Abstract:

The task of the subject didactics of philosophy is to provide a scientific basis for the planning, analysis and evaluation of philosophical-ethical teaching and learning processes (Runtenberg 2016; Pfister 2020). While the German-speaking didactics of philosophy initially focused primarily on learning philosophy with adolescents above the primary level (cf. Martens 1979; Rehfus 1986), specific didactic concepts, models and methods for philosophy lessons with younger children were developed (cf. Lipman et al. 1980; Matthews 1989). This also gave the impetus in subject didactics of philosophy to develop models and methods for the new target group (cf. Englhart 1997; Martens 1999). Therefore, one can say that within philosophy didactics - nationally and internationally - it was recognized from early on that learning group-specific concepts are needed that are based on the specific learning requirements of the students. Nevertheless, when it comes to teaching philosophy, students with special cognitive needs were hardly considered.

At least since the UN CRPD, however, this has been a goal that must be implemented in philosophy classes. To do this, every subject must be ‘fit for inclusion’ (cf. Lücke 2015). Especially in heterogeneous settings, there will be a stronger focus on the individual learning requirements of the learners in order to be able to provide the students with suitable learning opportunities. Didactics of philosophy is also required to develop didactic concepts for these scenarios.

Since philosophy as a humanities is particularly focused on thinking, it must be explained how this can be achieved with students with cognitive impairments. Because just as it can be asked whether it is not impossible to offer physical education classes for paralyzed students, one could ask whether it is not impossible to get someone with a “thinking disability” to philosophize. We do not think this can be equated. In this article we will therefore, on the one hand, clarify what we understand by philosophy and philosophizing and on the other hand what we mean by intellectual disability, in order to show how learning philosophy and philosophizing can be successful with this target group.

Building on this, this article argues that didactic models, methods and concepts are needed for teaching philosophy to students with special needs, also and especially for students with cognitive impairments who have respective special needs. This applies to the training of students at specific schools for learners with special needs, as well as to the joint teaching of students with and without special needs.

While there are subject-specific didactic concepts for philosophy lessons that specifically consider pupils with special educational needs or specifically identify them as the addressees of the concept (cf. Dohmen 2008; Bartsch 2014; Maisenhölder/Hartmann 2023), there are, on the one hand, no concepts for every target group. On the other hand, those that exist have not yet been empirically investigated. We therefore want to provide another building block to close this gap and present a concept of how philosophizing with students with cognitive impairments can be succeesful. For this we want to present the first empirical results from an exploratory implementation attempt at a school for students with intellectual special needs and explain how further research can be conducted from here on.

Keywords:

Teaching Philosophy, Philosophizing, Special Needs Education, Intellectual Disability, Educating Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities.