call for contributions - special issue: "racism, colonialism and philosophy for /with children: praxis in non-ideal contexts."

the founding of the philosophy for/ with children movement (p4/wc) is credited to matthew lipman and ann margaret sharp, who both believed that children could be encouraged to become more reasonable democratic citizens through encounters with philosophical narratives on everyday issues. however, from the start they avoided an important area of their everyday commitments to children in their writing. lipman, for example, was particularly familiar with issues of race and racism in his private life. he was married to the first black woman to be elected to the new jersey senate at a time when ‘anti-miscegenation’ laws were still constitutionally protected in the us. he was a professor at columbia university during the student protest of 1968 which was directly motivated by issues of racial segregation and gentrification. he additionally strongly dissented against hannah arendt’s remarks on little rock. similarly, sharp taught at spelman college, an hbcu in atlanta, georgia, and noted how this experience was profoundly influential on her development of p4c. despite their direct engagement with issues of race and racism in american education, neither sharp nor lipman explicitly engaged in sustained discussions of racism, colonialism, and p4c. as a result, over the last 50 years the literature has either overlooked the topics of race and racism in p4c or adopted a color-blind attitude to these issues.

despite this, and p4/wc becoming popular in a number of ostensibly democratic countries with a documented history of settler-colonialism few who practice within these contexts take the time to reflect on how p4c’s democratic norms can reaffirm forms of colonial violence. this has led to p4/wc developing as an at once global and parochial practice. such a perspective can only exist within the broad and abstract thinking context that ultimately overlooks the critical non-ideal details of growing up in settler colonial states. emphasizing ideal reasoning in this way risks silencing the distinct, contextualized voices of racially minoritized participants under the guise of a globalized, "neutral," and all-inclusive ethico-political project.

while traditional p4c continues to encourage philosophical reflection and dialogue inspired by ideal and abstract conceptualizations of (racial) justice, there is an urgent need to rethink p4c as a practice that can navigate the dynamic, messy, and often tragic context of globalized colonialism and institutionalized racism. this special issue seeks to develop philosophical praxis in relation to philosophizing with children that remain cognizant of how racism and colonialism have shaped, and continue to shape our contexts and philosophical thinking. it is particularly concerned with creating an intellectual space for exploring the connection between the critical philosophy of race, decolonial studies, and philosophy for children. 

we invite scholar-practitioners who have demonstrated a strong interest and commitment to research at the intersection of philosophy and education, particularly those who focus on philosophical thinking with children within colonial and racialized educational contexts. we are specifically interested in contributions that critically engage with relevant philosophical and scholarly traditions like social epistemology, critical race theory, critical whiteness studies, and critical pedagogy. additionally, we seek contributions that explore intersections with indigenous studies, raciolinguistics, settler colonial studies, decoloniality, migration studies, and urban education studies. by bringing together these diverse perspectives, we aim to deepen the practice of p4c by directly acknowledging and addressing the complex realities that children of color experience in their daily lives. 

the special issue is particularly interested in exploring some of the following key questions:

1. what might an antiracist / decolonial p4/wc praxis look like?
2. how has the failure to engage with racism in the usa impacted p4/wc practice?
3. how can (the community of philosophical inquiry) meanings of racism and colonialism be explored from diverse perspectives, which complicate solely western perspectives?
4. how are we addressing erased, ignored, silenced ‘voices’ in relation to racism and colonialism, in deliberately marginalised communities?
5. how can p4/wc empower diverse youth given the historical relationship between democracy, education, and white supremacy?
6. how can the pedagogical relationship between adult and child philosophers in p4/wc be explored from diverse perspectives that complicate the capitalistic, anti-familial, and state-centric view of western moral and political education?
7. how can we reconceptualize the relationships between facilitator and participants from within the context of institutional racism and colonialism. 

contributions include, but are not limited to:

1) traditional scholarly papers (c,6-8k words) – especially co-authored pieces;

2) field notes and classroom reflections (that will be published under the section ‘experiences’)

3) creative pieces that could be used as p4/wc starting points – stories, playscripts with commentaries (that will be published under a section entitled ‘literature’).

