ANALYTIC TEACHING AND PHILOSOPHICAL PRAXIS VOLUME 41, ISSUE 2 (2021) 92 Towards Education for 21st Century Democratic Citizenry — Philosophical Enquiry Advancing Cosmopolitan Engagement (P.E.A.C.E.) Curriculum: An Intentional Critique Desireé E. Moodley Abstract Doing philosophy for/with children and exposing students to multiple perspectives, exemplified within the Austrian Centre of Philosophy with Children’s implementation project of the Philosophical Enquiry Advancing Cosmopolitan Engagement (PEACE) curriculum in schooling, may offer a valuable written, taught, and tested curriculum for democratic citizenry. This paper provides an analysis that seeks to present, describe, critique, and make recommendations on the PEACE curriculum. The paper asks the question: In what ways does the Philosophical Enquiry Advancing Cosmopolitan Engagement as a 21st century curriculum address education for democratic citizenry? In this evaluation the ways in which issues of culture and identity, human rights and democracy are perceived and addressed, along with issues of critical thinking and reasoning in verbal and non- verbal language are attended. Concepts of collaboration, cooperation, teacher support and development are also critiqued. This critique is based on a ten-day Austrian Center of Philosophy with Children conference and training course on the PEACE curriculum, and consists of open-ended interviews, personal observations, and published reports on pre- and post-test results of the PEACE curriculum. Exploring the integration of the Austrian Center of Philosophy with Children PEACE curriculum and the Philosophy for/with Children methodology, this paper utilizes Hansen’s (1995) five principles for guiding curriculum development practice as a framework for analysis. It is hoped that findings and recommendations from this study may stir further exploration and contribute to the work of Philosophy for/with Children in democratic education for 21st century citizenry worldwide. Keywords: Democratic education, Philosophy for/with Children, Philosophical Enquiry Advancing Cosmopolitan Engagement (P.E.A.C.E.) Curriculum, Curriculum development, 21st Century citizenry, critical thinking. ducation for healthy citizenry is essential if children / youth are to be enabled and equipped for 21st century global living. Paying attention to both verbal and non-verbal language of students around issues of culture and identity, human rights, and democracy, in a way that is collaborative and cooperative, involves critical thinking and reasoning. Explicitly incorporating critical thinking and reasoning for citizenship education into today’s classroom activities requires that educators be fully involved and professionally supported throughout written, taught, learnt, and tested curricular processes. However, the complexity of 21st century classrooms characterised by diversity, multiculturalism, multilingualism, and pluralism make today’s education a challenging proposition. The call for appropriate curricular responses should be a fundamental endeavour of both curriculum designers and their critics alike. It is therefore of local and global importance to pay attention to appropriate curricular models that competently deal with this complexity. The European Union E ANALYTIC TEACHING AND PHILOSOPHICAL PRAXIS VOLUME 41, ISSUE 2 (2021) 93 UNESCO supported Philosophical Enquiry Advancing Cosmopolitan Engagement (The PEACE Project) Curriculum, framed around Matthew Lipman’s (1980) Philosophy for / with Children pedagogy is one such curricula that offers successful democratic education for local and global application towards education for 21st century democratic citizenry. Employing Matthew Lipman’s (1980), Philosophy for Children (P4C) approach and pedagogy, the PEACE project curriculum and practice was co-designed by the Austrian Center of Philosophy with Children (ACPC) specifically to address the issues and goals of democratic citizenry for social justice in Europe. Lipman’s (1980) philosophical dialogical approach employs critical, creative, and caring thinking and dialogue through building communities of inquiry (Barrow, 2009; Farahini, 2013; Gregory, 2015; Hendricks, 2015; Kizel, 2015; Lipman, 1998; Lipman, Sharp, & Oscanyan, 1980; Murris, 2015; Topping & Trickey, 2013; Vansieleghem, 2014) and thus provides a means of meeting transformative education imperatives across cultural and linguistic divides that addresses issues confronting 21st century Europe. This paper provides an analysis that seeks to present, describe, critique, and make recommendations on the PEACE Project curriculum. It seeks to answer the question: In what ways does the Philosophical Enquiry Advancing Cosmopolitan Engagement (The PEACE Project) as a 21st century curriculum address education for democratic citizenry? The following three sub-questions guide this analysis: 1. In what ways are issues of culture and identity, human rights and democracy perceived and addressed? 