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The Philosophy for Children Hawai‘i Approach to Deliberative 
Pedagogy: A Promising Practice for Preparing Pre-Service Social 

Studies Teachers in the College of Education 
   
Amber Strong Makaiau 
 
 

ith the introduction of the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social 
Studies State Standards (2013), the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) has 
given new direction to K-12 social studies education in the United States. Among the 

notable changes is the expectation that primary and secondary teachers will use a deliberative 
pedagogy (Longo, 2013; Carcasson, 2013; Manosevitch, 2013; Molnar-Main & Kingseed, 2013) to 
teach elementary and high school social studies. While this is excellent news for advocates of 
democratic education (Dewey 1916; Freire 1970; Apple & Beane, 1995; Gutman 1987; Vinson 
2006; Parker, 2010; The Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools, 2011; Hess & McAvoy, 2015) 
it presents new challenges to colleges of education, which will take on much of the responsibility 
for introducing deliberative pedagogy to pre-service teacher candidates who did not have the 
opportunity to experience a deliberative pedagogy as part of their own K-12 schooling.  

 
     The purpose of this paper is to offer the philosophy for children Hawai‘i (p4cHI) approach to 
deliberative pedagogy as a promising practice for colleges of education that are looking to provide 
pre-service social studies teachers with strategies for employing a deliberative pedagogy in the K-12 
setting. P4cHI is a method of teaching that I have used for over fifteen years in my work as a high 
school social studies teacher, legislative internship program coordinator, and most recently in my 
position as a teacher educator in the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. To introduce the p4cHI 
approach to deliberative pedagogy I begin with a brief overview of the history of p4cHI and the 
connection between p4cHI and the wilder field of deliberative pedagogy. Next, I draw from my 
experiences to explain how p4cHI works in the context of teaching deliberative pedagogy in the 
college of education. I share: (a) how p4cHI supports teachers in fostering respectful and ethical 
civic relationships, (b) tools used by p4cHI practitioners to distribute power and open up space for 
multiple perspectives, (c) p4cHI strategies for promoting dialogue, deliberation, inquiry, and civic 
action, and, (d) challenges faced by pre-service teachers as they move towards implementing a 
deliberative pedagogy in K-12 classrooms outside of the university. At the article’s conclusion I circle 
back to the idea that in order to develop a deliberative pedagogy of their very own, pre-service 
teachers must have opportunities to experience (Dewey, 1929) deliberative pedagogy in the college of 
education. 

 

 

 

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PHILOSOPHY FOR CHILDREN, P4CHI AND DELIBERATIVE PEDAGOGY 

     With roots reaching deeply into American Pragmatism and the thought of philosophers such as 
John Dewey and William James, Philosophy for Children (P4C) is a widely respected international 
movement in education. It was started around 1969 when Matthew Lipman, a Colombia University 
philosophy professor, observed that children did not think as well as they could or should in a 
democratic society (Lipman, 1988). To address these issues Lipman created a curriculum that 
incorporated the skills of logic and reasoning found in the practice of philosophy to improve 
students’ thinking in the K-12 setting. In an effort to extend Lipman’s original curriculum and vision 
to a variety of geo-cultural contexts, a number of P4C Centers have been established worldwide. 
 
     Among these centers is the Uehiro Academy for Philosophy and Ethics in Education (UAPEE) 
at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. The UAPEE is the home of p4cHI, which is Thomas Jackson’s 
(2001; Makaiau & Miller, 2012) culturally responsive offshoot of Lipman’s original approach. The 
goal of p4cHI is to move school culture from a top-down model to a community-based, participatory 
model grounded in sound pedagogy and effective educational philosophy. To accomplish this goal, 
p4cHI practitioners convert traditional classrooms into intellectually safe communities of inquiry 
where students and teachers develop their abilities to think for themselves in responsible ways. 
 
