Kritike 11 (2):80-92 (
2017)
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Abstract
This article explores the notion of pedagogical authority as
exercised in the Community of Inquiry, the method for facilitating
Philosophy for Children (P4C). It argues that the teachers’ pedagogical
authority in a Community of Inquiry is not predicated on their
intellectual superiority or status. Rather it finds its legitimacy in their
role as instigators of students’ thinking skills, which are assumed to be
already possessed by the learners. This thesis is discussed in relation
to Rancière’s concept of the dissociation of the will and the intellect,
which is treated here as conceptual complement to the existing
interpretation of pedagogical authority as understood and practiced by
scholars in the field of P4C.