What Counts as Legitimate Participation? Embracing Students' Funds of Knowledge in Philosophical Inquiry

Abstract

While ample theoretical and empirical work has been done around the aims, methods, and outcomes of Philosophy for Children (P4C), few interpretive case studies currently give voice to students’ lived experiences and ways of enacting their philosophical selves within a community of inquiry. This case study shows how three students in one fifth-grade community of philosophical inquiry drew on their funds of knowledge to gain entry into the inquiry and to make epistemic philosophical progress. Some students made epistemic progress using discourse moves that were not traditional to Western philosophy. Further, this community of inquiry utilized their epistemic authority to reject abstract lines of inquiry in favor of concrete ideas and experiences and made epistemic philosophical progress on their own terms. Thus, by heeding to students’ diverse and multifaceted participation styles, the findings of this study challenge current notions about (1) what counts as legitimate participation in philosophical inquiry and (2) how a community of inquiry makes epistemic philosophical progress.