Philosophy Curriculum Research Articles

The conundrum in the collective indian psyche regarding teaching philosophy in schools

India now constitutes approximately 17% of the world’s population and has a high proportion of younger people. Philosophy for school children aims to create better citizens of the future. In this article, I establish the need to teach philosophy to children in schools, especially in India. Subsequently, I discuss the readiness of Indians to accept philosophy in the school curriculum, their conundrum in understanding the need for philosophy in a school setting, and the East-West dilemma concerning the teaching of philosophy in schools. The concept of self-realization is important in education. Socrates claimed that an unexamined life is not worth living. However, the self-realization concept of the West differs from that in India. While the former perceives self-realization as a way to construct a good individual, the latter has always emphasized the cessation of the individual and focused on the incomprehensible truth human languages cannot capture. Western philosophy is concerned with questioning, inquiry, and the problems of philosophy. The East is concerned with bringing such questioning to an end. Matthew Lipman focuses on increasing curiosity, accelerating the thinking process, teaching logic and formal reasoning, and the intellectual enhancement of children. Indian philosophy, yoga, and meditation are all concerned with the cessation of consciousness. The key question concerns the approach one may choose to adopt in teaching philosophy – accelerating or decelerating the thought processes of children? Indian parents are the primary decision-makers in their children’s education, and sometimes throughout their careers and lives. Unless clarity emerges in the Indian and global community regarding this issue, there is no clear starting point for teaching philosophy to children in India. This article aims to raise critical awareness among global citizens regarding this conundrum in the collective Indian psyche. Unless the world’s psyche is inserted into the place of the Indian psyche, the great barrier between the West and the East regarding philosophy in the school curriculum cannot be bridged.

تصور مقترح لتضمين بعض قضايا المرأة في محتوى منهج الفلسفة A proposed Scenario to Include some Women's Issues in the Content of the Philosophy Curriculum

تصور مقترح لتضمين بعض قضايا المرأة في محتوى منهج الفلسفةتناول البحث موضوع: تصور مقترح لتضمين بعض قضايا المرأة في محتوى منهج الفلسفة، وقد تحددت مشکلته في ضعف في تضمين بعض قضايا المرأة في محتوى منهج الفلسفة ، ويمکن بحث مشکلة البحث من خلال إجابة السؤالين الآتيين:س 1: ما قضايا المرأة التي يجب أن يتضمنها محتوى منهج الفلسفة بالمرحلة الثانوية؟س 2 : ما التصور المقترح لتضمين بعض قضايا المرأة في محتوى منهج الفلسفة بالمرحلة الثانوية؟واقتصر البحث على الحدود الموضوعية التالية: بعض القضايا الخاصة بالمرأة :(قضايا سياسية – قضايا اجتماعية - قضايا ثقافية – قضايا اقتصادية-قضايا صحية)، وکتاب (مبادئ التفکير الفلسفي والعلمي) المقرر على طلاب الصف الأول الثانوي طبعة (2020م -2021 م) .کما استخدمت الباحثة المنهج الوصفي، وذلک عند تناول الإطار النظري للبحث ولوضع تصور مقترح لتضمين قضايا المرأة (قضايا سياسية – قضايا اجتماعية - قضايا ثقافية – قضايا اقتصادية-قضايا صحية) بمحتوى منهج الفلسفة. This research deals with the topic: “A proposed scenario for including some women's issues in the context of the philosophy curriculum,” and its problem was identified in “including some women's issues in the context of the philosophy curriculum. “The answer of the research problem can be determined through the following two questions : Q1: What are the women's issues that should be included in the philosophy curriculum at the secondary stage? Q2: What is the proposed scenario for including some women's issues in the context of the philosophy curriculum at the secondary stage? The research was limited to: Some issues related to women: (political issues - social issues - cultural issues - economic issues - health issues), and a book (Principles of Philosophical and Scientific Thinking) scheduled for students of the first secondary grade (edition of 2020 -2021) , and also employed the descriptive approach, when dealing with the theoretical framework of the research and to develop a proposed scenario to include women's issues in the context of the philosophy curriculum.

