Abstract
Doing philosophy for/with children and exposing students to multiple perspectives, exemplified within the
Austrian Centre of Philosophy with Children’s implementation project of the Philosophical Enquiry Advancing
Cosmopolitan Engagement (PEACE) curriculum in schooling, may offer a valuable written, taught, and tested
curriculum for democratic citizenry. This paper provides an analysis that seeks to present, describe, critique, and
make recommendations on the PEACE curriculum. The paper asks the question: In what ways does the
Philosophical Enquiry Advancing Cosmopolitan Engagement as a 21st century curriculum address education for
democratic citizenry? In this evaluation the ways in which issues of culture and identity, human rights and
democracy are perceived and addressed, along with issues of critical thinking and reasoning in verbal and nonverbal language are attended. Concepts of collaboration, cooperation, teacher support and development are also
critiqued. This critique is based on a ten-day Austrian Center of Philosophy with Children conference and
training course on the PEACE curriculum, and consists of open-ended interviews, personal observations, and
published reports on pre- and post-test results of the PEACE curriculum. Exploring the integration of the
Austrian Center of Philosophy with Children PEACE curriculum and the Philosophy for/with Children
methodology, this paper utilizes Hansen’s (1995) five principles for guiding curriculum development practice as
a framework for analysis. It is hoped that findings and recommendations from this study may stir further
exploration and contribute to the work of Philosophy for/with Children in democratic education for 21st century
citizenry worldwide.
Keywords: Democratic education, Philosophy for/with Children, Philosophical Enquiry Advancing
Cosmopolitan Engagement (P.E.A.C.E.) Curriculum, Curriculum development, 21st Century citizenry, critical
thinkin