INSTITUTE OF PHILOSOPHICAL PRACTICES (France)

8th International Summer Seminar
"Practicing Philosophy"
La Chapelle St André - Burgundy, France
August 5th -  11th  2013

Every summer, in the little village of La Chapelle St André (Burgundy - France), gather about 30-40 persons involved in philosophical practice (students, teachers, professors, counselors, trainers) in order to reflect on their work and improve professionally. For seven days, in English, these philosophy practitioners coming from the five continents will participate to different workshops, lead workshops, analyze and evaluate them, theorize about the different issues involved.

In this context, philosophy is not any more an academic activity centered on the history of ideas, and one does not come simply to narrate what he does in his home country, but get acquainted with the many ways of philosophizing, as an activity constitutive of the mind and the self. Philosophy with children, philosophical consultation, philosophy workshops, Socratic dialogue, etc., one is introduced to the many forms and variants of such an endeavor. It is not so much knowledge that is at stake here, but acquiring and developing skills. How to conceptualize, how to problematize, how to deepen understanding of given ideas, and especially how to create a situation where this activity can be induced, is the main focus of the work.

Of course, Socratic maieutic is a key methodological point, but as well dialectics, analytics, community of enquiry, constitute as many entries and matrices to define the work. If they wish so, participants can facilitate a workshop, a situation which provides an occasion for a practitioner to show how he works and get some critical feed-back on his work and his methodology, so one becomes more conscious of his own options and activity. Since the atmosphere of this seminar is open, inclined to both rigor and diversity, it creates a context where one can really express his view instead of hiding behind the usual pseudo-consensus where "everything is fine and we are all great". In this sense, the idea is to recreate the context of antique philosophical schools, or the gymnasium as described by Plato, where one could challenge other's ideas and oneself be challenged. In the peaceful atmosphere of a small French village, accompanied with good food and good wine, walks in the beautiful surrounding woods and visit to the medieval site of Vezelay, one can truly devote oneself to philosophical encounters and reflection.

All practitioners interested in presenting their work and holding a workshop during this event are invited to send their proposal. The purpose of this seminar is to exchange, discover, experiment and develop practices.

This seminar does not require previous philosophical training. It can be an initiation to philosophical practice, or a deepening of the activity. Participants come from different parts of the world, and join for professional or personal reasons, in order to work on a practice that is applicable to many contexts: teaching children or adults, management, individual consultation, N. G. O. activities...
The duration will be one whole week, from August 5h - 11th, and the cost will be 600 Euros, including the workshops, food and accommodation in a private room. For people who are on a tight budget, this can be reduced to 350 Euros if you accept "camping style" accommodation. Our Institute can accept some people free of charge who have financial difficulties, but are highly motivated.

You can read theoretical texts and watch videos of the practice on the following websites - English section:

www.brenifier.com
http://www.pratiques-philosophiques.com/

If you wish to be informed of the seminar and workshops of the Institute of Philosophical Practice, you can send an email to Isabelle Millon at the following address: i.millon[at]club-internet.fr

Training at distance with I.P.P.

For those who are interested in training in philosophical practice with the I.P.P., this is now possible at distance through the utilization of the Skype technique and by proposing diverse exercises. Anyone willing to engage in such a program can contact us at: i.millon[at]club-internet.fr The work can take place either on an individual or group basis.

The Centro de Estudos Filosóficos (Center for Philosophical Studies) is organizing courses on P4C in three islands from the Azorean archipelago: S. Miguel Island in April and March; Terceira Island in July, and Faial Island in September.

These courses have an interdisciplinary structure, having sessions on Philosophy, on Philosophy for Children, on Literature for Children and on Education and Artistic Expressions.

The courses addresses teachers, degree students and anyone with interest on children’s education. Each course has 25 to 30 hours, with theory sessions and practical sessions.

Further information can be request to: magdac[at]uac.pt

Recent years have seen the passing of the three great pioneers in the Philosophy for Children (P4C) movement: Matthew Lipman (2010), Ann Margaret Sharp (2010), and Gareth Mathews (2011).  In appraising their monumental work and legacy, scholars have tended to focus solely on the impact Lipman, Sharp, and Matthews have had on educational philosophy and theory.  In addition to these areas of scholarly contribution, however, all three devoted considerable effort to the construction and reconstruction of the philosophical curriculum.  In this regard, Matthews experimented with short philosophical stories and offered interpretations of countless works by other authors in the light of his view that good literature provides children with the material for forming philosophical questions and dialogue, while Lipman and Sharp both pioneered the intentional use of the philosophical novel as a way of both initiating and teaching children to do philosophy in classroom settings.  But important questions remain about the philosophical novel for children, not only with regard to its function as the curricular centerpiece of P4C, but about the theory and practice of narrative in both education and philosophy, the location of the novel within the history of philosophy, and the future of the philosophical novel and curriculum in pre-college philosophy.