     Although it wasn’t labeled as such, p4cHI has always been conceptualized and practiced as a 
deliberative pedagogy. Based off the ideas found in Democracy and Education (Dewey, 1916), p4cHI 
provides individuals with the “experience of dialoguing with others as equals, [and] participating in 
shared public inquiry [so] that they [are] able to eventually take an active role in the shaping of a 
democratic society” (Sharp, 1993, p. 343). It is a pedagogy, which carries out the notion that 
democratic education is more than just a content area that can be transmitted via power point, 
lecture, and closed-ended questioning at the end of a civics text book. Instead, it is characterized by 
“reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it” (Freire, 1970, p.33). Through 
dialogue and deep thinking, students and teachers deliberate “problems of democracy” (Matthews, 
2014, p. xvii), and work together to make a positive impact on the lives of citizens (Horton & Freire, 
1990; Matthews, 1994; Gastil & Levine, 2005; Nabatchi, Gastil, Weiksner, Leighninger, 2012). It is 
an overall approach to education that transcends discipline, age, and grade level by incorporating 
“deliberative decision making with teaching and learning” (Longo, 2013, p. 49) into a student’s 
entire schooling experience. 

     Defined by both a theoretical framework and actual set of classroom strategies, the p4cHI 
approach to deliberative pedagogy aims to produce a number of observable outcomes. Students and 
teachers who practice p4cHI are seen: 

 asking meaningful, relevant, and purposeful philosophical questions;  
 exploring questions, topics, and problems of democracy that are important and 

interesting; 
 accessing sources of information representing multiple viewpoints and cultural 

backgrounds; 
 thinking about complex issues with diverse groups of people; 



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 reasoning for themselves; 
 engaging in deliberative dialogue; 
 listening with empathy; 
 treating others with respect; 
 reading and writing; 
 and taking responsible action when it is just and necessary.  

In the next section I will share how I’ve used a number of p4cHI strategies to both accomplish the 
educational outcomes listed above and teach pre-service social studies teachers methods for 
practicing deliberative pedagogy in the K-12 setting.   

DELIBERATIVE PEDAGOGY IN THE COLLEGE OF EDUCATION 

     Dewey (1916) argued against seeing teaching as the transmission of ready-made ideas to students, 
and such is the case with teaching about deliberative pedagogy in the college of education. P4cHI is 
not a prescriptive practice that can be easily passed on through a traditional power point or lecture. 
Instead it is a theory of education and set of classroom practices that must be experienced by teachers, 
and then molded by them to fit their particular teaching style and context. It is for these reasons 
that I use the p4cHI approach to deliberative pedagogy to teach about the p4cHI approach to deliberative 
pedagogy.  Organized into four main sub-headings, the following are brief examples of what the p4cHI 
approach to deliberative pedagogy looks like in my classroom at a large public research university 
that services multi-ethnic students from across the U.S. and Pacific Rim. 

Respectful and Ethical Civic Relationships 

     One of the defining features of the p4cHI approach to deliberative pedagogy is students and 
teachers working together to create “intellectually safe” (Jackson, 2001, p. 460) classroom 
communities of inquiry. I start this work on the first day of class when I challenge my social studies 
teacher candidates to come up with examples and counter-examples of what an intellectually safe 
learning environment looks like. Not only does this activity help us to establish norms for respectful 
and ethical civic relationships, but it also introduces my students to the idea that “democratic 
dispositions –to be open-minded, to trust others, to be committed to finding a common ground that 
transcends difference– do not happen by default” (Flanagan, 2013, p. 163). Instead, they must be 
taught, and as my pre-service social studies teachers reflect on their own experience of co-constructing 
the definition of intellectual safety with their classmates, they come to see how defining, modeling, 
and practicing respectful and ethical civic relationships must be ongoing activities in a democratic 
classroom. 