2. How are issues of critical thinking and reasoning, both verbal and non-verbal, attended? 3. How are issues of collaboration and cooperation, teacher support, and development met? Research from personal participation, open ended interviews, observations, and documents gathered during a ten-day ACPC conference and training course of the PEACE curriculum using P4C methodology, held in Graz, Austria, provides the framework for this curriculum analysis. Utilising published reports of pre- and post-test results, this paper employs Hansen’s (1995) five principles for guiding curriculum development practice as a lens for critique. Doing philosophy for/with children — the practice of questioning what is truth— and exposing students to multiple perspectives (Westheimer, 2017), as exemplified by the Austrian Centre of Philosophy with Children’s PEACE curriculum in schooling for democratic citizenry, offers valuable written, taught, and tested curriculum. Institutional Background The Austrian Center of Philosophy with Children (The Center) was founded in 1985 to advance research, theory, and practice in philosophy with children. Responding to a time that saw children in Austrian schools around the early 1980s encouraged to rethink their own thinking, the Center was set up to help exchange experiences, organize symposiums, and conduct projects. Including curricular and staff training, the Center was founded to promote education and training for children, youth, and adults, in doing philosophy. Philosophy as a subject within school curriculum, as well as an approach across disciplines, was seen as an appropriate vehicle because it is not confined to any one issue or invested in any one body of factual knowledge; this resonated well with the way children sought ANALYTIC TEACHING AND PHILOSOPHICAL PRAXIS VOLUME 41, ISSUE 2 (2021) 94 “entirety, perfection and understanding” (ACPC, 2017). Philosophy for Children, the brainchild of American philosopher and pedagogist Matthew Lipman (1923–2010) was introduced to primary schools in Austria by the mid-1980s. The Center was founded on Lipman’s work on Philosophy for Children (P4C). A significant proponent of Lipman’s work, The Center in Austria is a founding member of the European Foundation for the Advancement of Doing Philosophy with Children (SOPHIA) and is an active member of the International Council for Philosophical Inquiry with Children (ICPIC), established by Lipman. The Center links practitioners and researchers in over 50 countries, and consults with pedagogical institutions, creates projects, writes documentation, and conducts conferences and workshops especially within Europe and Eastern Europe. The Center has been in important cooperation with the Austrian Commission for UNESCO for the last 15 years. Philosophical Enquiry Advancing Cosmopolitan Engagement (The PEACE Project), a European Union UNESCO project funded for three years (2013 -2015), involves five countries: Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Israel. It was a significant macro curriculum project of the Center, employing Lipman’s approach and pedagogy for citizenship building, a curriculum project in which this author was a doctoral participant trainee. The following section is based on interviews with two of the seminal curriculum designers, three of the original PEACE project facilitators, and one external quantitative evaluator of the program, as well as ten co-participants of the program —both student candidates and schoolteachers representing six countries (Austria, England, Germany, Israel, Slovenia, and South Africa). The research is compiled from a ten-day ACPC conference, seminar, and training course on the PEACE curriculum, using P4C as methodology, held in Graz, Austria in August of 2017. Collection and Data Analysis In keeping with Hansen’s (1995) five principles for guiding curriculum development practice and recognizing that curriculum and curriculum change are “complex concepts that lend itself awkwardly, with equal challenge and passion, to theory and practice” (Hansen, 1995, p. 31), the following section briefly presents, firstly Principle 1, the conceptual framework of the PEACE curriculum design within cosmopolitanism. Secondly, Principle 2, a brief exposition of the attitudes and beliefs about learning as exemplified in the thinking of cosmopolitan principles. Thirdly, Principle 3, a rationale on the practice of adopting P4C methodology. Fourthly, Principle 4, a brief background to the curriculum planning process, especially the aims and goals of the PEACE curriculum. And lastly, Principle 5, the political realities of the PEACE curriculum and its implications for citizenship education and democracy within Philosophy for / with Children. The section concludes with a summary of the key philosophical findings from the data. Hansen’s Principle 1. The Conceptual Framework of the PEACE