Lipman saw his own philosophical novels for children as “models of doing philosophy that are clear, practical, and specific.”  In this sense, teaching philosophy requires more than exposing students to its logical form—that is, it’s most distinctive and essential qualities—but also to its function and the circumstances of its emergence and practice.  Thus philosophical novels are a way of “dramatizing philosophy” that allow students to both recognize and assimilate its praxis.  This Lipmanian understanding of the philosophical role and its role in education has been celebrated and championed by some scholars (eg., De Marzio, Kennedy, et al), while criticized and tempered by others (eg., Murris, Hand, et al).  Given the diversity of current perspectives on the philosophical novel, the time is ripe for furthering the conversation on the history, theory, and prospect of this highly significant and contested area of philosophical and educational inquiry.

The Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children (IAPC) is calling for papers that explore the theoretical and pedagogical significance of the philosophical novel for children, to be presented at the IAPC group session of the 2013 American Philosophical Association Eastern Division Annual Meeting, December 27-30, in Baltimore, MD. Presented papers will also be considered as part of a proposal for an edited book collection published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Possible Topics Include:

• Theories and forms of narrative and narrativity that support and/or challenge the theory and practice of children’s philosophy

• The construction and/or reconstruction of the history of philosophy via the philosophical novel / stories

• The relationship between philosophical argument and philosophical narrative

• The question of whether philosophical novels are sufficient for the teaching of philosophy

• The philosophical novel / story as model of/for philosophical praxis

• Qualitative and/or quantitative research studies of philosophical novels

Electronic submissions are required and should be sent to Darryl De Marzio at darryl.demarzio[at]scranton.edu. Papers must be in MS Word (.doc) or Rich Text Format (.rtf). Papers may not exceed 3,000 words in length. Submissions should include a word count and 150 word abstract (not counted in total word count) on the title page. Papers should not contain any information identifying the author of the submission. In a separate title page document, please submit the following: title of the paper, abstract of the paper, author’s name, affiliation, e-mail address and phone number. Papers must be received by Wednesday, May 15, 2013.

INSTITUTE OF PHILOSOPHICAL PRACTICES (France)

International Winter Seminar 2013

"Practicing Philosophy"

Argenteuil - France

February 18th - 23rd,  2013

Last summer, after increasing the attendance of our seminar to the maximum number allowed by the local facilities, about forty persons, we had the regrettable obligation to refuse quite a few later applications for attendance. This meant already that we had to hold numerous workshops in two different halls, in order to give everyone a chance to show his work and not crowd the halls too much.

Because of this, and because we do not wish to go beyond this size of attendance, we have decided to hold a winter seminar, not in La Chapelle St André (Burgundy) where the season creates harsh living conditions, but in Argenteuil, at the seat of the I.P.P., in the suburbs of Paris. Of course, persons that were denied attendance at the summer seminar will have a priority. Again for practical reasons, we do not wish to receive too many persons, in order for the seminar to remain a seminar and not become a conference.

So we intend to receive maximum 20 persons, interested or involved in philosophical practice: students, teachers, professors, counselors, trainers, etc. Like in the summer seminar, the purpose will be for these participants to reflect on their work and improve professionally. For seven days, in English, these practitioners coming from very diverse countries will participate to different workshops, lead workshops, analyze and evaluate them, theorize about the different issues involved.

In this context, philosophy is not an academic activity centered on the history of ideas, and one does not come simply to narrate what he does in his home country, but get acquainted with the many ways of philosophizing, as an activity constitutive of the mind and the self. Philosophy with children, philosophical consultation, philosophy workshops, Socratic dialogue, etc., one is introduced to the many forms and variants of such an endeavor. It is not so much knowledge that is at stake here, but acquiring and developing skills. How to conceptualize, how to problematize, how to deepen understanding of given ideas, and especially how to create a situation where this activity can be induced, are the main focus of the work.

Of course, Socratic maieutic is a key methodological point, but as well dialectics, analytics, community of enquiry, constitute as many entries and matrices to define the work. If they wish so, participants can facilitate a workshop, a situation that provides an occasion for a practitioner to show how he works and get some critical feed-back on his work and his methodology, so one becomes more conscious of his own options and activity. Since the atmosphere of this seminar is open, inclined to both rigor and diversity, it creates a context where one can really express his view instead of hiding behind the usual pseudo-consensus where "everything is fine and we are all great". In this sense, the idea is to recreate the context of antique philosophical schools, or the gymnasium as described by Plato, where one could challenge other's ideas and oneself be challenged.

