Headteacher at St Augustine’s Catholic College and co-founder of STAR21, the company behind Starlight, an AI-powered, transcript-based coaching platform for educators. His work focuses on dialogic teaching, Philosophy for Communities, and reflective professional learning grounded in classroom practice. His recent research on AI-supported coaching and transcript-based lesson analysis has been accepted for presentation at the BERA Teacher Education and Development Conference in 2026.