Asst. Prof. Marella Ada V. Mancenido-Bolanos presented her paper before a gathering of philosophers in a bi-yearly conference organized by the International Council of Philosophical Inquiry with Children at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada on June 25 to 27, 2015. In a philosophical discourse entitled Children, Media, and Lipman’s Philosophy for Children,Mancenido-Bolanos examined the role of the media in forming the children’s identity and the possibility of using Lipman’s Philosophy for Children (P4C) to help understand their sense of identity. She concluded that media may have had influenced today’s youth, twisting or building their sense of identity. She pointed however that hopes remain since there are people who could help them process their thoughts in order to make them realize what is truly essential and valuable.
Corollary to this event was another global assembly of teacher and philosophers hosted by the Philosophy Learning and Teachers Organization at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA, on June 29 to 30, 2015. This biennial conference took for its theme Equity and Inquiry which accepted papers and posters in connection with the best teaching practices that result to improved educational system.
Mancenido-Bolaños presented a poster entitled Teaching Justice and Equity Among Children: Matthew Lipman’s Caring Thinking and the Place for Philosophy in the Philippine K-12 Curriculum. She explained that the poster is not a criticism of the present system, but an analysis of what else needs to be done, otherwise every stakeholder in education will be lost in the process of improving the entire system. She extrapolated that given the fact that children’s notion of equity and justice are varied, it would be difficult for the teacher to really teach its essence. With Lipman’s P4C, the teachers task can in a way be simplified since the discussion revolves with in the spectrum of the students until they are able to understand, clarify and justify their own beliefs.
Mancenido-Bolaños is currently working on her dissertation which focuses on Lipman’s Philosophy for children and its implications in the Philippine education system. These two conferences allowed her to create linkages with experts in the said field.
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