Dr. Maughn Gregory Gives Keynote Address at 30th Anniversary Conference of the Federation of Asia-Pacific Philosophy in Schools Associations (FAPSA)

Dr. Maughn Gregory, Professor in the Educational Foundations department and Director of the Institute of the Advancement of Philosophy for Children, just returned from Melbourne, Australia, where he gave the keynote address at the 30th Anniversary Conference of the Federation of Asia-Pacific Philosophy in Schools Associations (FAPSA), hosted by the University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education, and sponsored by the Philosophy of Education Society of Australia. The theme of the conference was “Communities of Inquiry: Significance, Cultural Change and the Ongoing Relationship with Philosophy for/with Children.” His address, “The Community of Philosophical Inquiry: A Selective Genealogy,” traced the notion of communities of inquiry to the late American philosophers Charles Sanders Peirce and Justus Buchler. Philosophy in schools in Australia dates back to the 1980s when philosophers came to Montclair State College to study with Matthew Lipman and Ann Margaret Sharp at the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children (IAPC). Lipman and Sharp also traveled to Australia to provide teacher education in philosophy and participate in academic conferences. Philosophy for Children quickly spread to many areas in Australia and FAPSA was established in 1991. Australian advocates developed new classroom resources and innovative philosophy programs that have proved influential in educational practice throughout Australia and internationally. In 2017 and 2018 Professor Gilbert Burgh was a visiting scholar at Montclair, where he conducted research on the history of Philosophy for Children in Australia in the IAPC archives. The book that resulted, Philosophical Inquiry with Children: The Development of an Inquiring Society in Australia, was published in 2019.