a response to ecclestone and hayes’ critique of therapeutic education using the community of inquiry to bridge the divide between the therapeutic and the educational
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12957/childphilo.2025.88785Keywords:
agonistic, diminished-self, pwc, community of inquiry, therapeutic education, therapeutic groupworkAbstract
This paper argues against Ecclestone and Hayes’ claims (2009) that children and young people are more anxious and less resilient because of ‘therapeutic education’. We propose that they present a partial view of education premised on the concept of ‘the diminished self’. We suggest that using the community of inquiry approach as devised by Lipman and Sharp (Lipman, 2003; Sharp, 2018; Lipman, et al., 1980), far from creating anxious learners, introduces them to the relational challenges of interpersonal communication, the uncertainties of philosophical engagement and in doing so, offers them space within which to develop their independent and collaborative thinking and reasoning, thus becoming more confident and more resilient learners who are capable of engaging with the uncertainties that surround them. The key to these enhanced capacities is an increased emphasis on ‘agonistic inquiry’ where conflict and agonistic relations are not avoided, where the affectual is integral to inquiry, and where a safe consensus over ends and means is less valued as a feature of inquiry.
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