History, Theory and Practice of Philosophy for Children

Saeed Naji is an Iranian scholar, trained in physics and philosophy of science, and is a faculty member at the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies (IHCS) in Tehran and a specialist in Philosophy for Children. He and various colleagues introduced P4C in Iran around the turn of the century, and he founded the Philosophy for Children Research Department (FABAK) at IHCS, with the goal of producing an appropriate version of the program for the Iranian people, as well as organizing academic activities in this area. Dr. Naji, founder of the Philosophy for Children (P4C) movement in Iran, trains teachers and school administrators in P4C, provides workshops for students in schools, university students and professors, and has co-founded a peer review journal, Thinking and Children under the aegis of FABAK. He has written nine books in Persian about P4C. Naji's Iranian P4C website is: www.p4c.ir. Rosnani Hashim is Professor of Social Foundations of Education at the Faculty of Education, International Islamic University Malaysia. She founded the Centre for Philosophical Inquiry in Education in 2006 which has now been renamed The Centre for Teaching Thinking. The Centre actively promotes the Wisdom (Hikmah) Pedagogy which is a version of the P4C Program in Malaysia. She has translated Lipman’s Pixie and Elfie, authored three P4C story books and a monograph for teachers on using the Hikmah Pedagogy. Her other works include Educational Dualism in Malaysia (1996), Teaching Thinking in Malaysia (2003) and Reclaiming the Conversation: Islamic Intellectual Tradition in the Malay Archipelago (2010). She is presently the chief editor of the IIUM Journal of Educational Studies.

Preface
Introduction
List of Contributors
Table of Content
List of Figures and Tables

Historical, Philosophical and Theoretical Roots1. The Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children (IAPC) program

2. Brave Old Subject, Brave New World

3. Philosophical Novel

4. Philosophy in School Curriculum

5. P4C and Rationality in the New World

6. Doing Philosophy with Children Rejects Piaget’s Assumptions

7. The Difference between P4C and PwC

Specialized uses of philosophical dialogues

8. Teaching Science and Morality Via P4C

9. New Approach in Teaching Philosophy and Ethic in Schools

10. P4C and Picturebooks

Theoretical concerns of philosophy for children

11. Showing Children can do Philosophy

12. Reasonableness instead of Rationality

13. Necessity of Truth in the Community of Inquiry

14. P4C Stories: Different Approaches and Similar Applications?

15. The Contribution of Philosophy to the P4C Movement

Philosophy for children worldwide

16. P4C in Denmark Per Jespersen

17. Cultural Elements and Philosophy for Children in Norway

18. Philosophy in Schools: An Australian Perspective

19. Teaching Philosophy and Ethics in Japan

20. P4C in the Context of Muslim Education

21. Islamic Tradition and Creative Dialogue

22. Philosophical Games for Children and Thinking Skills

23. Philosophy of Childhood from a Latin American Perspective

Conclusion

24. Philosophy for Children: Where are We Now?

25. Postscript