All practitioners interested in presenting their work and holding a workshop during this event are invited to send in their proposal. The purpose of this seminar is to exchange, discover, experiment and develop practices.

This seminar does not require previous philosophical training. It can be an initiation to philosophical practice, or a deepening of the activity. Participants come from different parts of the world, and join for professional or personal reasons, in order to work on a practice that is applicable to many contexts: teaching children or adults, management, individual consultation, N. G. O. activities…

The duration will be almost a week, from February 18th – 23rd 2012, and the cost will be 500 EUR, including the workshops, food and accommodation in a private room. For people who are on a tight budget, this can be reduced to 300 EUR if you accept "camping style" accommodation. Our Institute can accept some people free of charge who have financial difficulties, but are highly motivated.

You can read theoretical texts and watch videos of the practice on the following websites' English sections:

http://www.brenifier.com
http://www.pratiques-philosophiques.com/

• Cognition – Emotion – Communication: Scope and Limits

• Interdependence between Cognition – Emotion – Communication

• Community of Inquiry

• Critical, Creative and Caring Thinking

• Lifelong Learning

• Emotion as Judgement

• Intercultural Communication and Global Thinking

• Neurophilosophy as a new Orientation

• Learning Process and Value Education

The Thoughtful Classroom: Teaching to Overcome Educational Disadvantage

Date: 2 June 2012

Venue: Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, 234 Queensberry St

http://fapsa.org.au/conference/the-thoughtful-classroom/

Abstracts

Tom Wartenberg: Philosophy as a Tool for Ameliorating Educational Disadvantage
My presentation focuses upon my experience working in a primary (elementary) school in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA. My university students teach a seven week “Introduction to Philosophy Course” to children to seven and eight year old students all of whom are Hispanic and African American and from impoverished backgrounds. After explaining my approach to teaching philosophy, one that is based upon using children’s picture books as prompts for philosophical discussions, I present a range of benefits that accrue to the children from their engagement with philosophy. The presentation will include some video clips.

Ron Ritchhart: Demystifying Thinking: Helping All Students Learn How to Learn
Educational disadvantage impacts an individual’s engagement in school and general readiness to learn, reducing a student’s development of self-efficacy toward learning and future aspirations associated with education. By demystifying the thinking process, drawing on students’ natural inclination toward sense making, and offering providing models of intellectual engagement, teachers can help all students learn how to learn. A classroom focus on ideas and thinking, rather than achievement of the quick right answer, changes the dynamics of the classroom so as to create a community of inquiry and truly thoughtful classroom space. Drawing on the past twelve years of research into making thinking visible and creating classroom cultures of thinking, Ron Ritchhart will share strategies that engage learners in active meaning making while scaffolding the thinking process and making it more visible to all.

Lynne Hinton: The Thoughtful School
How does the school itself contribute to or perpetuate the notion of educational disadvantage? This presentation suggests that the most important job of schools is to teach children to think well, thereby enabling them to make good judgements and question issues that relate to their lives and the lives of others. How this was achieved at one school through engagement in philosophy over a period of 14 years, is described. Current work being undertaken at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane is also outlined.

Phil Cam: Educational Disadvantage and the Community of Inquiry
In dealing with educational disadvantage, teachers need to try to bridge the gap between the educationally disadvantaged student’s out-of-school life-world and the one they encounter at school. This talk looks at the ways in which the classroom Community of Inquiry can assist in this process. After suggesting that there are more and less productive ways for teachers to think about educational disadvantage and its connection to the Community of Inquiry, we will examine evidence for thinking that the Community of Inquiry can help us to deal with educational disadvantage. Following this, we will explore three prominent features of the Community of Inquiry that also give us reason to believe that it can be effective in dealing with educational disadvantage. These are its capacity to stimulate student engagement, its emphasis on learning to think for yourself, and its ability to generate a sense of belonging.

The IAPC is happy to announce its 2012 Summer Residential Workshop in Mendham, NJ. If you have interest or experience in using the Philosophy for Children curriculum and / or methodology and would like to increase your skills and understanding this workshop is for you.

7th International Summer Seminar
"Practicing Philosophy"
La Chapelle St André - Burgundy, France
August 6th - 12th 2012

Every summer, in the little village of La Chapelle St André (Burgundy - France), gather about 30-40 persons involved in philosophical practice (students, teachers, professors, counselors, trainers) in order to reflect on their work and improve professionally. For seven days, in English, these philosophy practitioners coming from the five continents will participate to different workshops, lead workshops, analyze and evaluate them, theorize about the different issues involved.

