In this paper, I will explore the role of care in nursing and nursing education. I will examine ethics of care as proposed by theorists Jean Watson, Nell Noddings, and Mathew Lipman. Although engaging, Watson’s theory of care is underappreciated and lacks practical pedagogical application. Noddings and Lipman supply the missing pedagogical practice in their strategies to implement caring thinking in the classroom. Lipman stresses interactive strategies as effective techniques for teaching caring and caring thinking. Philosophical inquiry provides an ideal way for nursing students in seminars and clinical post-conference, to examine the role of caring in contemporary nursing. The community of inquiry holds promise as a practical strategy to infuse more caring into nursing education

There may be a possibility that young women find it difficult to express their female ways of knowing and gain equal public representation. This leads us to reflect on a possible gap between a well developed theory of justice in P4C and pedagogical practices of social influence. In this paper I attempt to reflect on these questions provisionally, and suggest an initial theoretical framework for discussing such issues within the P4C movement. First, I report some personal and social narratives that were described by individual writers. These narratives reflect, mostly, female authors’ personal histories from childhood to adulthood, and how their carrier choices were influenced by prevailing constructed gender roles. Second, I discuss the theory of the Community of Inquiry (CI) and examine the possibilities for self transformation and women liberation that this practice allows. Third, I introduce Hannah Arendt’s argument that education should not attempt to present the future of the human condition as finite and resolved.

This paper explores prevailing notions about gender, based on African realities, and their possible implications for the education of girls. Without ignoring the basic parameters articulated by European and American feminist movements, this paper takes the stand that an understanding of gender in the context of African realities is fundamentally connected to questions about the cultural identity, social experience, interests, and priorities of the purveyors of feminist knowledge or feminists positions across the African continent. The main goal is to render the concept of gender, and subsequently girl-child education, within an approach that is more realistic and consistent with the history of women vis-à-vis their station in present-day, postcolonial Africa.

This paper testifies the crucial importance of Philosophy for Children for Emotional Growth. It begins by establishing the open ended character of emotional processes, showing how feminist philosophers have criticized the fixed conception of negative valence of certain emotions, and how, ultimately, the normative structure of emotions is open to modification. Then, it shows how talking about emotional processes and emotional situations can foster emotional growth once we understand that the acquisition of language and emotional vocabulary is one way to best capture the openended character of emotions. Finally, attention is turned to Philosophy for Children. Taking as an illustration the emotion of hope and its importance to inquiry, the paper concludes by examining in what way P4C both benefits and reinforces the previous insights about emotion theory.

Philosophy for Children educators facilitate awareness, wonder, and the practice of philosophy. I consider that this is a process of a ‘turning-towards’ philosophy. Through a consideration of this process in three works of Western philosophy; Plato’s Symposium; Augustine’s Confessions; and Beauvoir’s Ethics of Ambiguity; I will conclude that aspects of desire permeate the process of turning towards philosophy. I then focus on a reading of Luce Irigaray to elucidate desire within philosophy. This feminist reading of desire can become a pedagogical focus for Philosophy for Children educators.

This paper will outline some of the ways in which traditional pedagogies facilitate ‘masculine’ ideals of thinking, while excluding and denigrating the ‘feminine’. It will be shown that unlike traditional pedagogies, P4C reconstructs the gendered dualisms (e.g. mind/body, reason/emotion, individual/community) that form the basis of traditional gender stereotypes. Consequently, P4C reconstructs traditional gender stereotypes and challenges the traditional gendering of school subjects, which contributes to the underperformance of girls in math and science and the devaluation of the ‘feminine’ arts and humanities. It will also be shown that P4C may be particularly valuable for overcoming the current concerns about the educational performance of boys, especially in relation to literacy and behavioral problems.

For the feminist movement to be effective, certain requirements are crucial. This entails a re-evaluation of the feminist movement’s language, approach, myths, and politics. Clearly, language must take on more a substantive definition, specifically, a fundamental understanding of economically disadvantaged and/or women of color’s plight. If prudence is shown vis-à-vis the will to demonstrate an awareness of all women’s plights; and, as Celie from The Color Purple posited, “a voice say to everything listening,” the way will be found to ensure the enfranchisement of all women because - IF THE WILL IS ABSENT, THE WAY WILL NOT BE FOUND!