The @Filosoclips project: teaching feminist philosophy through popular culture in Spain

ABSTRACT This paper outlines the results of the multimodal education project @Filosoclips, carried out during the 2017/2018 academic year in the Faculty of Education at Universidad de Málaga with students aged 16 and 17. The purpose of this project was to test the possibility of introducing texts by feminist thinkers into the official curriculum of the Philosophy course offered in Spain’s Compulsory Secondary Education and Baccalaureate programmes. The project constituted an educational innovation with students in the first year of the Spanish Baccalaureate programme, focusing on three basic objectives: to experiment with the addition to the high school reading curriculum of texts typically included in feminist studies; to give visibility to female philosophers in the Philosophy curriculum; and to conduct a practical trial in the classroom of the use of popular culture (music videos, in this case) as an instrument for developing critical thinking skills. Notable among the results of the project was the recognition of the importance for female students of incorporating major women philosophers and exploring topics that directly affect them in their everyday lives, such as the International Women’s Day marches across Spain on 8 March.

Editorial: On Curriculum Philosophy, Thinking, and Theorising in South African Higher Education Transformation

Editorial: On Curriculum Philosophy, Thinking, and Theorising in South African Higher Education Transformation

Kuantum Öğrenme Çevresi Ölçeği Geliştirme Çalışması

Kuantum kelimesi, siyah cisimlerdeki isima uzerine gerceklestirilen arastirmalarda, “enerji obegi/paketi” olarak tanimlanmistir. Kuantum, enerjinin isiga donusumunu saglayan etkilesim olarak one surulmustur. Kuantum ogrenme, basarisi ogretimde ispatlanmis teori ve yaklasimlarinin etkilesimli bilesimi olarak tanimlanmaktadir. Turkiye’de 2004 senesinde reform sayilacak degisimlerle, kuantum teorisi bilimsel felsefe olarak egitim programlarina girmistir. Bu yuzden, kuantum felsefesinde temellendirilen program; butuncul, yaratici ve elestirel dusunen, coklu bakis acisina sahip bireylerin yetistirilmesini amaclamaktadir. Dolayisiyla ogrenme ortamlarinin kuantum ogrenme modeline uygun bir sekilde duzenlenmesi onemli gorulmektedir. Bu calismanin amaci, bir sinifin kuantum ogrenme cevresine uygunlugunu olcebilen bir olcme araci gelistirmektir. Kuantum ogrenme modeline uygun sekilde 7. sinif ogrencilerine uygulanan programa iliskin nitel veriler incelendiginde kuantum ogrenme cevresine dair verilere rastlanmistir. Verilerin incelenmesinden ortaya cikan kodlar ve literatur taramasi kullanilarak kuantum ogrenme cevresine iliskin bir madde havuzu olusturulmustur. Olusturulan madde havuzu uzerinde gerceklestirilen guvenirlik ve gecerlilik incelemeleri sonunda toplam 6 boyut ve 26 maddeden meydana gelen Kuantum Ogrenme Cevresi Olcegi ortaya cikmistir.

Políticas curriculares no Rio Grande do Sul (2009-2018): do triunfo neoliberal à captura do ensino de Filosofia

Neste texto, prospectado sob a égide dos estudos foucaultianos, com enfoque maior no campo da Educação, reflete-se sobre currículo e ensino de Filosofia com base em três frentes de trabalho: 1) a problematização do neoliberalismo empreendida por Michel Foucault em 1979; 2) as conexões entre neoliberalismo e Educação; 3) os desdobramentos dessas relações de poder e saber no ensino da Filosofia, por intermédio da análise discursiva de parâmetros curriculares dispostos no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul entre 2009 a 2018. Do interior desses movimentos, conclui-se que o projeto neoliberal vem flanqueando os currículos da Filosofia escolar ao longo da última década nesse Estado com sucessivas investidas, ora colocando-a a serviço da cultura do empreendedorismo, ora eliminando-a do currículo.