Curriculum Design within Cosmopolitanism According to two of the seminal designers and theorists of the PEACE project, the complexity of globalization, along with issues of migration facing the European Union (EU), was a pivotal stimulus and challenge that saw the need to develop a responsive curriculum. The construction of a cosmopolitan ANALYTIC TEACHING AND PHILOSOPHICAL PRAXIS VOLUME 41, ISSUE 2 (2021) 95 framework of thinking, as expressed by one of the designers, necessitated the development of, “…specific educational strategies aimed at fostering intercultural dialogue and construction of new identities for engagement with the self and the other.”1 Educational strategies within a P4C conception offered cognitive, affective, and social tools through which prejudices and stereotypes could be addressed, helping prepare students for active citizenship in a diverse and complex EU society. Furthermore, according to one of the Austrian facilitators, the issue of intercultural integration needed, “…specific strategies to address prejudice, challenge stereotypes, overcome cultural obstacles, and foster intercultural dialogue.”2 Further elaborating on the issue of migrants, and the support required for the integration of migrant populations within the EU, the Austrian Facilitator also articulated that a P4C approach was the best and most appropriate means to, “…promote complex thinking from primary school age through alternative child learning approaches.”3 The idea of adopting such an approach to support integration of migrant populations was reiterated by one of the curriculum designers and writers of the curriculum who confirmed that P4/ with C was, … a highly validated method to involve marginalised and disadvantaged children in a high- quality learning environment, that offered especially children who belonged to different cultures an excellent opportunity for their social development and intercultural integration and recognition.4 A student teacher participant explained during her presentation that cosmopolitanism had a long history with the word “cosmopolitan” coming from the Greek Kosmopolites, meaning a “citizen of the cosmos”. Associated with two aspects: a demand for freedom both cultural and political, and the acceptance of a world beyond the local environment, the Stoic sense of the word was described drawing on Nussbaum (2001). The participant advocated that the cosmopolitan principle of reconstruction —to rebuild community on moral virtues, and love for humanity that all had in common— “was a moral obligation of education”.5 Historically, this moral aspect of cosmopolitanism flourished during the Enlightenment of the 18th century, which included the Declaration of Human Rights of 1789. Thus, theoretically framed on Cosmopolitanism, the PEACE curriculum is designed on human rights. Hansen’s Principle 2. A Brief Exposition of the Attitudes and Beliefs about Learning as Exemplified in the Thinking of Cosmopolitan Principles Cosmopolitanism, according to the above framework, saw humanity’s obligation to each other as sharers of the planet which stretched beyond local loyalties. All human lives were seen intertwined through beliefs that gave humanity common meaning and experience. Cosmopolitan principles, as asserted by another participant, believed that people were different and there was much to learn from these differences. The recognition of human difference was a moral obligation to the other as differences offered a recognition of diversity and situatedness. However, new conceptions of 1 Response by one of the PEACE project organizers to an interview question. 2 Response by one of the Austrian PEACE project organizers to an interview question. 3 Response by one of the Austrian PEACE project organizers to an interview question 4 Response by one of the PEACE project organizers to an interview question. 5 Personal communication with a fellow teacher participant. ANALYTIC TEACHING AND PHILOSOPHICAL PRAXIS VOLUME 41, ISSUE 2 (2021) 96 cosmopolitanism that have emerged focus more on how a social environment could be built that fully recognized the distinctive and situated character of a person both in a local and globally sensitive manner. It is here that cosmopolitanism was seen as going beyond multiculturalism, cultivating attitudes and beliefs about culture and identity whose implications for learning help demystify diversity. Thus, the attitudes and beliefs implicit within the PEACE curriculum stemming from Cosmopolitanism were distinctively inclusive in its recognition of diversity. Hansen’s Principle 3. A Rationale on Praxis as Seen in the Adoption of P4C Methodology As explained by one of the program’s designers, and founders of the Austrian Center of Philosophy with Children, the conception of cosmopolitanism was best defined as “hermeneutic receptivity towards the other”.6 This conception of cosmopolitanism emphasized dialogue between cultures, empathic