SATURDAY 10:25am Plenary
This presentation will examine briefly the practical experience of introducing P4C in a pluralistic and plurilingual region known as Southeast Asia. However, more time will be spent on the more intellectual aspects of P4C adoption. Since P4C is relatively new in the region, this presentation will focus only on the experience of three countries, which have been using P4C in the last 10 years, namely, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. Each of these countries has its own post-colonial heritage to consider and in each case, such heritage affects the way P4C is seen intellectually given the fact that this programme of philosophical inquiry grew out of a Western philosophical perspective, principally that of John Dewey’s, Lev Vygotsky’s and Matthew Lipman’s.
Among the issues to be briefly considered are: how well is P4C expected to settle in a situation of communitarianism (as against the neo-liberalism of the West); the relationship between citizenship education (in state formation) and P4C; and to what extent should and/or could P4C be indigenised?
Biography
Dr Ho Wah Kam, currently Academic Consultant to the Singapore Teachers’ Union (STU), has helped STU bring back Philosophy for Children (P4C) to the schools (primary, and secondary schools and junior colleges), and has revitalized the programme by drawing on expertise from FAPSA. Dr Ho was formerly Dean of Education at Singapore’s National Institute of Education.