The Examination of the Decline of Philosophy of Education with Institutional Theory: A Focus on the Last Three Decades

Many symposia and special journal issues over the last several decades have been devoted to concerns over the decline of philosophy in teacher education programs. I pursued an answer for my doctoral project and found institutional explanations are rarely invoked in the “decline literature.” I have sketched here the theory, and have shown it to be equally applicable to the last several decades of this literature. I argue that institutional organizational theory (IOT) shows how teacher education institutions have changed over time in a way that ultimately rendered the environment less and less hospitable to philosophy of education curriculum and faculty. Particular attention is paid to the educational context of Ontario, Canada, but I also include the wider American and British decline literature. In the final pages I offer de-institutionalizing solutions that, if realized, could provide a new soil in which philosophy and other humanities fields could take root again in teacher preparation programs.

Interview with Pr Bruno Poucet, Professor of sciences of education, University of Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France

Born in 1952, Professor of sciences of education at the University of Picardie Jules Verne (Amiens, France), Bruno Poucet is a French renowned historian of education in France. He has conducted and realized various researches on education (and their interactions with politics) in contemporary France. He worked on the history of education policies of the French ‘Fifth Republic’ (founded in 1958 by Charles de Gaulle) at the national level and in the Picardie region - where he lives and works. He is interested in the history of secondary and higher education, private sector of education, school secularism (called in France «laïcité») and the teaching and curriculum of philosophy. Eclectic in his areas of interest, he has also been deeply committed in the functioning of the French education system. He has been a long-time teachers’ union deputy leader at the CFDT (currently the major trade union in France). In 2011, he has created the CAREF research unit (Centre Aménois de Recherche en Éducation et en Formation, specialized in educational studies), at the University of Picardie Jules Verne.He has kindly accepted to be interviewed by Ismail Ferhat, Associate professor at the University of Picardie Jules Verne (CAREF research Unit/Teachers training school of Amiens), for the review Espacio, Tiempo y Educación, in spite of the difficult sanitary situation in France, in April 2020.

Philosophical Questions about Teaching Philosophy: What's at Stake in High School Philosophy Education?

What is at stake in high school philosophy education, and why? Why is it a good idea to teach philosophy at this level? This essay seeks to address some issues that arose in revising the Ontario grade 12 philosophy curriculum documents, significant insights from philosophy teacher education, and some early results of recent research funded by the federal Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in Canada. These three topics include curricular disputes, stories of transformation from philosophy student to philosophy teacher, and preliminary research findings. All underscore the importance and complexity of philosophy education, as well as its challenges and benefits, including the cross-curricular benefits philosophy education imparts to the study of other subject areas. Collectively, these serve as a springboard for asking some larger and broader philosophical questions about the teaching and learning of philosophy, and they demonstrate that this is a promising new area of study and of teaching for philosophers of education. I will raise some questions about philosophy that will help frame the next stage in the SSHRC research into the teaching and learning of philosophy in Ontario, and which I contend are new and fundamental questions to ask about philosophy itself.

Sensus communis: The relevance of Medieval philosophy in the 21st century

This article addresses the underestimation of Medieval philosophy in the contemporary curriculum by engaging its very origins in the ‘postmodern’ dislocation of philosophy. The leading question is what would be the prospects in the 21st century of reorienting Western philosophy from its idea-historical sources, which would include its ancient traditions and the Medieval exposition, as well as the Renaissance elucidation thereof. Critically engaging the works of numerous ‘postmodern’ philosophers (Lyotard, Derrida, Foucault, Baudrillard, Virilio and Zizek) as well as critics of the ‘postmodern’ departure from traditional philosophy (Gadamer, Habermas, Jameson, Norris), this article argues for the re-establishment of the late Medieval notion of sensus communis , both as common sense and community sense. Against this backdrop, the article reappraises Medieval thought within the context of sensus communis to combat the contemporary dislocation of philosophy, by raising the possibility of the presentation of first-order judgments via sensus communis in a new pursuit for wijsbegeerte .