understanding of the other, and the recognition of a human condition common to different cultures, in which the self is transformed through the encounter with the other. It was in this conception that Lipman’s philosophy and methodology for encountering the self and the other intersected with the principles and thinking of cosmopolitanism. The PEACE curriculum design embedded the P4C rationale as praxis, recognizing a moral obligation to accept human difference for the enrichment that it brought to understanding of the self. It was here that P4C and cosmopolitanism intertwined with the idea that it was a moral obligation to embark on reflexive critique of the self, made possible through encountering the other. This encounter was explored through specific thinking stories generated as part of the written curriculum. These stories engendered critical thinking and dialogical engagement within a democratic participatory environment. This participation was in practice conceptualised as cosmopolitan critical thought. The elements of self- judgment, transformation, and transcendence were essential principles in P4C that the PEACE curriculum employed as praxis for social change. The PEACE project aimed to develop a cosmopolitan understanding through philosophical investigation in the context of a research community. It aimed to contribute to the kind of cosmopolitan orientation to promote community interaction with the other whilst recognizing the moral obligation to interact in a critical, creative, and comprehensive manner. The possibilities to create democratic principles and moral values, and the need to re-evaluate the self in encounter with the other, according to another of the program designers interviewed, saw possibilities that, …raised the need for criticism and questioning about our commitments and understanding, as we seek (search) the truth and engage in the task of building identity in relationship to the other as individuals and as a community.7 The idea of self-correction was one of the basic concepts of P4C and a necessary condition for praxis in cosmopolitanism employed in the PEACE project. 6 Personal communication with one of the PEACE project organizers. 7 Response by one of the PEACE project organizers to an interview question. ANALYTIC TEACHING AND PHILOSOPHICAL PRAXIS VOLUME 41, ISSUE 2 (2021) 97 Hansen’s Principle 4. The Curriculum Planning Process of the PEACE Curriculum From discussions with one of the facilitators who was involved with the PEACE project over the full three-year period, each participating country was given specific aspects of the written curriculum to focus on based on the following educational objectives: • improve the development of language and thinking, • develop creativity, • advance personal and social development, and, • encourage tolerance. The emphasis in these educational objectives lay on promotion of autonomous thinking through such philosophical tools as giving, making, and testing assumptions and claims, using examples, giving reasons, planning, discovering assumptions, referring to consequences, use of analogies, promotion of self- and social skills, use of illustrations, and deep listening, among several other thinking strategies and tools. Using thinking stories intended to stimulate the raising of student-led questions, philosophical dialogue in communities of inquiry were set in motion toward cosmopolitan community-building and democratic citizenry. Each country then explored these objectives at a local level through teacher professional development courses and seminars conducted by trained facilitators over a 6-day period held over consecutive weekends. Teachers thereafter implemented the program directly at school level among primary and secondary school learners. A pre- and post-test quantitative process of evaluation was conducted in all five countries. Externally moderated, results of findings showed an over 0.5 (≥p) statistical significance in gains in reading and comprehension as well as increase in levels of student confidence in all five countries (https://peace.kinderphilosophie.at/index.html). The evaluation process of the PEACE program included focus group reflection and feedback from teachers in dialogue which assisted in the review and revision process before final adoption of the explicit curriculum was made public. The process from design to delivery was a cyclical one. Fully informed and interacted upon by all stakeholders, including parents and the community, from whom permissions were sought to implement in schools. The development and implementation of the curriculum was informed and revised at each stage of the process through ongoing feedback and evaluation of effect on both teacher participants and learners at school. Democratically, empirically and statistically grounded, data on the PEACE curriculum’s planning process reveals and confirms the presence of Hansen’s 4th principle of sound and