we encourage you to make use of, and contribute to, a work-in-progress bibliography of p4/wc, racism, colonialism:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vzk0fwwltteeyq4vjwzkjboz4_ilc1pluvksoa-nxxs/edit?usp=sharing

submissions for this special edition should be sent in any of the languages accepted by the journal through the journal’s website (https://www.e-publicacoes.uerj.br/childhood). for questions or more information please contact editors darren chetty at darren.chetty.14@ucl.ac.uk, rose-anne reynolds at rose-anne.reynolds@uct.ac.za, and jonathan wurtz at wurtzj@triton.uog.edu

please reply to the editors with an expression of interest or to discuss ideas.

deadline for completed contributions: july 31st 2025.

 

editors’ biographies

dr darren chetty has been philosophising with children since 1996. he is a lecturer at university college london.  he taught in london primary schools for over twenty years practicing philosophy with children (p4c) throughout that time. he is an experienced p4c trainer, having led courses for teachers, youth workers and p4c trainers. darren has worked with sapere (the society for advancement of philosophical enquiry and reflection in education), thinking space, the philosophy foundation and the philosophy man. two of darren’s articles on p4c are included in sapere training materials. the youtube film dwelling together features darren facilitating philosophical inquiry with adults. he teaches on the sapere level 3 course.  darren’s doctoral research focused on philosophy for children, multiculturalism and racism. in 2014 he received the award for excellence in interpreting p4c from the international council for philosophical inquiry with children (icpic). darren contributed to the bestselling book the good immigrant. he writes, with karen sands o’connor, a column on children’s literature for books for keeps, entitled beyond the secret garden? darren has co-authored three books: what is masculinity? why does it matter? and other big questions, aimed at 8-13 year olds (with jeffrey boakye)  how to disagree: negotiate difference in a divided world (with adam ferner), and beyond the secret garden: racially minoritised people in british children’s literature (with karen sands o’connor). he co-edited, with judith suissa, critical philosophy of race and education. he also co-edited, with hanan issa, grug muse and iestyn tyne, welsh (plural) essays on the future of wales. darren’s first picture book will be published by little tiger in 2025.

dr rose-anne reynolds holds a phd in education entitled: a posthuman reconfiguring of philosophy with children in a government primary school in south africa from the university of cape town and is a senior lecturer in childhood studies in the school of education at uct. rose-anne’s areas of research focus includes: reimaging child, childhood and schooling specifically focused on the context of apartheid and post-apartheid childhood and schooling, socially just pedagogies and land justice in relation to childhood. other research interests include:  inclusion and diversity including disability studies; philosophy with children and the community of philosophical enquiry as a pedagogy and methodology. rose-anne is deliberate about co-researching with children which makes it possible for children to be a bigger part of the discourse about childhood. rose-anne convenes the bed honours in education programme at uct and supervises honours and master’s students. she works with the pgce sp/fet students on issues of ethics in education and inclusive education. rose-anne is an experienced p4wc trainer and has been working with teachers and teachers in training in cape town, south africa. some of rose-anne’s publications can be found here:  

https://humanities.uct.ac.za/school-education/contacts/rose-anne-reynolds

1. jonathan wurtz is an assistant professor in philosophy at the university of guam. over the last decade of practicing philosophy for children, jonathan has been facilitating p4c sessions at all levels of k-12 education in mainly urban settings that serve underrepresented student populations. in 2022, they joined the university of guam and have been working to introduce p4c to the island in collaboration with the guam department of education, the office of global learning and engagement, and the guam 4-h youth development program. they since have led multiple teacher professional development workshops in philosophy for children, taught a college level p4c training course for philosophy majors, organized and directed a philosophy summer and winter for pre-college students on guam, and managed and funded a student-led project to create a p4c activity book for guam’s 4-h youth development program. jonathan has also published on issues of p4c, race, and colonialism. their research is specifically concerned with the ways that p4c can reaffirm racist power-dynamics and to rethink the community of philosophical inquiry as a hyper-local practice that can concretely engage with the material struggles of its participants.