POLICY IMPLEMENTATION OF CURRICULUM IN PLURALISTIC MULTICULTURALISM BASED PHILOSOPHY (FALSAFAH) AND RELIGION STUDY PROGRAM AT UNIVERSITAS PARAMADINA

Nowadays, religious pluralism (pluralistic multiculturalism) in Indonesia is proliferating. Universitas Paramadina is allegedly a university where Nur Cholis Madjid (Cak Nur) fosters religious pluralism ideology through the curriculum of pluralistic multiculturalism-based philosophy and religious studies programs. This is proven normatively through the curriculum policies in the Philosophy and Religious Studies Programs based on the Decree of the Paramadina Rector Number SKEP-006a/Rek/UPM/I/2008. Those curriculum policies contained the Lecture Program Unit (Syllabus) and the Outline of Teaching Program. They were also allegedly that religious pluralism was taught in one of its courses named the Seminar on Madjid’s Thought. The purpose of this study was to describe and analyze: The implementation of a pluralistic multiculturalism-based philosophy and religious studies program curriculum policy at Universitas Paramadina. The results revealed that the implementation of pluralistic multiculturalism-based philosophy and religious studies programs at Universitas Paramadina used Grindle theory as a grand theory. Normatively, Universitas Paramadina has not been proven to develop, spread, and teach religious pluralism. This means that the policies of the philosophy and religious studies program curriculum are not based on pluralistic multiculturalism but instead based on Islam of the Archipelago. That means a new concept is open, analytical, and critical to building the character of independent thinking in the fields of Islam, Indonesia, and Modernity. Moreover, field data show that Madjid never taught religious pluralism but a plurality. It means the attributes or character of Paramadina’s lecturers and students to understand religious diversity without the belief that all religions are equally true. This is the cause of “misperception” between religious pluralism and plurality for the younger generation/successors (lecturers and students) of Universitas Paramadina. After Madjid died, the younger generation/successor misinterpreted religious pluralism with this plurality, so students did not understand the core meaning of religious pluralism and plurality.

A Comparative Study on Critical Thinking in Education: From Critical Reading Attainments to Critical Listening Attainments

The importance of this study is to contribute to the development of curriculums and materials to be prepared for Turkish course in order to serve the needs of the era by creating a critical listening attainment list from the philosophy of the national curriculum and from the education programs of countries which are considered successful internationally. In the literature, there have been very few studies on critical listening skills. In addition, in the educational programs of the countries, there is a lack of achievements in listening skills, especially in critical listening skills. Besides, there is no mention of exams that measure critical listening skills. It is stated in the literature that reading and listening skills are understanding-based skills that serve the same purpose. Therefore, in this study, the attainments of the countries towards reading skills were examined and adapted to listening skills. A draft form was created on the basis of opinions of the experts in the field and a critical listening attainment list was created. It is believed that the “Critical Listening Attainment Framework”, which was created with the aim of improving students’ critical listening skills, will contribute to the field of education.

