2021 Asia Pacific Conference On Philosophy for Children

New Approaches and Directions

A Celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the foundation of PCYNAP

October 30th - 31st 2021

The Philosophy with Children and Youth Network for Asia and the Pacific (PCYNAP) met for the first time at the 15th ICPIC held in Jinju Korea in July 2011. In 2020 we began a renewed effort to build the network resulting in a number of joint projects, including foundation of a reading group and a Children’s International discussion Circle, and we now proudly announce this Conference celebrating the tenth anniversary of PCYNAP. In order to celebrate the 10th anniversary of PCYNAP, Hangzhou Normal University's Jingheng Yi College of Education, the Chair of Collaborative Office of CIPSH in Hangzhou Normal University and Philosophy for Children and Youth Network in the Asia Pacific have jointly and successfully organized the 2021 Asia Pacific International Conference on Philosophy of Children from October 30-31, 2021. The theme of this conference is "New Approaches and Directions in Philosophy for Children", which aims to further consolidate and strengthen all the theoretical and practical forces that promote the development of philosophy for children in the Asia-Pacific region, in order to help children and youth in all countries to better cope with the difficulties and challenges facing them in the 21st century.

The conference invited top scholars engaged in the practice and research of philosophy of children worldwide to make online presentations, presenting the research and practice journeys of philosophy of children activities in different countries and regions, and creating opportunities for practitioners in different cultural circles to reflect on their own practice experiences. The more typical diverse practice paths of philosophy for children in the Asia-Pacific region were presented, and researchers and practitioners were invited to share their stories of philosophy for children in their respective cultural contexts. Through this conference, we have further consolidated and strengthened our ties with international philosophy of children organizations such as IAPC, ICPIC and FAPSA. We will also create opportunities in the future to collaborate with more colleagues on an international scale to build a long-term stable network of research and practice, including but not limited to the publication of practice guides and books, international research projects, etc.

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony was presided over by Prof. Rainier Ibana, the current President of the Asia Pacific Philosophy Association for Children and Youth, who also highlighted the origin of the conference and the main preparatory process, and expressed his heartfelt thanks to FAPSA, CIPSH, HZNU, IAPC and other institutions for their support, sponsorship and participation, especially to the CIPSH Chair Cooperation Office of Hangzhou Normal University and Jingheng Yi College of Education for for their full support and hosting.

Park Jin-hwan, founder of the Philosophy for Children and Youth in Asia Pacific (PCYNAP) and a retired professor from Kyungsang University in Korea, highlighted PCYNAP's philosophy for children teacher training, student philosophy and academic activities in the Asia Pacific region since its inception in 2011.

Prof. Ping-chen Hsiung, Secretary General of the International Council for Philosophy and Humanities (CIPSH) and Distinguished Professor of the HZNU Jing Hengyi College of Education, and Professor Zhao Li, Vice Dean of the HZNU Jing Hengyi College of Education, on behalf of CIPSH and the College respectively, expressed their heartfelt thanks to all the guests and friends who participated in this conference, and were looking forward to the exciting dialogue between Chinese philosophy for children and the world philosophy for children.

Prof. Ali Gizer, current President of the International Committee for Philosophy of Children (ICPIC), and Prof. Tetsuya Kono, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities of Rikkyo University and President of the Japanese Philosophical Association, also expressed their warm congratulations on the success of the conference. President Ali Gizer introduced to the participants the basic information about the operation of ICPIC and also expressed special support for the activities of Philosophy for Children in the Asia-Pacific region. Prof. Tetsuya Kawano talked about the basic situation of children's philosophy education in Japan, especially about the 20th ICPIC Conference to be held at Rikkyo University in Japan next year, and hoped that all participants would contribute in time for the event.

Professor Lorelei Seagrove, the current president of the Asia Pacific Philosophy in Schools Association (FAPSA), also expressed her heartfelt congratulations on the successful convening of this conference and gave a brief introduction to the process of FAPSA's transition from serving Australia to serving the entire Asia Pacific region. FAPSA has been the most representative national organization of philosophy for children in the world in the past. We hope to establish closer ties with the philosophy of children in China in the future.

