‘They often have AHA-moments’: how training teachers to philosophize the Dialogos Way with their students can promote life skills and democratic citizenship in education

Abstract

This paper is an account of a developmental action inquiry research project in which teachers from 13 secondary schools were trained to philosophize the Dialogos way with their 8th-grade students, as part of ongoing curriculum reforms in Norway. In the reforms, and in this paper, the themes of life skills and democratic citizenship are in the focus. The project’s guiding question reads: What are the challenges and developmental benefits – with regards to life skills and democratic citizenship – when training teachers to philosophize the Dialogos Way with their students? One of the main challenges was that teachers were assigned to the project by their employer; this made it difficult to unleash the full potential of the Dialogos process, as true philosophizing and dialogue cannot be forced onto someone. Despite this, there were clear developmental benefits that correspond to aspects of the respective themes. The conclusion is that training teachers to philosophize the Dialogos way with their students seems to be a fruitful way to integrate aspects of life skills and democratic citizenship into the national curriculum.