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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 



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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 



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“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 



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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. 



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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. 



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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


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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. 



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• 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. 



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• 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. 



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• 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. 



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• 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 



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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. 
 
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Address Correspondences to:  
Desireé E. Moodley 
University of Cape Town, South Africa 
Molloy College, New York 
email: dmoodley@lions.molloy.edu;  mdldes019@myuct.ac.za 
 
 
 

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2013.01.002
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2013.771442
http://www.ascd.org/
mailto:dmoodley@lions.molloy.edu/
mailto:mdldes019@myuct.ac.za