October 30 main conference presentation

Professor Ping-chen Hsiung delivered a keynote speech titled "Back to the Future? Connecting Children with Philosophies Today and from the Past," which was moderated and briefly reviewed by Dr. Gao Zhenyu. In his keynote speech, Prof. Hsiung said that for philosophy of children, not only Lippmann's "philosophy for children" (P4C) should be addressed, but also philosophy of children (POC) and even philosophy created by children (PBC) should be considered at the same time. With the help of contemporary scientific and technological equipment, it may be possible for the ideas, concepts, or conceptions of our human society to develop positively and directly from children, and this requires us to develop new directions and paths in the study of children, including the philosophy of children. A philosophy of childhood in the broadest sense should take into account and critically reflect on the view of children as seen by people from all walks of life, and to this end we can witness this view of children and its development in many examples from Chinese history. In particular, Professor Xiong introduces two examples from ancient Chinese children's history, one of which is the Song Dynasty's "Infant Play", where children's play was a social and cultural fad at the time, but was considered "unhelpful" by rationalists. The second is the game of "cricket" played by children and adults. During the lecture, Prof. Hsiung also played the famous song "Words from the West Wind" sung by the fourth grade class of the CITIC Campus of the Northeast Normal University, as well as a video clip of the logic class of Hangzhou Yucai Primary School, which participated in the 2021 World Logic Day celebration.

Dr. Zhen-Yu Gao concludes by pointing out that one of the important elements of philosophy of childhood is the philosophy of childhood, and Matthews, in constructing this field, especially points out that it should include children and childhood as seen by philosophers in history. In this regard, Professor Xiong's research on the history of childhood can provide a good model for the development of the philosophy of childhood. On the other hand, there is always a tension between the localization and internationalization of philosophy of childhood, and for the development of local philosophy of childhood in China, how to make full use of local intellectual resources and wisdom traditions to construct a theoretical and practical system of philosophy of childhood with Chinese characteristics will be the focus of our work in the future. Professor Xiong's two cases lay an important foundation for the development of Chinese indigenous philosophical resources.

The keynote address was followed by Professor Ali Kizer, current President of the International Commission on Philosophy for Children, who spoke on the theme "The facilitator's Challenges in a Community of Philosophical Inquiry". In his keynote address, Professor Ali pointed out that philosophy for children aims to engage children in philosophical discussions based on their own questions, and uses communities of inquiry as its core method to promote the development of critical, creative, and caring thinking in children. But in practice, communities of inquiry can be plagued by power struggles arising from different identities within the group, something that is rarely addressed in the existing philosophy of children literature, and his talk offers a two-stage model for teachers as facilitators. In the first stage, teachers should empty themselves of the closed world of the mind, freeing themselves from fear of pedagogy and "bankrolling education" to help children improvise freely within the group. In the second stage, teachers should ensure that the identities within the community of inquiry are as broad and rich as possible, identifying and legitimizing the differences between participants.

The third lecture was delivered by Professor Tetsuya Kono, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Rikkyo University and President of the Japanese Philosophical Association, with the theme of "P4C and A New Direction of Education after the Great Earthquakes in Japan". He briefly reviewed the history of the development of philosophy education in Japan after World War II, and introduced in particular the development of philosophy for children in Japan in the last two decades (especially after the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami disaster in 2011), the challenges faced and the future outlook. He pointed out that the challenges faced in developing philosophical dialogue in Japanese schools (such as the fact that girls are less likely to speak up and express their views in class than boys) can be seen as a political necessity for the country to try to catch up with the modern industrial world and to unify the country. In contemporary Japan, however, philosophy for children is developing rapidly, and in many classrooms, practitioners do not face particularly serious difficulties. In the future, Japanese society will face new issues such as globalization, immigration, environmental crisis, and educational reform, and philosophy for children will respond to these issues while both making its own contribution and advancing its own development.