scientific curriculum planning. Hansen’s Principle 5. The Political Realities of the PEACE Curriculum and Its Implications for Citizenship Education and Democracy According to both the designers and facilitators of the project, the aim of the PEACE program as documented was to, …disseminate to the widest possible section of society the idea that it was possible to contribute to the development of a cosmopolitan orientation and engagement amongst future citizens through dedicated educational tools and practices as P4C. (https://peace.kinderphilosophie.at/index.html) https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpeace.kinderphilosophie.at%2Findex.html&data=04%7C01%7Cjjhoward%40viterbo.edu%7C623c87ad4ece4457984b08d9be458e98%7C6b9fc982e8d74958976cb08441cc9b0b%7C0%7C0%7C637750028218343343%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=nfzftkEOk0Xa%2F%2Bor5Bn7R1IThv7vY0MVOWvPY%2Fcfu10%3D&reserved=0 https://peace.kinderphilosophie.at/index.html ANALYTIC TEACHING AND PHILOSOPHICAL PRAXIS VOLUME 41, ISSUE 2 (2021) 98 As an effective educational approach to developing cosmopolitan engagement, the promotion and enabling of critical, creative, and caring ways of reasoning and understanding was central. Using the methodology of P4C in which complex thinking was developed through the construction of communities of philosophical inquiry, the project sought to create a cosmopolitan environment in which children from diverse cultures were able to open themselves to one another as they constructed their own identities. By affirming individual identities, the potential of building a just society offered through P4C was most appreciated. Through participation in the project and in communities of inquiry, children, youth, and adults from different spectrums of culture and society were able to engage with one another on equal terms as they sought to construct meaning, develop a worldview, and engage in their own responses to the question: How ought we to live? The political emphasis of the PEACE project was rooted from its design, through its implementation, testing, and validating of a new P4C curriculum, to focus on cosmopolitan engagement and intercultural dialogue. It was firmly believed that the PEACE project had a significant impact for educational practices in giving educators specialized professional development, new teaching strategies, and materials. By improving the reasoning and rationalising skills of children, and through creatively making new pedagogical strategies, curriculum, and educational resources sensitive to diverse contexts and countries, the scope of the PEACE project has been widened. Thus, cosmopolitan awareness promoted through the PEACE curriculum and P4C may serve as a resource beyond the political confines of the European continent. Summary of Key Findings of the PEACE Project As a crucial part of the PEACE project process, the external testing process and evaluation based on pre- and post-test scores that began and concluded the three-year project, set into motion the widespread use of a validated curriculum endorsed by UNESCO. According to the research compiled from testing data, the following are key findings: • The PEACE educational objectives and emphasis is on the promotion of autonomous thinking of children which in turn enables self-development and the development of social skills. • Embedded in raising existential and critical questions examined and explored through critical texts and dialogue, P4C has the potential to be a rich and powerful pedagogical model for education reform as exemplified in the PEACE curriculum. • Philosophy’s central practice of questioning and critical thinking is an obvious choice for teaching thinking skills. Possessing the tools of logic and argument necessary for critical thinking, P4C promotes questioning, open mindedness, clarity in language, and precision in thinking, thus offering a means for coherence and meaning that can be explored and employed in all subjects. • The design of P4C aimed at enabling critical thinking through relationships between facts and values, means and ends, and among diverse social groups in the context of holistic, experiential, and contextual learning, raises critical questions central to human concerns about fairness, justice, truth, freedom, responsibility, and right and wrong, which bear significant real-world application. ANALYTIC TEACHING AND PHILOSOPHICAL PRAXIS VOLUME 41, ISSUE 2 (2021) 99 • The thinking stories interwoven with philosophical, reflective, and critical thinking strategies and tools, specifically written as a pedagogical method, approach, and model for the practice of communities of inquiry, are essential for sharpening awareness, thinking, and social skills, drawing on diverse perspectives in making individual thinking accountable to building a democratic community of peers. • The principles of philosophical inquiry with children include searching