Document Type : پژوهشی
Authors
1
Associate Professor, Department of Education, Faculty of Humanities, University of Mazandarn, Babolsar, Iran
2
Master’s Degree in History and Philosophy of Education, University of Mazandaran, Sari, Iran
Abstract
Abstract
Research on the teaching of philosophy has mostly focused on assessing the educational outcomes of this course, paying less attention to how the subject is constituted within the power relations of the philosophy classroom. This study was conducted to investigate the event of subjectification in high school philosophy education, based on a Foucauldian reading and focusing on the narratives of teachers and students. The study adopted a qualitative approach using directed content analysis. Participants included 9 available philosophy and logic teachers and 11 twelfth-grade humanities students from academic high schools in Neka, who were selected purposefully considering the diversity of their responses. After extracting semantic units, initial coding, and organizing them into sub-themes and main themes, the data were analyzed through the lens of Foucauldian concepts. The findings revealed that philosophy education was effective in shaping the philosophical subject across three domains: insight, attitude, and action. In the production of the philosophical subject, the emergence of features such as questioning and reasoning, acceptance of differing perspectives and ambiguity, increased self-confidence in expressing opinions, participation in dialogue, and reflection on personal decisions were observable. At the same time, these findings contain implicit guidelines for improving the philosophy classroom. These guidelines were presented at four levels: teaching methods practices, the teacher’s role and relations with students, assessment practices, and the classroom and school level.
Synopsis
This study examines subjectivation in the secondary-school philosophy classroom from a Foucauldian perspective, focusing on the experiences of philosophy and logic teachers and twelfth-grade students. Previous research on philosophy education has largely emphasized educational outcomes, while paying less attention to how subjectivity is constituted within classroom relations. The study therefore approaches the philosophy classroom as a field of power/knowledge relations in which students’ ways of thinking, relating to themselves and others, and acting can be transformed.
A qualitative approach and directed content analysis were employed. Participants included nine accessible philosophy and logic teachers and eleven twelfth-grade humanities students in theoretical secondary schools in Neka. They were selected purposively with attention to variation in their responses. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. After extracting semantic units and developing initial codes, the codes were organized into subthemes and main themes and interpreted through Foucauldian concepts, particularly power/knowledge, subjectivation, and technologies of the self. Insight, attitude, and action served as organizing empirical domains rather than as a linear causal sequence.
The findings indicate that philosophy education is associated with changes in the formation of a philosophical subject across these three domains. In the domain of insight, participants reported greater questioning, reasoning, consideration of multiple perspectives, and reconsideration of taken-for-granted assumptions. In the domain of attitude, accounts pointed to greater openness toward different viewpoints and ambiguity, increased confidence in expressing opinions, and willingness to engage in dialogue. In the domain of action, participation in discussion, giving reasons for judgments, and reflection on personal decisions were among the reported changes. These findings suggest that philosophy education can create conditions in which students develop particular relations to knowledge, truth, themselves, and others.
From a Foucauldian perspective, these changes are not simply educational gains detached from power. They emerge through classroom practices that encourage students to question, articulate, examine, and regulate themselves. The teacher also participates in the relations of power/knowledge through which classroom possibilities are organized. At the same time, the findings reveal constraints, including limited interest in philosophy among some students, restricted participation, persistence of previous patterns of thinking, curricular limitations, and assessment pressures. Subjectivation therefore appears neither uniform nor predetermined, but contingent upon the interaction of pedagogical practices, institutional conditions, and students’ responses.
Conclusion
The findings suggest that the secondary-school philosophy classroom should not be understood merely as a setting for transmitting philosophical information. It is a field of power/knowledge relations in which particular ways of thinking, speaking, judging, and relating to oneself and others become possible. Across the three empirical domains of insight, attitude, and action, teachers’ and students’ accounts indicate the emergence of characteristics associated with a philosophical subject: questioning, reasoning, attention to multiple perspectives, openness to ambiguity, confidence in expressing views, participation in dialogue, and reflection on judgments and decisions.
These findings can be interpreted through Foucauldian subjectivation. When students question apparently self-evident claims, ask for reasons, compare interpretations, or reconsider previous beliefs, they are not merely acquiring skills; their relation to knowledge and to themselves is being reorganized. Technologies of the self become visible in practices through which students examine their assumptions, articulate their positions, and reconsider their judgments. Thus, the significance of philosophy education lies partly in the possibilities it creates for students to participate in their own formation as thinking and reflective subjects.
The findings also complicate the role of the teacher. The teacher is not outside relations of power as a purely liberating agent. Rather, teachers help organize the conditions under which students speak, question, justify, and evaluate claims, while their own professional action is shaped by curriculum, assessment, and institutional requirements. The classroom is therefore a relational field in which power operates through pedagogical practices rather than simply being imposed from above.
The study also identified constraints and divergent responses. Some students regarded philosophy as uninteresting or of limited usefulness, while limited participation and persistence of previous patterns of thinking were also reported. Teachers referred to constraints such as limited time, curricular pressures, and the dominance of assessment requirements. These findings indicate that subjectivation is not a uniform outcome. They also suggest caution in labeling every negative response as “resistance”; the evidence more securely supports interpreting such responses as tensions and constraints within the relations of power surrounding philosophy education.
The findings have practical implications at four levels identified in the study. At the level of teaching methods, greater use of questioning, dialogue, reason-giving, comparison of perspectives, and examination of taken-for-granted assumptions can create space for students’ active participation. At the level of teacher–student relations, teachers can support students in expressing disagreement and developing their own positions while requiring reasons for those positions. At the level of assessment, greater attention can be given to reasoning, interpretation, questioning, and reflective judgment rather than reproduction of philosophical information alone. At the classroom and school level, sufficient time and institutional space are needed for sustained philosophical dialogue.
A Foucauldian approach, therefore, does not propose a fixed model of the ideal philosophical student. Its value lies in examining how desirable forms of subjectivity are produced through classroom practices and institutional arrangements. Philosophy teaching can contribute to subjectivation when it opens spaces for students to question, reason, reconsider themselves, and engage seriously with difference.
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