Day 1
Introductions
Emma opened the meeting, welcoming everyone in the room and online, and introducing the concept of finding the “true north”, and how we can help children, and each other, navigate a philosophical enquiry. The meeting happened at the library of the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków, Poland, thanks to our local member, Ewelina Grądzka, who organised all the logistics of the meeting (Thank you, Ewelina!).
Pete Worley – Navigating a Philosophical Enquiry
Pete encouraged us to think about the following questions, that can be asked any point in an enquiry (or at any point, in life!)
“Where are you now?”
“Where have you been?”
“Where are you going?”
Pete invited us to think about what does navigation mean?
Progress towards a goal?
But there are barriers and obstacles:
- We won’t necessarily all be going in the same direction
- Different people might want to go different ways
- Different interpretations of the question, so different starting points?
Is the destination fixed?
It was suggested by the group that a facilitator can orient the group by finding their “north and south” – in other words, the biggest point of conflict. A facilitator should be seen as a professional skipper of the ship. You’re there to guide others (and avoid the rocks), but not to decide where it goes.
Pete encouraged us to see philosophical discussions from a synoptic, or birds’ eye, view. Do children have this ability? Can we make more moves to encourage children to take a synoptic view?
Pete suggests we appoint mappers – who can scribe what has been said, so the group can review the progress (or lack of it?).
Wojciech Rutkiewicz – The Ark That Saved Us
Wojciech introduced us to his fantastic “choose your own adventure” philosophy story – set in the future and on a spaceship, the group battled practical decisions like “There’s a fire, do we secure the room, or a start an investigation?” and “the public are rioting at the imprisonment of the traitors. Do we succumb to their demands, or keep these traitors locked up?”
…to the underlying philosophical questions – if the public vote for capital punishment, should this be respected.
A really fascinating exercise that had us on the edge of our seat throughout.
Reflecting on the exercise, new questions about facilitation arose:
- How can we make sure practical questions serve, and lead to philosophical ones, and doesn’t distract from it?
- Do the binary choices present a difficulty?
Pieter Mostert and Joana Sousa – Neutralising Strategies
Pieter and Joana invited us to think about when we’ve thought “I had to remain neutral.”
- When should I remain neutral?
- How do I remain neutral?
- What does neutrality mean?
They shared common views about neutrality:
- Being impartial
- Being object
- Avoid influencing the group
Their proposal: Being neutral is being involved.
How?
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Neutralising early consensus. If this happens, it might mean everything has not been explored. So we can encourage them to widen the field of enquiry.
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Sparking up the dialogue – using “what ifs”, or playing “devil’s advocate.”
The group also provided several ideas on how they try to remain neutral but be involved:
- Balancing presence and absence
- Choosing thought-provoking, conflict-filled stimuli
- Being transparent over the fact you’re playing devil’s advocate. Tell them you’re doing it, and you’ll never have to tell them again
- Get into character as a special, opinionated guest
- Say less, and encourage periods of silence, so people don’t jump in and interrupt thinking of others
Where’s the space for honesty? Can children feel cheated if they say something that the teacher tells them can’t be said?
Grace Lockrobin – Navigating Environmental Enquiry
Have you ever enquired about the environment? General consensus among the group in the room was no, or not as much as we’d like to. Why is this? Answers varied:
- Not exciting or novel
- Feels hopeless
- Get a lot of it elsewhere
- Too big
- Easy to blame and shame
- Depressing
But, Grace told us, we need to equip children to think about the big questions.
Why do philosophy on the cliff-edge of environmental disaster?
Grace told us how epistemic freedom – being able to raise opinions, must go hand in hand with responsibility for the evidence and arguments on which their judgments rest.
New To The Field presentation: Laura Van den Broeck
Laura told us about the Kadet project – which encourages intergenerational dialogue about sensitive topics the lives of children and their families.
Day 2
Jason Buckley – North, South, East or West?
Jason began by introducing us to philosophical “affordances” – things that skillful facilitators are looking for – detailed in the PowerPoint – and well worth a future paper!
Jason invited us to create our own dialogues, using the ABABC format. With two characters providing reasons for either side of a question, and a third person bringing in an alternative, left-field statement.
Lukasz Krzywon – Thinking With Hands
Lukasz drew our attention to the importance of embodiment, play, and creativity in philosophical enquiry. And shared lots of ways to bring philosophy into our bodies: see slides.
We also got to create our own “philosophical compass” with plasticine, legos, and wooden blocks.
Tuukka Tomperi – Philosophical dialogue as a compass
Tuukka talked us through a history of P4C in Finland, and his work on the children’s television show Morality Meter – where children were played a dramatic scenario containing philosophical questions, and asked to give their opinions at various points.
Eef Cornelissen – Do questions have limits?
Eef talked to us about value-loaded topics – exploring how an approach based on philosophical dialogue can help teachers tackle sensitive value-loaded controversies.
We are looking forward to our next meeting in 2024. If you’re not a member of SOPHIA yet consider joining us here and get access to other resources and updates. Memberships are available here. You can find the contact details of all the speakers on the member’s map on our home page.
*Official language of SOPHIA charity is English. You can use Google translator in Chrome to translate any page to your language.