and finding meaning, which is seen as a fundamental drive of human beings and of education, and something children are especially preoccupied with. • Philosophical argument and the mechanics of the community of inquiry as a pedagogical tool is an essential tool of the quest for meaning making, for oneself and others. • A conceptualization of responsibility, a result of meaning making, is affirmed as fulfilling one’s unique potential operative at all age levels, and is a principle emphasized in the dialogical activity of philosophical communities of inquiry. • Ethical relations that involve mutual interpersonal understanding and relationships between oneself and others (both theoretical and practical) that build the social and cognitive understanding human beings seek and thrive on. While the implications of these issues are immense in respect of transformative education that seeks solutions for a free and fair society —equity and equality for all, peace, love and acceptance in co- existence— the PEACE project highlighted several issues that are both complex and intricate for application universally. These issues and a possible plan of action /recommendations to address them are briefly discussed in the following section. Plan of Action, Theoretical Foundation, and Recommendations The following issues have been selected based on research from interviews, observations, and participation in the PEACE project seminar held at the Austrian Center for Philosophical Inquiry with Children in August of 2017. The application of specific theories to general themes presents a framework for recommendation and action that may help address these issues. These reflections build off the strength of the Center’s work over a 30-year period and offer a model of best practices for leading curriculum change and support in Europe. The recommendations are offered in the interest of theorising and developing the PEACE program’s model, in the main for application in other contexts and countries in the interest of democratic citizenry and social justice. Issues Identified with Culture and Identity, Human Rights and Democracy • Help participants develop a cosmopolitan spirit that combines openness to what is different and what is new, with loyalty to one's own culture and identity. • Promote the cognitive and affective abilities of children that are necessary to face the challenge of living in multicultural societies. • Promote awareness of the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity in Europe, as well as the need to combat racism, prejudice, and xenophobia. ANALYTIC TEACHING AND PHILOSOPHICAL PRAXIS VOLUME 41, ISSUE 2 (2021) 100 • Develop a sense of European citizenship based on the understanding and respect of human rights and democracy. • Promote equality and contribute to the fight against any form of discrimination based on gender, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age, or sexual orientation. Recommendation An action plan that addresses the issues of understanding and promoting cultural identity, human rights, and democracy may be underpinned in Katz’s (1999) four basic principles. Katz (1999) asks the question, “whose story is not being told” (p. 32). In making a recommendation to address this complex endeavour, which recognizes the risks involved in developing openness to differences while fostering cultural loyalty and identity, Katz’s four basic principles may assist by “validating the history, culture, and psychology of individuals within a community that…cannot be separated from” the practice of encouraging each member of the community to accept, include, and empathise with others (p. 32). These principles may serve to strengthen the process of building a community of inquiry while philosophizing around issues of culture, identity, rights, and democracy. Additionally, Fisher and Frey (2017), in confirming the challenge of teaching to and for democracy, state that “knowledge of rights and responsibilities of citizens is not passed down through the gene pool. It must be taught” (p. 83). In addressing the challenges of democratic education, Fay and Levinson (2017), also claim that keeping the balance between ethical and political values should be borne in mind as students are encouraged “to discuss current events or talk with one another about basic civic norms” (pp. 63-64). While the challenge of exposing students to alternative perspectives persists, questioning what really counts for truth / status quo in a political and social climate that often sees these as blurred or biased, offers educators a reason to begin to dialogue and treat issues of beliefs, attitudes, and action as something other than normal (Fay & Levinson, p. 64). The practice of doing philosophy through the P4C approach offers an educative opportunity for implementation and application of the PEACE curriculum to other contexts outside of the European Union. Such investigation may be worth