Community of philosophical inquiry as a method in early bioethical education

‘Community of inquiry’ is a concept introduced by Charles Sanders Peirce, and was originally restricted to the practitioners of scientific inquiry. M. Lipman (2003) expanded this concept by moving it into a broader setting – the classroom. He converted the classroom into a community of inquiry, in which “students listen to one another with respect, build on one another’s ideas, challenge one another to supply reasons for otherwise unsupported opinions, assist each other in drawing inferences from what has been said, and seek to identify one another’s assumptions.” David Kennedy (2012) claimed how “Lipman, taking a cue from his friend and mentor Justus Buchler, developed and called ‘community of philosophical inquiry’— the most appropriate way to practice with students the philosophical curriculum that he had developed. This idea is also a philosophical one, and it has a farreaching implication, both practical and theoretical – for learning theory, for theory of teaching, for argumentation theory, for theory of knowledge, for group psychology, for moral education, and perhaps, ultimately of the greatest importance, for grounded political theory and practice.” In various and different approaches to philosophy with children, we can find a community of philosophical inquiry as one of the main methods. For instance, a community of philosophical inquiry is one of the methods used in Ethics and Values Education: “The term ethics and values education (EVE) applies to all aspects of education which either explicitly or implicitly relate to ethical dimensions of life and are such that can be structured, regulated and monitored with appropriate educational methods and tools.” (Strahovnik, 2015). Leaning on the cited definition of EVE, if we focus specifically on the issues of the contemporary world with its ecological crisis and rapid digitalization, we can set the relation of the ethical dimensions of life as a bioethical question. Using methodology for the community of philosophical inquiry as a basis for bioethical questioning, we can satisfy the need for innovative and effective bioethical education from an early age. In my lecture, I will show how the community of philosophical inquiry can be connected withbioethical topics such as the relationship between man and wild animals, man and plants, man and nature in global, etc.

Curriculating from the Black Archive – Marginality as novelty

The Black Archive is constitutive of works of literato such as JT Jabavu, Nontsizi Mgqwetho, the artist Gerard Bhengu, and musicians like Busi Mhlongo. This collective resource, which should play a crucial role in curriculating, compels us to consider two questions when rethinking Philosophy curricula: First, pedagogically, how does the epistemic access that the Black Archive affords our context facilitate justice? Second, and importantly, how does it help up in achieving justice? I, here, answer these questions in three moves. First, I consider certain key propositions; namely that decolonisation facilitates epistemic access, and that epistemic access in turn facilitates justice (historical, epistemic, and social). Second, I demonstrate how these propositions require the Black Archive (in South Africa) in order to be held as valid. I demonstrate this claim in Philosophy using Dumile Feni’s African Guernica, and in Curriculum Studies, through analysing W. W. Gqoba’s Ingxoxo Enkulu Ngemfundo. I conclude by prescriptively outlining uses for/of the Black Archive, guarding against misappropriations that derail justice as I treat it, safeguarding this corpus from epistemic arrogance that maintains that knowledge is valid only insofar as it is developed by white scholars.

A study of literacy teaching in state primary schools of Northern Cyprus: literally critical?

ABSTRACT This study explores current literacy education in state primary schools of Northern Cyprus from the perspective of primary school teachers. The Northern Cyprus context is unique in that it has recently been receiving a considerable number of immigrants and state primary schools now include students from various backgrounds. This then raises the need for exploration of the issue of how literacy is taught to these culturally and socially diverse students. Data were collected from 20 classroom teachers teaching at 10 different schools in five districts. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather data. The findings of the study suggest that the recently developed curriculum for primary state schools is not successfully implemented in practice, and that teachers still tend to possess traditional teaching practices, which do not allow student voice or critical pedagogy, as well as integration of students’ home lives into the lessons, but are exam focused. A possible reason for this seems to be teachers’ lack of awareness of the philosophy of the new curriculum.

Modernization of Education in Pakistan: A Case Study

Abstract The developing world is grappling with diverse educational trends in their quest to become globalized and to keep pace with the developed world. This quest is by no means the prime motivator. What is of importance is the development of the nation in terms of the moral, political, socio-economic, and cultural perspective. Education theories which emerged in the efforts for the ‘modernization’ of education, namely the Common World Educational Culture Theory and the Globally Structured Agenda for Education Theory have been the subject of evolution over time with the present trends favoring post modern education or as it may be simplified, ‘experiential learning’, that is, learning by doing. The developing world is grappling with these educational trends. This paper attempts to examine the ‘modernization’ of education in Pakistan with reference to an institution selected for the purpose of the study. In this context a premier business institution has been considered as a point of reference and its curriculum and education philosophy have been examined through document analysis to determine what education theory it subscribes to and what its aims are in the future. The document analysis of the catalog and curriculum led to the conclusion that the education philosophy of the institution is modern; however, extracurricular activities are inclined to be postmodern.