October 30 Session A Special Report

The first presentation of the afternoon Session A was "Blue Bahay: More than a Place to Play" by Dr. Damian Roland of the Association of APM Clubs of the Philippines. Dr. Damian Roland opened by asking how we can enable children who have been and are in very bad situations to rebuild themselves and start thinking about their future. One effective approach developed by the Delpine Foundation is for these children to "play"! Although play is often relegated to the status of a recreational activity, it has also proven to be an essential element of education. With limited financial support, the Delpine Foundation created "Blue Bahay", a play center for Filipino street children and slum children. Through play, children heal their wounds and grow in resilience, and they develop a sense of and ability to live together. "Blue Bahai is not just a play center, it is a learning center.

The second presentation in the afternoon Session A was"A Map for Democratic Dialogue using the Thinker’s Toolkit" by Professor Lorelei Sigloff, current President of FAPSA. President Lorelei Sigloff pointed out that dialogue is the most important part of the community of inquiry, but that it remains a challenge for teachers to engage students in real intellectual inquiry as we develop children's educational capacities. President Lorelei Seagrove, on the other hand, has developed a planning model for classroom dialogue. This model places democratic learning and student initiative at its core and helps teachers better follow the inquiry process. In this presentation, Chair Lorelei Seagrove highlights this model and links it to the Thinker's Toolkit she developed to help teachers break down classroom conversations into practical components.

October 30 Session B Special Presentation

The first presentation in the afternoon session B was a fascinating presentation on "Teacher Evaluation of Students Progress on Hikmah (Wisdom) Pedagogy in Islamic Education" by Dr. Hafizah Zulkifli from the National University of Malaysia. Hafizah Zulkifli pointed out that evaluation is extremely important in order to know how students are performing during teaching. Excellent students tend to underestimate their own performance, while relatively disadvantaged students are likely to overestimate their own performance. The purpose of teacher evaluation is therefore to balance the evaluation for these two types of students. The purpose of its lectures was to investigate the hierarchy of teachers' evaluations of student progress and the influence of elements such as spatial distribution and school type on such evaluations. Its research methodology used a questionnaire survey of teachers within 33 Islamic education systems. The results of the study show that teacher evaluation plays an important role when geared towards students of different abilities and there are no significant differences between urban and rural areas and school types.

The second presentation in the afternoon Session B was "Civic Education for Deliberative Citizenship: Making a Case for the Cultivation of Communities of Inquiry in Philippine Social Studies" by Dr. Abigail Knut of the University of the Philippines Diliman. Abigail Knut points out that the reconstruction of the state requires fundamental reforms in its entire social system and structure, of which education is an inevitable part. He argues that based on foundations such as Dewey's progressivist philosophy and experimentalist pedagogy, Peirce's concept of the community of inquiry, and Lippmann's philosophy of the child, social studies can assist in developing students' communitarian tendencies and inquiry skills. While there are many educational models and teaching strategies that can be applied to the same effect, communities of inquiry are more likely to create a unique and dynamic learning process that encourages students to think reflectively, explore different contexts and experiences, question their assumptions, identify their biases, and reach more reasonable conclusions through deliberation and inter-subjective dialogue.

The main session presentations were preceded by a brief opening session by PCYNAP Presidents Rainier Ybarner and Janet Bolton, along with current IAPC President Moen Gregor and Columbia University Professor Megan Rafferty. Afterwards, Moen Gregor and Megan Rafferty jointly delivered the first heavyweight talk of the day, which was titled "Ann Margaret Sharp, Gareth B. Matthews, & Matthew Lipman: contesting what really matters in children’s philosophy." The two professors pointed out that Lippmann, Sharp and Matthews were the founders of the philosophy of childhood movement. Although all three began their research and practice in philosophy for children in a similar time period and in a similar geographic space, some important differences between them can be found by reading their scholarly works and practical resources, which are mainly in the areas of philosophy and education. The three men's interests in pragmatism, feminism, and analytic philosophy have driven their different definitions of philosophy, including the purposes and methods of philosophical practice. While both Lippmann and Sharp believe that philosophy as a discipline has the capacity to transform education into a collaborative, rational inquiry across disciplines, Matthews has no such educational "ambition," but he is convinced that adults can help children learn to think better. The two professors also discuss other commonalities and differences among the three pioneers, and these cutting-edge discussions will be important for our further study of philosophy for children in the future and for promoting a diversity of models of philosophical practice with children.