The writings of Simone Weil support a feminist philosophy of education that locates freedom in self-determined creative work within contexts of necessity. In particular, Weil’s discussion of Force, the Good, Work, Method and Time provide criteria for a feminist philosophy of education, in terms of educational ends and means. Philosophy for Children is relevant to each of these themes, in various ways.

This paper has arisen directly from the authors’ experiences of leading professional development for teachers in Philosophy with Children (P4C), a well-established approach to teaching that seeks to foster philosophical questioning, critical thinking, reasoning and dialogue. The paper expresses deep concern about the anxiety shown by many teachers regarding discussion of controversial issues in the classroom, and some teachers’ avoidance of open-ended dialogue about works of children’s literature that might touch on taboo subjects. The authors suggest that this is indicative of a desire for risk-free teaching and is a form of censorship that marginalises children and limits their learning and academic freedom. The exercise of such avoidance and control reduces the potential for schools to become more democratic institutions. Drawing directly on their practice of working philosophically with children in school, as well as on philosophical and other sources, the authors of the paper offer a range of arguments about the processes of education to support the case for challenging such forms of censorship and risk avoidance.

This paper argues that Philosophical Intelligence is an important form of human intelligence best developed in children through philosophical dialogue. Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI) is critically reviewed. MI theory, it is argued, requires clearer definition and a theory of pedagogy to make it practical and applicable in school settings. This paper focuses on redefining the concept of existential intelligence and on identifying a workable pedagogy through which it can be developed. Gardner’s ‘existential intelligence’ is redefined in terms of Philosophical Intelligence and linked to the historical tradition of philosophical enquiry. The community of enquiry provides a pedagogical basis for developing Philosophical Intelligence. Ways that Philosophical Intelligence can be developed through communities of enquiry are illustrated with recent research using ‘Stories for Thinking’ and other forms of stimulus.

The term “childhood animality” has been used to refer to those associations between children and animals that are based on their affinities toward one another, their seeming psychological similarities, and also on the “cultural stories” of likeness between children and animals that find their way into our philosophical, psychological, and political history. Here I examine how the concept of childhood animality underlies some philosophical accounts of moral responsibility. In order to capture what we ought to say about the morally relevant differences between children and animals I argue that we should accept an account of “diminished” moral responsibility—a kind of responsibility ascription that has the consequence that some children are responsible for particular actions but not others, and animals are not morally responsible for any actions.

In 2004 the Norwegian government undertook a project with philosophy in primary and lower secondary schools. The aim was to find out whether and in what form this is possible and desirable. The project started in autumn 2005 and will conclude in summer 2007. Results so far have been promising.

This paper provides a critical examination of philosophy teaching at all levels in Australian schools. It looks at the points of difference and congruence between the States and Territories and argues that teaching philosophy through the philosophical community of inquiry should be a core element of school curricula. In spite of a growing interest in philosophy in schools, its documented benefits and the high degree of “fit” with a revised curriculum in at least two states, the implementation of philosophy by education departments has been relatively slow and piecemeal. There are discrete courses available in upper secondary school, but approaches differ between the various education jurisdictions. The work of the Federation of Australasian Philosophy in Schools Associations, and the branches at State level, provide training and networking for interested educators but this has not translated into policy. An education policy that gives a central role to good, clear philosophical thinking will give children the tools they need to succeed in the rapidly changing cultural, technological, social and cultural environment of the 21st Century.

The use of music videos as a pedagogical tool continues to be a new idea in schools and institutions of higher learning. Although there has been substantial literature and empirical studies on teaching using music and films, there is no known in-depth study to date on using music videos in teaching. This paper explores the possibility of teaching philosophy using music videos by highlighting the benefits of teaching using films and music. By focusing on two areas of philosophy - critical reasoning, and epistemology - the paper explores the possibility of using two popular music videos for the teaching of deductive and inductive arguments, and the concept of knowledge.