Author ORCID Identifier

Alejandro Arango: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1032-9542

Maria Howard: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6949-5513

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Teaching Philosophy

Abstract

What is a philosophy class like? What roles do teachers and students play? Questions like these have been answered time and again by philosophers using images and metaphors. As philosophers continue to develop pedagogical approaches in a more conscious way, it is worth evaluating traditional metaphors used to understand and structure philosophy classes. In this article, we examine two common metaphors—the sage on the stage, and philosophy as combat—and show why they fail pedagogically. Then we propose five metaphors—teaching philosophy as world-traveling, wondering, conducting an orchestra, storytelling, and coaching—that can better respond to the needs of increasingly diverse student bodies. Further, these metaphors find their ground in long-standing beliefs about what philosophy is, how it is done, and what it can do for those willing to engage in it. While no single one of them is comprehensive, we think that these models can help us enliven our own thinking about our teaching and the roles we and our students play in our classrooms.

Pages

121-144

html

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5840/teachphil2021330141

Volume

44

Issue

2

Publication Date

6-2021

Disciplines

Philosophy

Comments

This version of the article is not the final Version of Record. Citation information for the final, published version is:

Arango, A., & Howard, M. (2021). Re-envisioning the philosophy classroom through metaphors. Teaching Philosophy, 44(2), 121–144. https://doi.org/10.5840/teachphil2021330141

ISSN

2153-6619

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
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