In this context, philosophy is not any more an academic activity centered on the history of ideas, and one does not come simply to narrate what he does in his home country, but get acquainted with the many ways of philosophizing, as an activity constitutive of the mind and the self. Philosophy with children, philosophical consultation, philosophy workshops, Socratic dialogue, etc., one is introduced to the many forms and variants of such an endeavor. It is not so much knowledge that is at stake here, but acquiring and developing skills. How to conceptualize, how to problematize, how to deepen understanding of given ideas, and especially how to create a situation where this activity can be induced, is the main focus of the work.

Of course, Socratic maieutic is a key methodological point, but as well dialectics, analytics, community of enquiry, constitute as many entries and matrices to define the work. If they wish so, participants can facilitate a workshop, a situation which provides an occasion for a practitioner to show how he works and get some critical feed-back on his work and his methodology, so one becomes more conscious of his own options and activity. Since the atmosphere of this seminar is open, inclined to both rigor and diversity, it creates a context where one can really express his view instead of hiding behind the usual pseudo-consensus where "everything is fine and we are all great". In this sense, the idea is to recreate the context of antique philosophical schools, or the gymnasium as described by Plato, where one could challenge other's ideas and himself be challenged. In the peaceful atmosphere of a small French village, accompanied with good food and good wine, walks in the beautiful surrounding woods and visit to the medieval site of Vezelay, one can truly devote himself to philosophical encounters and reflection.

All practitioners interested in presenting their work and holding a workshop during this event are invited to send their proposal. The purpose of this seminar is to exchange, discover, experiment and develop practices.

This seminar does not require previous philosophical training. It can be an initiation to philosophical practice, or a deepening of the activity. Participants come from different parts of the world, and join for professional or personal reasons, in order to work on a practice that is applicable to many contexts: teaching children or adults, management, individual consultation, N. G. O. activities...

The duration will be one whole week, from August 6th - 12th, and the cost will be 600 Euros, including the workshops, food and accommodation in a private room. For people who are on a tight budget, this can be reduced to 350 Euros if you accept "camping style" accommodation. Our Institute can accept some people free of charge who have financial difficulties, but are highly motivated.

You can read theoretical texts and watch videos of the practice on the following websites - English section:
http://www.brenifier.com
http://www.pratiques-philosophiques.com/

If you wish to be informed of the seminar and workshops of the Institute of Philosophical practice, you can send an email to Isabelle Millon at the following address: i.millon [at] club-internet.fr

Training at distance with I.P.P.

For those who are interested in training in philosophical practice with the I.P.P., this is now possible at distance through the utilization of the Skype technique and by proposing diverse exercises. Anyone willing to engage in such a program can contact us at: i.millon@club-internet.fr The work can take place either on an individual or group basis.

Learning to philosophize with Nasruddin Hodja

You will find as an attached file a text which is a large excerpt from Oscar Brenifier's practice book: "Learning to philosophize with Nasruddin Hodja". You will find in this text numerous exercises connected to the famous tales of wisdom of the Sufi tradition.

I kindly invite you to the master course 'the art of questioning". I will lead this together with Dr. Oscar Brenifier during the weekend of 10 and 11 March 2012.Target group is trainers, educators, practical philosophers, coaches, ... who wish to refine their questioning behavior. It takes place in a magnificent castle at Diest, Flanders.

The language is English, Dutch and French.

Cost is € 350 all-in + 65€ extra fee for a single room (dormitory is fullbooked). Inscriptions close the 1st of March
More information on http://www.socraticdialogue.be/open_days.html
Inscription via email Kristof at socratischgesprek dot be

Philosophy in Preschool and School , is a way to work with questions and problems in all school subjects and in pre-school activity. Doing philosophy helps to develop a critical mind, oral skills and democratic ability.

For many people philosophy seems unknown and foreign. It shouldn’t. All human beings think and find answers to important and difficult questions which crop up every day. Philosophy is about making this thinking and answering more systematic. When we practise philosophy we try to find out something true, but we do it without going out and looking that the world or looking things up in books. Instead we look into ourselves and talk to each other. We find answers by thinking, not by weighing, measuring or gathering.

• When should democratic principles be applied to foster the autonomous development of children in an optimal way? How do children and young people learn to live in a democracy?

• Which models can be selected in order to develop a certain level of independence in childhood by combining ethical systems with fundamental democratic concepts? How can we help to promote the ability to reflect, increase the ability to rationalise and improve both the individual and collective level of independence, in combination with democracy?