Methodological contexts of comparative research in reference to Chinese philosophy

The claim that modern philosophy – to be taken seriously – should be multicultural, may appear somewhat controversial. Nevertheless, it seems rather obvious that a lot of classic domains of Anglo-European philosophy need to be rethought in the context of a newly shaped contemporary philosophical canon. Some of the vital questions of modern philosophy cannot be answered without referring to the paradigms of intercultural philosophy. One of the most promising disciplines on a global scale is comparative philosophy. But if one wants to extend philosophical curriculum, one has to create a kind of new language to introduce new ideas in a mind-opening way. This paper discusses the comparisons made by scholars who became literally and metaphorically translators/transmitters of Chinese cultural works for the Western readers: David Hall, Roger Ames or François Jullien. The problems addressed in the article include the problematic status of a researcher undertaking comparative studies in philosophy and the very defi nition comparative philosophy.

The Extent of Confronting Sectarian Intolerance in the Philosophy Course from the Perspective of Second Year High School Pupils in Tebessa, Algeria

The purpose of this study was to find out whether the philosophical texts of the Philosophy Curriculum for the second year of high school pupils in Tebessa, Algeria were written in a manner that makes pupils able to overcome sectarian intolerance. It also aimed to find out the role of the evaluation process in terms of tools and methods adopted in the course to achieve the set objectives of the curriculum. To achieve the study objectives, the descriptive exploratory method was followed, and a questionnaire for data collection, developed by the researcher, was used after checking its validity and reliability. The study sample consisted of (190) male and female pupils, who were selected by the complete census method. The findings of the study revealed that the content of the curriculum relatively supports the ability to overcome sectarian intolerance, and that the process of evaluation contributes to the achievement of the intended objectives. The study concluded the need to pay more attention to the philosophy texts that strengthen the ability to overcome sectarian intolerance among pupils. The study also stressed the need to increase the number of times for evaluating the philosophy course.
 Keywords: philosophical thought, philosophy curriculum, religious intolerance, evaluation, high school education.

Early Childhood Curriculum Reform in Saudi Arabia Conceptualization of Theories in Early Childhood Curricula: Three Models

In recent developments, early childhood education in Saudi Arabia have captured political and governmentalinterests, conceiving the promising returns of investing in early years. This research has adopted an analyticaldescriptive approach through content analysis of curriculum philosophy (theories and principles) of three models ofearly childhood curricula. They were chosen deliberately, considering the elements of the curriculum, effectivenessin implementation and or achieving the desired learning outcomes. The selected curricula include, HighScope,Foundation Stage, and Te Whāriki. The analysis concludes that there is a general agreement about the structure andelements of EC curriculum. Perspective of children as learners, teachers’ roles, learning environment are wellprofound in the three curricula supported by theoretical and empirical evidence. Nevertheless, challenges are stillconsidered as opportunities for revising and evaluating our beliefs and understandings in order to maintain theimprovements in ECE profession and to cope with the education reform in Saudi Arabia.

Greek Aristotelianism in the seventeenth century: uncovering Cesare Cremonini in the works of Theophilos Korydalleus

This case-study concerns Greek Aristotelianism in the seventeenth century. More specifically, my article deals with the impact of neo-Aristotelianism upon the formation of the philosophical curriculum of the Greek-speaking world during that period. I examine aspects of the – rather understudied – influence exerted by Cesare Cremonini on Theophilos Korydalleus. The terms ‘authentic interpreters’/‘authentic interpretation’ and ‘νεώτεροι’ in Theophilos’ works of natural philosophy not only highlight the influence of Cremonini, but also hint at critical views held by the former, as well as terminology which is either absent or has a different meaning in treatises of the latter.