Acts of Thinking: At School but Not During School

Abstract

With a Vygotskian focus on the social nature of intellectual abilities and the relationship between language and thought in interaction with others, this yearlong ethnographic study examined the ways that elementary-age children in an after-school Children as Philosophers club constructed, adopted, and adapted opportunities to learn how to talk and think like philosophers. Ethnographic and discourse analysis revealed the consequential nature of participation in the philosophy club, particularly the development of local ground rules that allowed children to know how to participate, how to question, and how to access and demonstrate meaning and understanding in the community of inquiry.