The Philosophical Ethics in Early Childhood project aims to advance knowledge of preschool children’s ethical understanding and explores the effectiveness of philosophical discussion of children’s literature and extension activities for fostering ethical development in early childhood. In this article we discuss results of our ethics education study with preschool children, including pre-post measurement of experimental and control groups and a 12-week educational intervention focusing on the themes of fairness, empathy, personal welfare and inclusion versus exclusion of peers. As compared to (...) our control group, study results demonstrated significant developments in our experimental group’s ability to respond to ethical questions, increased use of emotion markers, and increased use of justification terms in support of responses. (shrink)

The movement of Philosophy for Children starts with M. Lipman in the early ‘70s. University professor Matthew Lipman noticed that his students lacked critical thinking skills. He suggested that, when students reach university age, it is rather late and difficult to teach them how to think.1 It would be wiser to undertake such a task at a much earlier age. Thus, he proposed the introduction of philosophy in elementary schools.

Trust is vital for individuals to flourish and have a sense of well-being in their community. A trusting society allows people to feel safe, communicate with each other and engage with those who are different to themselves without feeling fearful. In this paper I employ an Aristotelian framework in order to identify trust as a virtue and I defend the need to cultivate trust in children. I discuss the case study of Buranda State School in Queensland, Australia as an instance (...) of successful school reform that reinstates trust in an educational setting. Buranda makes use of the community of inquiry (CoI) pedagogy practiced by advocates of philosophy for children (P4C). Educators may create a safe space in the classroom by using the CoI and giving children the chance to voice their ideas and build upon, as well as question, those of others in a democratic and respectful manner. Through this pragmatic dialogue, trust may be established, along with a sense of belonging that supports well-being in the classroom as well as in life. (shrink)