Discussion with a philosophical aim: the teacher’s deontology, role and leadership while conducting philosophical discussions with the goal of resilience
Discussions having a philosophical goal at school with children and adolescents is a practice which permits one to use a philosophical approach so as to develop different thought modalities (critical, dialogical). This innovative practice is established as a praxis whose terminal objectives vary according to a diagnosis of the pupils’ fundamental needs of thought, including the methods, the plans and the content of their thoughts. It is up to the teacher to define the methods used in implementing his sessions and the orientation of his position so as to converge towards a terminal objective, which is to establish a dialogical link with pupils who do not think or communicate. With adolescents showing behaviour disorders and a rejection of authority and who are maladjusted in institutions, while recognizing the suffering of these high school students experiencing social and academic failure, it is possible to use theories of resilience at school so as to incorporate factors leading to resilience within mediation sessions, which revive the bases of the thought process under the teacher’s specific guidance. Following Tozzi’s research (2001,2004, 2006, 2007, 2012) on the teacher’s role in discussion with a philosophical aim, this article reveals the need for leading troubled adolescents to think for themselves while using the emancipating process of resilience.