









































Analytic teaching and Philosophical praxis


ANALYTIC TEACHING AND PHILOSOPHICAL PRAXIS Volume 43, Issue 2 (2023) 

 

Editor’s Welcome  
 

This second issue of AT&PP (Vol. 43) includes a range of articles, six in total, 
responding to a Call for Papers on the Politization of Education. The result is a rich 
array of perspectives, some centered in Philosophy for Children while others explore 
the larger political landscape of contemporary education and the challenge of teaching 
in such ideologically volatile environments. These articles are followed by three book 
reviews that look at timely contributions to issues of education and culture.     

 
The first article by Erick Padilla Rosas, “U.S. Americanization of Puerto Rico’s 

Public Schools,” kicks off the issue by exploring the problematic heritage of American 
educational policies in Puerto Rico and how this history of colonization might be 
challenged in the classroom. Pierre-Étienne Vandamme’s “Why (and How) Schools 
Should Engage in Political Education” examines where students’ beliefs about politics 
largely derive from, most notably their family, and how schools should be more involved 
in preparing students to better deal with the challenges of democracy.  Mark Anthony 
Conlon’s “Navigating Controversial Classroom Discussions” provides another 
important perspective by exploring the legal and state standards that teachers can appeal 
to in order to justify discussing complex political topics in the classroom.   

The fourth article, Kenneth Pike’s “A Contractualist Approach to Politized 
Education,” problematizes the idea of political neutrality as a pedagogical strategy for 
discussing contentious political topics. He suggests contractualism, with its sensitivity to 
the kind of burdens differing approaches place on students and teachers, as the most 
defensible way to approach contentious topics in the classroom.  Zachary Odermatt and 
Robert W. Siscoe provide some different examples of how contentious topics could be 
constructively pursued in the college classroom in their article, “Philosophical Dialogue 
and the Civic Virtues.” Drawing on the practice of intergroup dialogue, these authors 
walk through their own success in cultivating tolerance, egalitarianism and solidarity 
within a diverse group of students in one of their philosophy classes focused on race, 
class and gender.  

The last article by Susan Gardner and Wayne Henry, “Teaching ‘A Sense of 
Collective Identity’” anchors the issue by looking at the various sources of our current 
political polarizations, whether this be climate change or race relations, and explores the 
deeper roots of these disagreements.  Utilizing the idea of creating a culture of inquiry, 
these authors argue that we urgently need to focus on ways of prioritizing our problems 
from the perspective of our collective identity as a species (Homo sapiens) and emphasize 
the power of collaborative reasoning as a means to combat our egotism and tribalism.   

Three book reviews end this year’s 2023 volume. Yarmel provides a thoughtful 
review of Kizel’s (ed.) Philosophy with Children and Teacher Education, followed by 
Miraglia’s review of Tibaldeo’s Matthew Lipman and Ann Margaret Sharp, which gives an 
informative summary of Tibaldeo’s history of the relationship between these two 
seminal thinkers. Morehouse’s review of Henry’s A Philosopher’s Guide to Natural 
Capitalism highlights why Henry believes we need to rethink the grounds of capitalism.  

As always, I hope this issue finds you well.  
Pax et Bonum,  
 
Jason Howard       

CHIEF EDITOR 

Jason J. Howard 

Viterbo University 

 

WEB PAGE MASTER 

Jason Skoog 

Viterbo University 

 

ASSISTANTS 

Madeline Feldhake 

Bonny Fish 

Viterbo University 

 

EDITORIAL BOARD 

Natalie M. Fletcher 

Brila Institute, Quebec 

 

Nadia S. Kennedy 

Stony Brook University, SUNY 

 

Megan J. Laverty 

Teachers College, Columbia 

University 

 

Maria Miraglia, 
University of Naples Federico II 

 

Richard Morehouse, Emeritus 

Viterbo University 

 

Félix García Moriyón 

Center for Philosophy for 

Children, Madrid, Spain 

 

Stefano Oliverio 
University of Naples Federico II 

 

Joe Oyler 

Maynooth University, Ireland 

 

Tonya Wagner 
VP of Academic Affairs & Institutional 

Effectiveness, Viterbo University  
 

Barbara Weber 

University of British Columbia 
 

Aaron Yarmel 

Center for Ethics and Human 

Values, Ohio State University 

 

PUBLISHER 
Viterbo University, La Crosse, WI 45601 
Established in 1981 as Analytic Teaching at 

Texas Wesleyan College and transferred to 

Viterbo in 1993. Online Copyright 2005. 
Analytic Teaching and Philosophical Praxis 

is a peer-reviewed, online, open access 

journal published annually and sometimes 
biannually. ISSN 2374-8257 

 