The second keynote presentation in the morning was given by Janette Poulton Peter Paul ElicorSohyun Bae from the Philosophy for Children and Youth in Asia Pacific (PCYNAP), who focused on reporting on the two online philosophy circle talks for children and youth in Asia Pacific organized by PCYNAP this year, describing the basic process of operation and their experiences.

The third keynote presentation in the morning was "Aesthetic Dimension of Matthew Lipman's Moral Education" by Professor Jin-hwan Park, a retired professor from Gyeongsang University in Korea and the founder of Asia Pacific Philosophy for Children and Youth, moderated by Dr. Jin-woo Ko. Professor Park Jin-hwan's presentation pointed out that the philosophical foundation behind Matthew Lippmann's moral education is not only derived from the analytic philosophical tradition but also from his aesthetic ideas. Analytical philosophy focuses on the logical and scientific dimension, while aesthetics focuses on the creative and holistic dimension of moral education. Both paths have their strengths and limitations, and therefore both must be incorporated in order to achieve more effective moral education. We are increasingly faced with moral dilemmas that are so complex that it is difficult to address them in a "trees but not the forest" manner. On the subject of moral education, Lippmann has written two textbooks and teacher's manuals, one on Nous and the other on Lisa, and when we delve into Lisa's philosophical novel, we find a lot of aesthetic material. During 2003-2005, Professor Park Jin-hwan and Lippmann were involved in an international research project on moral education, which allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of Lisa's book's ideas on moral education. Dr. Zhen-Yu Gao commented that his exposure to Professor Park Jin-Hwan dates back to the International Symposium on Childhood and Childhood: New Horizons in Children's Studies and the Construction of the Discipline of Pediatrics held at Nanjing Xiaozhuang College in 2014, where he was joined by Lawrence Splitter (another internationally renowned scholar of children's philosophy), Zhang Hua, Gao Wei, Fang Mingsheng, Jin Sheng At-home, Liu Hui, and many other well-known researchers in pediatrics at home and abroad. Zhang Hua, Gao Wei, Fang Mingsheng, Jin Sheng-home, Liu Hui, and many other well-known researchers in pediatrics from home and abroad. Since then, I have had in-depth exchanges with Prof. Park Jin-hwan at the World Philosophy Congress 2018 and the 3rd Return to Children's Education Forum and International Symposium on Philosophy and Young Children, and I deeply admire Prof. Park's efforts to promote the cause of philosophy education for children and youth in the Asia-Pacific region.

October 31 Session A Special Report

The first half of the breakout session was moderated by Janet Bolton and featured three experts who gave excellent presentations. The first expert was Dr. April Kapili from the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, whose topic was "Is It Desirable to Do Philosophy with Students in Their Second Language?" . The report pointed out that philosophy with children helps to nurture and develop children's curiosity, their willingness to listen to others and their ability to reason logically, and that the use of the same language as the mother tongue by teachers and students is one of the most important conditions to ensure these learning outcomes. But in many classrooms, where the language used by the teacher is not the native language of the students, is this second language learning environment a place where philosophical activities can take place? In some ways, there are many challenges to developing philosophy for children in a second language setting, such as the fact that children have only a very limited vocabulary and ability to express themselves, and the lack of adequate language skills can limit children's ability to express themselves in a serious and adequate way, which can diminish the effectiveness of the instruction itself. But the report also suggests that researchers who do not advocate philosophy in second language settings may be underestimating and misunderstanding children, philosophy, and philosophy for children itself. For children, it is never about philosophizing while learning, not about philosophical inquiry afterwards. The amount of language and experience mastery does not completely limit children's ability to reason philosophically.

