Abstract

SANTI, Marina. Doing philosophy in the classroom as community activity: a cultural-historical approach. child.philo [online]. 2014, vol.10, n.20, pp.283-304. ISSN 1984-5987.  https://doi.org/10.12957/childphilo.2014.10205.

One of the most traditional ways to teach philosophy in secondary school is a “historical approach”, which takes a historicist view of philosophy and uses teaching practice based on teacher-centred lessons and textbook study by students. Only recently a debate on different approaches to teach philosophy is developing, considering the discipline as practical and dialogical activity to be fostered in the classroom. What could “doing philosophy” mean in the classroom from an instructional perspective? What are the premises and constraints that allow for the transformation of philosophy from a discipline into a community activity? In this paper a teaching model based on cultural-historical theory is proposed and discussed. The model is composed of three levels of specification of the activity, from lower to higher, which correspond to three different pedagogical structures of philosophical practice in an instructional context. Each level is composed of seven fundamental dimensions that highlight the meanings, the constraints, and the tools implied and developed in philosophizing as socio-cultural activity. Finally, if and how Philosophy for Children should be considered as an activity appropriate to the model and its educational aims is discussed.

Keywords : Activity Model; Teaching Philosophy; Philosophizing.

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