The new British Columbia curriculum is centred on three core competencies: communication (which includes communicating and collaborating); thinking (which includes creative thinking and critical/reflective thinking); and personal/social (which includes personal awareness and responsibility, positive personal and cultural identity, and social awareness and responsibility).
These core competencies are almost a perfect reflection of philosophy for children pedagogy; as such, P4C has close connections to each of the core competencies and their sub-competencies. In this blog post, I will look at the communication core competency.
Students engage in informal and structured conversations in which they listen, contribute, develop understanding and relationships, and learn to consider diverse perspectives.
BC curriculum on “communicating”
[Students] regulate the group’s interactions together, mutually encouraging one another, creating space for marginalized voices, and applying constructive strategies to navigate through misunderstandings, struggles, and conflict.
BC curriculum on “collaborating”
These excerpts could just as easily be describing philosophy for children. As part of a “community of inquiry” – the group of learners who share and grow together – students develop their ability to listen for understanding, consider wildly different opinions and perspectives, and nurture meaningful classroom relationships. Philosophical discussions require a certain calibre of social discourse, and because of the high engagement level of the lessons, this type of discourse is certainly achievable. This can’t help but positively spill over to other parts of classroom life.
I want to emphasize the value P4C places on what the BC curriculum calls “marginalized voices”: in philosophical discussions, marginalized voices and lesser-heard perspectives are incredibly valuable. When students speak in one voice, discussions are stunted and unproductive. When students bring their various perspectives, life experiences, and knowledges to bear on discussions, the group is richer for it.
“You begin to respect people for what their views are, never mind whether they’re opposing to yours or contrary to yours. You’re going to have different opinions sometimes and maybe you need for someone to have a different opinion for you to accept that maybe some things are unsolved sometimes.”
British elementary student, on P4C learning
Another important aspect of P4C is in its conflict resolution. Students can be competitive and perceive a philosophical discussion as something to be “won.” Interestingly, they are not wholly wrong. However, it is also important to not dogmatically cling to a position which your classmates have demonstrated is lacking, fallacious, or incomplete:
We can judge our progress by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers, our willingness to embrace what is true rather than what feels good.
Carl Sagan
Competition is not a bad thing in the P4C classroom. We should encourage vigorous and respectful debate. We want students to argue passionately, but rationally, for their positions. When conflict arises, we must remind students about the fallacy of attacking the person instead of the argument, and how if they are attacking the student, it is a strong indication their argument is weak. The conflict resolution skills they learn in the P4C classroom are applicable outside of the classroom as well: on the playground, in the home, etc.
Students develop shared understandings of information, issues, situations, and problems in pursuit of common purposes and goals.
BC curriculum on “collaborating”
Students may speak with different voices, because a multitude of voices is the grist for the philosophical mill, but they work collaboratively towards the common goal of philosophy: the critical interrogation of ourselves and our world.
Resources:
BC’s core competencies: https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/competencies
An unusual way schools can create ‘safe spaces’ for learning (Washington Post): https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/12/15/an-unusual-way-schools-can-create-safe-spaces-for-learning/
Philosophy for Children in the British Columbia Classroom 