Enabling identity as an ethical tension in a community of philosophical inquiry with children and young adults

Abstract

This article focuses on an ethical tension in a community of philosophical inquiry with children and young adults; the resolution that the author suggests is called “enabling identity.” The “enabling identity” model seeks to endow a voice to children and adolescents from marginalized groups by challenging the mainstream hegemonic discourse that governs the discourse where communities of philosophical inquiry operate. One of the challenges that philosophy for children faces today is enabling the voices of marginalized groups represented within communities of philosophical inquiry comprising children or adults to be heard. The participants in communities of philosophical inquiry who come from non-privileged backgrounds and low socio-economic sectors or national minorities, whose narrative does not accord with that of the dominant national narrative, feel uncomfortable expressing their feelings and experiences, preferring not to raise the questions that interest them. Even if they are amicable, such communities of inquiry are governed—even if implicitly—by the hegemonic metanarrative. This article analyzes this ethical tension and suggests a three-phase theoretical and practical model which depicts this enabling while relying on narrative theory as well as the philosophical and dialogical work of Emmanuel Levinas and Martin Buber. The last part also offers insights from research in German and Israeli communities of inquiry with children and young adults that have used this model.