planning for more global action in addressing the issues of understanding and promoting cultural identity, human rights, and democracy. Issues Identified with Critical Thinking and Reasoning, Verbal and Non-verbal Language • Philosophy with Children is not a reproduction of factual knowledge but an activity. Children should be made aware of their ability for reasoning and encouraged to use it. It resists a one- dimensional approach to conceptual reasoning and categorical thinking. • Critical thinking helps children to come to decisions and recognize different perspectives and alternatives. Children should be enabled to take responsibility in a complex society. It is necessary to encourage children to be independent thinkers to promote their own judgment. This will help them to be tolerant and open to new ideas and solutions. ANALYTIC TEACHING AND PHILOSOPHICAL PRAXIS VOLUME 41, ISSUE 2 (2021) 101 • Interacting with people and experiencing diversity influences a child’s use of language and sharpens his or her perception. Training the conscious use of one’s language, listening and observing attentively, forms a critical and open mind that easily resists any attempt at imposing a dogmatic worldview. • Philosophy with Children helps to realize nonverbal communication standards and to practice and develop one’s own terms and thinking in early years. The main duty of Philosophy with Children is not only to make children aware of nonverbal communication standards but also to help them practice their own terms and to develop their intellectual power. Recommendation In a study of English second language migrant Salvadorian students “eager to learn English and adopt new cultural norms in the US”, Costello – Herrera (2010, p. 88), found that teachers needed to be more “adamant in their support for multicultural education in pursuit of social justice” (p. 88). Drawing on Peterson’s (1994, in Costello – Herrera, 2010), five fundamental characteristics of social justice classrooms that value multiculturalism and students’ cultural and linguistic histories, Costello – Herrera (2010, p. 89), asserted that curriculum needed to be grounded in the lives of students. Characterized as “dialogue, a questioning / problem solving approach” (89), with an emphasis on “critiquing bias” and stereotypical “attitudes,” language should be used for “the teaching of activism for social justice” (p. 89). These characteristics, explicitly embedded in curriculum, are recommended to help learners of other languages “fit in and succeed” (p. 89). Moreover, the need to shape society in school through language, listening, and speaking was raised in Westheimer (2017). In raising the question of what kind of citizens do we need, Westheimer (2017, p. 15), recommended that teachers need to “explicitly ‘teach’ lessons in citizenship wherein students learn community organisation, distribution of power and resources and injustice". This taught curriculum should further make explicit the hidden curriculum of “how classrooms are set up, who gets to talk when, how adults conduct themselves, how decisions are made, how lessons are enacted and more” (p. 15). Explicitly teaching critical thinking and reasoning, to create classroom spaces that encourage verbal and non-verbal communication within diverse language environments, is offered in the PEACE curriculum. The aims, goals, and approach of the PEACE curriculum and P4C within the taught curriculum of schools have the potential to effect change and respect for language, both verbal and non- verbal communication, that can help schools tailor programs in light of societal justice. Issues Identified with Collaboration and Co-operation, Teacher Support and Development • Philosophy with Children is characterized by dialogue that is fashioned in collaboration out of the reasoned contributions of all participants. Children learn to give reasons for their own thinking and behavior. • Children learn together how to cope with different situations and how to form good judgments. ANALYTIC TEACHING AND PHILOSOPHICAL PRAXIS VOLUME 41, ISSUE 2 (2021) 102 • The quality of teacher training in Europe needs improvement if the full potential of the PEACE project curriculum is to be realized. We need to support the improvement of pedagogical approaches to global, cosmopolitan, and social issues. Recommendations Whilst P4C prides itself in its collaborative thinking and narrative pedagogy, it might be worth exploring other strategies for stimulating and engaging philosophical inquiry and dialogue. This action requires teacher support and training. The role of professional in-service development has become a relevant part of education today. In recommending sustained ongoing success through support for adult professional learning communities, Fogarty and Pete (2010) offered seven protocols as a checklist for those leading curriculum and pedagogical change. Among these the sixth protocol