• Understanding and comprehension of democracy

• Intercultural dialogue

• New Media – new forms of democracy

• Global awareness

• Community of Inquiry

• Philosophy of Human Rights

• Development of democratic teaching

• Democracy as a way of life

• To explore how P4C can improve teaching and learning by promoting better thinking and communication.

• To develop skills for encouraging and supporting deeper dialogue.

• To develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes to promote active participation of pupils in decisions that affect them.

• To deliver SAPERE Level 1 certificate accredited two-day training.

• To see P4C in action in school and meet practitioners using P4C within their school.

• Professionals involved in teacher training and the education of children, young people and students.

• Intergenerational justice

• Distributive justice

• The notion of democracy

• Culture of responsibility – responsibility for future generations

• Community of Inquiry

• Education towards sustainable development

• Critical, creative and caring thinking

• Relationship mankind – nature

• Lifelong learning

• Change of the relationship between cooperation and competition

• lære et samtaleverktøy du kan bruke i mange sammenhenger?

• bli en filosofisk veileder for barn og ungdom i trosopplæringsgrupper?

• få gruppen din til å lytte bedre og stille flere spørsmål?

• få deltakerne til å reflektere mer og ta ansvar for sine meninger?

Jeg har lært mye gjennom kurs i filosofisk samtale. Å få lede samtaler er kjekt og lærerikt og jeg har nok vokst en del på det. (Jente, 17 år som leder samtaler både med barn og med ungdommer og voksne etter å ha deltatt på kurs).

• Har vi rett til å mene at visse måter å leve på er bedre enn andre måter?

• Hvordan begrunner vi dette?

• Hva er tro og hva er viten?

• Må jeg alltid følge reglene?

Dette kurset vil jeg ta med meg ungdomslederne mine på! Det er OK å bruke tid på å gå et stykke vei sammen med dem. De får noe tilbake for sin innsats i menigheten og en metode de kan bruke i gruppene sine. (Kateket i Oslo)

I dag tilbyr vi mini-lederkurs året etter konfrmasjonsfasen, men hva så? Kurset er et faglig ledelsestilbud for en gruppe som i dag ikke har så mye. (Kateket i Tunsberg)

Kurset vil også gi deltakerne god ledertrening! (Kateket i Hamar).

The Spanish Centre of Philosophy for Children announces that between 11 and 14 March 2010 a Conference will be hold in the University de Alcalá de Henares (Madrid): XXII Ibero-American Seminar of Philosophy for Children and Sophia Network 2010 Meeting.

The subject that will be dealt is:

EMPOWERMENT THROUGH PHILOSOPHY FOR CHILDREN

emphasizing the philosophical dialogue, as a tool to fight against social exclusion, and supporting democracy in formal, informal and non-formal education contexts.

This subject, in short, is aimed at analyzing the philosophical contribution and specially the ones of the Philosophy for Children, it can be a useful tool to promote the formation of critical, committed and responsible people and a democratic and supportive society as well.

With this chosen title, therefore, we try to invite you to show your works, projects, researches, workshops and etc. Not only do we invite those who use this programme in schools and in the formal educational scopes, but, specially, those colleges who put this programme into practice out of school classrooms and in other different contexts in which fighting against the social exclusion is the main priority.

The Conference will consist of workshops and theoretical papers as well, explaining the base of the programme, researches and experiences related to the subject. Likewise, will be everyday a public access lecture. Workshops will last a little more than an hour, whereas the papers will consist of a 15 minutes speech by the lecturer and 15 minutes for questions by participants.

Therefore, we invite and encourage everybody related to this topic to participate in the Conference in order to share our knowledge about the educational system we work with, because we are all involved in the Philosophy for Children. I am sure that our participation will be a good opportunity to promote the Philosophy for Children Programme and its approach.

[...] if you are interested in participating either in a workshop or in a paper, please write to fgam0044 at ficus.pntic.mec.es applying for the registration form which will be provided together with the adequate regulations aimed at facilitating the presentation of your proposal, which should be sent before 15 November.

On the second week November approximately, further information about the Conference organization as accommodation, fees and registration period will be provided to participants.

• Creativity and thinking

• Virtual worlds – creativity and imagination

• Lifelong learning

• Citizenship and democracy

• Transculturality  and transdisciplinarity

• Philosophy and ethics in school

• Culture, integration and education

• Pluralistic dimensions of philosophy with children

• Creativity and thinking

• Virtual worlds- creativity and imagination

• Lifelong learning

• Citizenship and democracy

• Transculturality  and transdisciplinarity

• Philosophy and ethics in school

• Culture, integration and education

• Pluralistic dimensions of philosophy with children