Philosophy for Teachers (P4T) – developing new teachers’ applied ethical decision-making

Abstract

Teaching, irrespective of its geographical location, is fundamentally a relational practice in which unique ethically complex situations arise to which teachers need to respond at different levels of ethical decision-making. These range from ‘big’ abstract questions about whether or not what they teach is inherently good, through to seemingly trivial questions about everyday issues, for example whether or not it is right to silence children in classrooms. Hence, alongside a wide range of pedagogical skills, new teachers also need to develop personal qualities, knowledge and understanding that will enable them to navigate successfully these professional ethical demands. ‘Philosophy for Teachers’, or ‘P4T’, is one promising approach to teachers’ pre-service professional preparation which has been piloted in England, adapted from the more familiar idea of ‘P4C’ (Philosophy for Children). Drawing on the model of learning through dialogue within a community of fellow enquirers, an ethical retreat was set up which established a ‘community of practice’, comprising new teachers, education studies students, teacher educators and philosophers. The purpose of the retreat was to enable new teachers to think ethically about dilemmas they had faced, based on their early experience of classroom practice. It enabled facilitators to blend theoretical perspectives on education and systematic ways of thinking about it at an introductory level with examples of complex and potentially difficult classroom situations cited by participants. The experience provoked a series of significant insights – in particular, that a characteristically philosophical concern with the ethics of behaviour management offers an important alternative perspective to the psychological approach which tends to dominate conventional teacher education in the English system. We identified an urgent need among new teachers for facilitating space and time for critical reflection away from the ‘busy-ness’ of school, addressing not only practical concerns but the existential anxieties which beginning teachers face when dealing with challenging behaviour by their pupils, including burnout, sustaining motivation and a sense of ‘moral purpose’.

Keywords:

• Ethical deliberation
• teacher education
• philosophy
• community of enquiry

Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge the generous financial support of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain and the Higher Education Academy, without which the P4T initiative would never have reached first base. We wish to thank Steve Bramall, of Steve Brammall Associates, who acted as facilitator for the event and co-planned the workshop with great expertise. Thanks are also due to Joanna Haynes, for sharing her particular expertise at the second P4T workshop, Kathy Wright (HEA) for her enthusiastic support of the project throughout and David Aldridge, who has been involved in the planning of several events leading to these workshops. Finally, our thanks go to all the participants who engaged so thoughtfully and wholeheartedly with the enquiry process.

Notes

1. An example of a course at Kingston Polytechnic (now University of Kingston) in the 1980s as part of the professional education degree. In earlier decades, the Institute of Education ran philosophy lectures for teacher education students at all the London-based colleges.

2. Other publications look in more detail at the key findings and participants’ evaluations of the P4T and explain the process for an audience of practitioners.

3. In the course of the day, John Vorhaus led on disability issues in the classroom; David Aldridge on the ontological turn, i.e. what it means to be a teacher; Ruth Heilbronn on solidarity with teachers as an injunction for teacher educators, and Steve Bramall on ethical deliberation. Janet Orchard and Pat Mahoney led the final round table discussion.