Distributing Power and Accessing Multiple Perspectives 

     Another key feature of the p4cHI approach to deliberative pedagogy is the “community ball” 
(Jackson, 2001, pp. 460 – 461). Seated in a circle, my students and I use the community ball to 
mediate turn taking and open up space for multiple perspectives to be heard during our classroom 
deliberations and inquiry. The rules of the community ball are: (1) only the person with the 
community ball speaks, (2) the person with the community ball chooses who speaks next, and (3) 



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you always have the right to pass. Put in place to shift the traditional power structures found in most 
classrooms, the rules of the community ball help to cultivate and nurture a collaborative civic space 
in which no one perspective is dominant, and every voice is valued. They also work to redefine 
teachers and students as co-inquirers (Freire, 1970) who recognize that in order for the work of a 
democracy to move forward, everyone must constantly be learning together (Matthews, 2014).  

Dialogue, Deliberation, Inquiry, and Action 

     There are two additional strategies found in the p4cHI approach to deliberative pedagogy, which 
are essential for promoting dialogue, deliberation, inquiry, and action. They are the Good Thinker’s 
Tool Kit (GTTK) and Plain Vanilla. The GTTK is a set of seven philosophical moves that assists 
students and teachers in generating questions, making claims, and in thinking responsibly about the 
problems of democracy (Matthews, 2014). Used in concert with the GTTK, Plain Vanilla is a five-
step inquiry process that structures classroom deliberations. The five steps are: (1) read, (2) question, 
(3) vote, (4) dialogue, and (5) reflect (Jackson, 2001; Miller, 2014). In the 2014-15 school year alone, 
my pre-service social studies teachers used the GTTK and Plain Vanilla to question and deliberate 
with one another about topics such as: “Is it true that teaching is a political act? What are some 
counter-examples to the notion that standards-based education reforms make the schooling 
experience of diverse populations more equitable? What about the histories of people that are left 
out of the standards? What are the implications of non-Native Hawaiian social studies teachers 
teaching Hawaiian history? What are the reasons for the high teacher turnover rate in Hawaii, and 
what does this imply about the profession? Is it true that what we do in our classrooms will impact 
how students act in society?” To aid in their reflection, I follow up with my students at the end of 
each Plain Vanilla process by asking them to explain what they learned from one another, and how 
they intended on using their new perspectives and points of view to take informed action in their K-
12 classrooms.   

Challenges   

     I have learned a lot from listening to my pre-service teachers’ reflections, including the challenges 
they believe they will face in implementing a deliberative pedagogy in their classrooms outside of the 
university. As a whole they connect with the theoretical foundations that support a deliberative 
pedagogy, and in the context of their own educational experience, they find the p4cHI strategies 
enjoyable, engaging, and meaningful. However, when I ask them to elaborate on how they will use 
these theories and strategies to shape their future practice, they voice great concerns about having 
enough time for inquiry, deliberation, and informed civic action in their eventual placements as 
certified K-12 classroom teachers. Worried about the external pressures being put on them by 
principals, statewide mandates, and national initiatives, they lament that they would love to 
implement a deliberative pedagogy, but they don't have the time to “get through” the content that 
will be covered on our state’s high stakes exams. As I listen to what they have to say I know that their 
concerns are real, but I also know that they will be able to draw from their experiences with p4cHI 
in the college of education to become K-12 classroom teachers who are “real fixers” (Matthews, 2014, 
p. xvii). 



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Creating Teachers Who Are Real Fixers 

     Real fixers, or the people who make our democracy work as it should “aren’t interested in quick 
fixes. They deal with obvious problems [like failing schools]…however they sense that more 
fundamental and systemic problems are behind the obvious and that these have to be dealt with” 
(Matthews, 2014, p. xvii). Over the years, I have observed that teachers who experience p4cHI at the 
university become more adept at identifying those more fundamental and systemic problems, and 
they use what they learn in the college of education to address these problems with a deliberative 
pedagogy of their very own. As a part of this process they come to see themselves as real fixers. They 
acknowledge that one of the many purposes of education is to move forward, but they also know 
that the community building and inquiry that is necessary for making meaningful progress in schools 
takes time. They are “not in a rush” (Jackson, 2001, p. 465), and neither should colleges of education 
be as they work to develop teachers who are prepared to address the problems of democracy 
(Matthews, 2014) in classrooms, schools, and communities. 