suggests an integrative professional learning environment which includes diverse and varied methods. However, research shows that when there is no buy-in among all stakeholders, such initiatives often fail (Bryk, 2010). Ownership and input from all involved, although cumbersome and time-consuming, has proven to be indispensable in raising awareness, involvement, and effectiveness. Teachers are at the heart of the taught and tested curriculum and continue to dominate classroom spaces. The ‘space’ between curriculum design and desired student outcome is dependent on teacher training success in appropriately meeting this gap. However, as Glatthorn, Baschee, Whitehead, & Boschee (2016) have indicated, teacher orientation is a crucial factor in addressing school change. Raising the concept of mutual adaptation, wherein teachers on receiving professional development training “adapt strategies to fit within their own or the school´s orientation”, Weinbaum and Supovitz (2010, p. 68), maintain that fidelity of implementation may be accurately evidenced through an iterative process when all levels of the education system implement and achieve change according to “decisions about [the] different components of reform over time” (p. 68). Programs designed with specific instruction may work for or against successful implementation. Student outcomes with school leadership and teachers being influential on how “reforms are understood and enacted” (Weinbaum & Supovitz, 2010, p. 68; 70) are to be further considered. In declaring that there is “no-one-best-way” to address school improvement, Glatthorn et al., (2016, p. 254), described two basic imperatives, that of teacher input and mastery. Among varied development strategies for action that might support teacher orientation and buy-in, the following are recommended: eliciting from members of staff what is needed, providing time and adjusting schedules for planning, sending pairs of individuals to workshops, rotation of substitutes, use of consultants, undertaking online college or university pre-service programs, starting partnerships, engaging community resources, and management planning with the use of matrices (pp. 271-273). The need for real-world relevancy, culturally and socially responsive in supporting teacher professional development for improving curriculum, is especially timely given the demands of 21st century society. Sternberg (2011) offered eight ways in which ethics might play a role in the development of curriculum for improving a field of study: authenticity, relevance, active student involvement, concrete principles, responsibility, critical conversations, risk taking, and ethical solutions. Here daily life situations are explored through guided questioning for relevance and importance in response to ANALYTIC TEACHING AND PHILOSOPHICAL PRAXIS VOLUME 41, ISSUE 2 (2021) 103 living in a globally connected 21st century world (Glatthorn, et al., 2016, p. 274). In recommending an action plan using the PEACE curriculum, which has much to offer in teaching students how to reason, employing Sternberg’s suggestions (2011) may be of considerable value. Teaching students how to reason “about ethical situations and then following their reasoning with action” (Sternberg, 2011, p. 34) needs to be overtly incorporated into professional teacher training if we are to equip children collaboratively with ways to cope with living in a diverse, 21st century global world. Conclusion That schools are places where children learn about the society in which they grow up is a given. The complexity of 21st century classrooms, characterised by diversity, multicultural, multilingual, and pluralistic dynamics, make this a challenging environment. Yet education for healthy citizenry must be striven for if children are to be well enabled and equipped for 21st century global living. The call for appropriate curricular responses is dire. Explicitly incorporating citizenship education around issues of culture and identity, human rights, and democracy that involve critical thinking and reasoning, while paying attention to the verbal and non-verbal language of students —collaboratively and cooperatively— requires that teachers be fully involved and professionally supported throughout written, taught, learnt, and tested curricular processes. The European Union UNESCO supported PEACE curriculum framed around Matthew Lipman’s (1980), Philosophy for / with Children pedagogy may be considered best practice and is recommended to serve as critical global platform and model in this paper. Doing philosophy with children and exposing students to multiple perspectives (Westheimer, 2017), as exemplified by the Austrian Center of Philosophy with Children PEACE curriculum for democratic citizenry, makes a valuable written, taught, and tested curriculum that is designed to deliver results. References Barrow, W. (2010). 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