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Gender And Sexuality Education Philosophy with Children Reflections on Pedagogy

RHEA KUTHOORE

Oct 10, 2021 · 8 min read

The focus of this post will be to share details about the different pedagogical approaches that are important to keep in mind while doing philosophy with children. If you are curious about questions such as --can children do philosophy? If so, then how? Why is doing philosophy with children crucial? Why is it referred to as ‘doing’ rather than ‘teaching’? -- then kindly see the ‘philosophy’ section of ‘Blurring boundaries.'

One way to begin paying attention to philosophical thinking is by exploring the nature of ‘philosophical’ or ‘open’ questions. A wonderful way to do so is by encouraging children to write down questions that they wonder about.

As they share their questions, they can discuss together, what the nature of their question are, i.e is it a question that can be answered by our knowledge of history such as, 'when did India get independence from the British?' or is it a scientific question such as, 'what are the molecules contained in water?' or is it a question pertaining to geography such as, 'what is the distance from Chennai to Madurai?'

Besides the more obvious nature of questions, they must also think about: what may be the underlying assumptions in these questions? Or, what other questions are related to these questions?

For instance, the question about India’s independence gives rise to questions relating to the meanings of independence itself, such as, 'what does independence mean or feel like? Who or what is an independent country or person?' The question of molecules and water gives rise to questions such as, 'is water equal to two molecules of hydrogen and one molecule of oxygen or is there something more to the nature of water?'

In such ways, they will themselves derive questions that are ‘philosophical’ and ‘open’. Our responsibility, as facilitators, is then to simply highlight how the aforementioned questions are:

1. Continuously pondered upon by people and are hence, never ‘resolved.’ 'What is time?' is another example of such a question.
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2. Those that do not have only one possible answer and instead, have various perspectives.

“Thinking about thinking: if thinking about how to add and subtract correctly or how to speak correctly is good, thinking about how to think correctly is good too”
&
“Thinking about electricity helps us understand it better, thinking about our thoughts helps us understand ourselves better!”

- Harry Stottlemeier's discovery

Once children get a grasp on the nature of philosophical questions, we can plan classes according to two important criteria:
a. what are the questions that are relevant to their lives?
b. what skills are necessary to think well and see different perspectives?

How can we plan our classes or what can we keep in mind while planning our classes?

First and foremost, we rely on how children think about or theorise their experiences and beliefs in response to a philosophical question. To do so, they must be introduced to thinking tools such as: reasons, hypotheticals, examples, and logic. Moreover, facilitators must simultaneously be acquainted with employing these tools to enable children to see possible fallacies and loopholes in their arguments or beliefs.

Next, it is important to introduce content/material that engages children in ways of thinking and perspectives that are not considered in their responses and discussions. This can be done through a story, a poem, a quote, a game/activity, a film, or anything else.

Click the image to open the document that shares essential tips for facilitators

Crucial to the conversation that unravels in the classroom is an understanding of what it means to a. ‘listen’ to other’s perspectives, b. provide valid and sound reasoning, and c. express our thoughts and feelings.
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When it comes to 'voicing' our thoughts and feelings, we must pay attention to different kinds of expression, including silences, and sensitise ourselves to the uniqueness of each child in the classroom.

When it comes to listening, I draw from from Sharon Todd:

‘Thus in thinking about the ethical significance of encountering the Other in education, it is important to explore the quality of listening that goes on in these encounters. What is it that we listen to when we listen? What effects does listening have on the one who listens? How does listening contribute to establishing a specifically ethical attentiveness to difference?

Through her work, Todd argues for an understanding of listening that ‘does not merely respect the Other’s alterity but indeed attends to it.’ Such an attending, for her, involves:

What is unshareable: ’When narratives are listened to, more than words are at stake. There is the embodied presence of the one who speaks. Listening means attending not only to what is transparent in communication, what it is we can share (a common language, a proposed world in common) in the moment someone speaks, but also to what is unshareable (the Other’s meaning, the command of the alterity of the Other). It is not that these unshareable moments are incidental to speech or are simply a failure of mutual understanding. Rather, they accompany all speaking situations by virtue of the fact that someone speaks.’

Surrendering: 'When I listen, I surrender myself to the Other’s dense plots, to the profound idiosyncrasies that mark her speech as bearing her own historical relevance without knowing how or why, and I yield to her appeal to me to respond and welcome her.'

Attending to, rather than understanding, difference: 'When I listen, I face difference, pay heed to it, and attend directly to its presence. Listening, in this view, does not have as its aim of understanding difference (“getting to know the other”); this would fix difference in time, turning it into a constant against which all my responses could be measured (“once I know you, I will know how to respond”). Instead, listening always already occurs because of the presence of difference, and it lies prior to any understanding that we can make of the Other’s speech. That is, difference reveals itself in the moment that someone speaks, and listening is implicated in the very revelation of difference that speech engenders.'

Possibility of changing: 'In effect, to listen and to bear this pain also says to the other “I can change.”'

How can we, as facilitators, create conditions of learning that recognise the importance of what is unshareable, what it feels like to surrender, what it means to attend to difference, and what opening up to the possibility of change feels like?

One way to do so is by paying attention to the emotional responses shared by the children. As Todd suggests, using the example of guilt but equally applicable to other emotional responses, we can think about our responsibilities as facilitators in the following ways:
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‘Can we recover an understanding of guilt that seeks not to deny or repudiate its affective power but instead considers the significance of such affect for moral action? Might we, as teachers, resist the urge to denounce our own and others’ guilt in order to think carefully about how guilt is implicated in making reparation and in assuming responsibility for deeds that we may not have committed ourselves? Teachers, then, are compelled to ask, how can my response to my students’ suffering, refracted through their declarations of guilt, be itself responsible? To this end, there is a need to be open to and nonjudgmental about the guilt expressed by students. Such openness means attending to the saying of student declarations in such a way as to encourage a more open dialogue about the place of affect in one’s moral life.’

Click the image to open the document that shares essential tips for facilitators

RHEA KUTHOORE is an educator who is passionate about facilitating philosophical and feminist thinking amongst young people.

Thinking Rhizomatically

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