Technologies and philosophy are critical elements in teaching and learning in schools. At a time of so much concern over artificial intelligence, robotics and other emerging technologies, it is pertinent to explore how machines can transform, enhance or hamper doing philosophy with children in Africa. Our ‘questionstorm’ project in Nigeria can highlight this intersection, and its impact on teaching and learning in the region.
I came about the term questionstorm in an attempt to step down doing philosophy for and with children in primary schools in Nigeria. Unlike in Europe, philosophy for children is not offered in schools in Nigeria and in most parts of the continent. While I am committed to fostering philosophical inquiry and critical thinking in primary and secondary schools in the region, I am exploring ways to realise this project and make philosophy for children fun and entertaining for elementary schoolers.
I studied philosophy for my first and second degrees, but until recently I was not fascinated by the idea of doing philosophy with children. I did not find P4C appealing, because I thought philosophy was for adults only; that children were too young to engage in philosophical inquiry. But I was mistaken.
I rediscovered philosophy, this time for children, in my efforts to fix what I thought was wrong with the school system in Nigeria. The educational system puts too much emphasis on memorisation and rote learning, on reading and reproducing what other people, teachers and authors have thought or written. Learning is largely passive and teacher centered. Schooling is more of a cut-and-paste, memorise-and-reproduce process. Schools mainly turn out students and learners who cannot reason on their own, exert their independent minds, think outside the box, or think with others.
There is a lack of critical thinking or inquiry-based learning in schools and, by extension, in Nigerian society. Meanwhile, the national policy on education aims to foster critical and reflective thinking in primary schools, but there is no subject in primary or secondary schools that encourages inquiry-based learning. To change how children think and learn, how they are taught and educated, philosophy for children is operationalised as questionstorm.
Questionstorm entails asking and generating questions in all areas of human endeavour. The intelligence of students is tested and measured not in the production or reproduction of answers, but in challenging assumptions and existing knowledge, in interrogating and disputing issues and experiences. Knowledge is assessed based on the ability and capacity to exert and express curiosity and inquisitiveness. Children are taught to think in terms of questions.
At elementary schools, students are learning to form words and construct sentences. So in philosophy for children lessons, they are taught formation of words and phrases that could be used to interrogate ideas. Then they are taught to use these words and phrases to ask simple or complex questions, general and specific, referential, conditional, rhetoric questions – in the past, present, or future, in the negative or positive forms.
In addition, students are taught some questional approaches, including question-to-question, question-to-answer, and quiz-questional approaches. In question-to-question approach, students are taught to reply to questions with questions. In everyday life it is considered rude or impolite to respond to questions with questions, but in philosophy for children, this habit is a mark of intelligence, and knowledge.
Students are made to understand that some questions are vague or not sensible, and questions could be asked to seek clarifications. For example. Who is sitting in the garden? In response, someone could ask: “Which garden?”, or “Are you sure someone is sitting in the garden?”.
In the question-to-answer approach, children are taught to respond to answers with questions. For instance, to this answer: “He lives in Malta”, one could ask: “Why does he live in Malta?”, “In which part of Malta does he live?”, “How long has he lived there?”, and “Are you sure he lives in Malta?”.
Students are made to understand that some answers may be vague, wrong, incorrect or mistaken. And questions could be asked to correct, seek clarity or better comprehension. The goal is to train children to think in terms of questions, not answers, when they find themselves in situations where they are asked questions or are provided with answers. In carrying out these exercises, teachers or instructors are encouraged to provide students hints or helpful tips to help the generation of questions. Students can use their computers and laptops to generate questions in response to questions, and questions in response to answers.
Furthermore, there is a quiz questional approach. This is a form of question-to-answer approach, but in this case there is a right or ‘correct’ question. And students are trained to generate the right question. Teachers and instructors provide core and peripheral hints to enable students to ask the right questions. This approach proceeds as follows: an answer or a response is provided, and students are told to guess the correct question. The quiz questional approach is the mechanism for organising critical thinking competitions for students and pupils.
These exercises have illustrated that students think and can think in terms of questions; that students can be coexaminers and co interrogators of issues and experiences. That intelligence can be measured based on expressed critical and interrogative capacities.
In conclusion, philosophy for children is delivered as a questionstorm, an exercise in inquiry, interrogation and examination of issues. Technologies constitute enhancers and enablers of philosophical abilities. Machines facilitate autonomy in the exercise of curiosity and inquisitiveness. Technological applications help students inquire, probe, practice and apply with relative freedom the various questional approaches. They foster an exercise of critical thinking sentiments in ways that guarantee some agency and independence, freeing children from undue control by teachers, parents and guardians.
However, access to technology is uneven. Digital divide applies within and across regions. Some children are more technologically advantaged than others. Many schools lack power, internet access, and computers or tablets. While some children live and school in rural areas where there is limited technological access and connection, others live and study in urban areas where children have a better access to technologies.
This digital divide implies some thinking, questioning, and interrogative difference; some variation in abilities and capacities to technoquestionstorm and philosophically inquire. How African governments and people manage this gap, their ability to narrow it, will determine the transformative impact and possibilities of philosophy for children in the region in the years ahead.