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS 

     “Can students be educated for a democracy in a non-democratic classroom” (Parker 2010, p. 11)? 
The answer is no, and as educational initiatives like the (C3) Framework for Social Studies State 
Standards gain momentum in promoting the use of a deliberative pedagogy in the K-12 setting, 
colleges of education must respond by making sure that teacher candidates have opportunities to 
experience a deliberative pedagogy as a part of their teacher preparation programs. In this article I 
offer p4cHI as a promising practice for colleges of education that are looking to take on this new 
challenge. Adaptable to a variety of different teaching contexts, the p4cHI approach to deliberative 
pedagogy fosters ethical and responsible civic relationships, provides students and teachers with the 
tools for distributing power and accessing multiple perspectives, and creates opportunities for 
dialogue, deliberation, and action. It is “an educational practice that itself is both liberatory and 
participatory, that simultaneously creates a new society and involves the people themselves in the 
creation of their own knowledge” (Horton & Freire, 1990, p. xxx). I like to imagine what this new 
society will look like if students and teachers, from kindergarten to graduate school, experience a 
deliberative pedagogy throughout their schooling. “Perhaps we will [all] begin to remember a now 
half-forgotten idea that was to guide the purposes and programs of our public schools. The idea was, 
and is, democracy” (Apple & Beane, 1995, p.2). 
 
 

REFERENCES 
 

Apple, M. W. & Beane, J. (1995). Democratic schools. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. 
 
The Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools. (2011). Guardian of democracy: The  

civic mission of schools. Philadelphia, PA: Johnathan Gould. 
 
Carcasson, M. (2013). Rethinking civic engagement on campus: The overarching potential of 

deliberative practice.” Higher Education Exchange, 37 – 48. 



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Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education. New York: 

The Free Press. 
 
Dewey, J. (1929). Experience and education. New York, NY: MacMillan. 
 
Flanagan, C. A. (2013). Teenage citizens: The political theories of the young. Cambridge, MA: Harvard 

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Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum. 
 
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Gutman, A. (1987). Democratic education. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 
 
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Jackson, T. (2001). The art and craft of gently socratic inquiry. In A. L. Costa (Ed.)  

Developing minds: A resource for teaching thinking (459 – 465). Alexandria,  
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44(1 & 2), 8 – 19. 
 
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Miller, C. E. The Plain Vanilla Process. (paper, University of Hawai‘i, Manoa, HI, May 15, 2014). 



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Molnar-Main, S., & Kingseed, L. (2013). Public learning in public schools: How networks of 
teachers and public partners can support civic learning. Connections. Retrieved from 
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Nabatchi, T., Gastil, J. G., Weiksner, M. & Leighninger, M. (2012). Democracy in motion: Evaluating 

the practice and impact of deliberative civic engagement. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
 
National Council for the Social Studies. (2013). The college, career, and civic life (C3) framework for 

social studies state standards. Silver Spring, MD: The National Council for the Social Studies. 
 
Parker, W. (2010). Social studies education e21. In W. Parker (Ed.), Social Studies Today: Research 

and Practice (3 – 16). New York: Routledge. 
 
Sharp, A.M. (1993). ‘The community of inquiry: Education for democracy’ in M. Lipman (Ed.), 

Thinking children and education, ed. by M Lipman, Hunt Publishing Company, Dubuque, 
pp.  337 – 343.  

 
Vinson, K. D. (2006). Opression, anti-opression, and citizenship education. In Ross,  

E. W. (Ed.), The Social studies curriculum: Purposes, problems and possibilities (pp. 51 – 76). 
Albany: State University of New York Press. 

 
Address Correspondences to:  

Amber Strong Makaiau 
Makaiau,University of Hawai‘i at Manoa 
amakaiau@hawaii.edu 

mailto:amakaiau@hawaii.edu

