On Wednesday, May 24, the University of Haifa hosted a lecture from , Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tomaž Grušovnik, Senior Research Fellow, vice-dean for international relations and art, University of Primorska (Slovenia), Faculty of Education. He proposed a lecture on the subject of P4C in Slovenia. His lecture zqs planned for noon (12:30 - 13:30), Israel's time.
PwC has a relatively long tradition in Slovenia, starting in the mid-1990s and continuing through the decades until today. The first attempts at philosophizing with children were made by enthusiastic individuals in small circles in an informal environment. PwC made a big step forward in 2007, when the program became an elective course in the last triad of elementary school (Slovenian elementary school consists of 9 years, the first six of which are the so-called "class stage" (all courses are taught by the same teacher) and the last four are the "subject stage" (where each teacher teaches one subject). Students who choose this course have 1 hour per week of PwC, which focuses on epistemology, ethics, and social and political philosophy. The program was introduced a few years ago in about 40 Slovenian primary schools (there are about 450 primary schools in Slovenia).
The program is mainly based on Lipman's textbooks, but the principles of philosophizing with children are constantly being developed. Training for practitioners is provided within the National Qualification Framework - once a year the University of Ljubljana organizes a one-day seminar where lecturers present theory and practice to the participants (usually about 15-20 people attend). Lectures by foreign experts are offered sporadically, e.g. from Split in Croatia and Graz in Austria. An important step towards greater professionalization of PwC was taken last year when the Center for PwC at the University of Maribor was funded and the Slovenian Philosophical Society became a partner in two Erasmus+ projects specifically dedicated to PwC. The Society for the Advancement of Humanities also has a special topic on its website with free materials for practitioners.
The practice of PwC is mostly based on conversations with children with adjacent activities.
The main goals are not related to the teaching of philosophical concepts (e.g. theories of justice or truth), but to philosophical activity where the principle of 4C (critical, creative, collaborative and caring thinking) dominates. Children are encouraged not only to express their opinions but also to give reasons for them; they are encouraged to talk to each other and to change their opinions if it turns out that the reasons they had for them were not well-founded. Children are also encouraged to ask questions and be curious. Practitioners are encouraged to ask open-ended, non-suggestive questions that encourage thinking at higher epistemic levels (analysis of assumptions, evaluation, analogy, etc.); they are also encouraged not to interfere with the content (if not asked by the children) or to prefer certain answers from others.
We thank Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tomaž Grušovnik for his great presentation and we look forward to working with him on P4C-based projects around the meditereanean area.