The second expert was a presentation on "A Phenomenological investigation of Children’s Drawing from the perspective of Maurice Merleau-Ponty" presented by Dr. Li Xu from the University of North Texas, USA. The presentation pointed out that in the study of children's art education, children's artistic creations, especially their paintings and their works, are important for our understanding of artistic practice and theoretical research from different perspectives. Philosophers such as Merleau-Ponty and Dewey, have discussed the value of children's paintings and noted that many artists (such as Picasso) have placed special emphasis on the significance of childhood experiences in the creation of art. Children's paintings have their own unique style, and their value can be presented in a variety of ways. It points out the unique nature of children's painting and its positive meaning, analyzes children's painting from a phenomenological perspective, and develops Merleau-Ponty's ideas about children's painting.

The third expert, Aurelio Solver Agcaoili from the University of Hawaii, presented a paper on "A Calculus of Meaning: Rewriting Old Stories for Children". The presentation pointed out that in order to make traditional stories more useful for children to develop philosophical concepts, it is necessary to rewrite them, which involves techniques such as choosing the plot, redrawing the narrative threads, and deleting some irrelevant scenes or events, by which the traditional stories can derive new meanings.

The second half of Session A was chaired by Dr. Zhen-yu Gao, and also featured presentations by three scholars from Korea and China. The first presentation was "The Meaning of Leisure: Revisited by Dewey’s Concept of Experience" by Dr. Yeongmin Kwon from Korea National Open University. Dr. Kwon pointed out that the English word school is derived from the ancient Greek word scholé, which originally meant leisure or idleness, so from an etymological point of view alone, school and leisure or idleness are closely linked. In ancient Greece, school was a place of free pursuit of knowledge, and leisure was not a rest after work was done, but a meaningful moment of discovering one's true self, so in this sense, school was also a place of pursuing one's true self. For Dewey, the true human self is defined differently than it was in ancient Greece. Dewey does not believe that the true human self is given externally, but is formed gradually through our own lives. The human self is shaped by the interaction between our natural nature and the outside world, and the more the individual's inner tendencies are presented through life, the more real the self becomes. In particular, Dr. Kwon raises the question of whether school and leisure can still be linked today. Is school life still a kind of leisure for contemporary children? Is school still a place of leisure?

The second speaker was Professor Yu Wei, Principal of the Primary School of Northeast Normal University, Professor of the Department of Education of Northeast Normal University, and Changjiang Scholar, who presented "The "Third Way”of Philosophy for Children: Practice and Research from the Primary School Attached to Northeast Normal University of China". The lecture was translated by Dr. Yang Luwa. Principal Yu Wei highlighted the achievements of the school and the Department of Education of Northeast Normal University in promoting the international cooperation and localization of philosophy for children, as well as the important experiences of the school in integrating philosophy for children with the national curriculum, using language, science, morality and rule of law as examples. During the interactive stage, some scholars raised their own doubts about the philosophy of children model of the attached elementary school, as well as about the face of the development and popularity of philosophy of children in China. Principal Yu Wei pointed out that philosophy for children in the Annex Primary School is mainly implemented in the form of disciplinary integration rather than as a stand-alone philosophy class, that is, a philosophical approach to promote the reform of disciplinary teaching, which is the third path developed in the Annex Primary School. In China, philosophy for children has been promoted and popularized mainly at the kindergarten and elementary school levels, but at the vast majority of middle and high school levels, philosophy for children has not yet reached widespread popularity and needs more efforts from educators.

The third speaker was Dr. Zhenyu Gao from the Research Center for Philosophy of Children of Hangzhou Normal University, who presented on the topic of "Philosophy of Children in China: Past, Present and Future". Dr. Gao first gave a detailed review of the birth of philosophy for children in China, presented the main achievements and basic challenges in the process of academic research and practical development of philosophy for children in China over the past thirty years, and made an important outlook on the future development of philosophy for children. In the interactive session that followed, some scholars were very interested in what China has achieved in the past thirty years, and were shocked that Chinese philosophy of childhood has been able to incorporate so many different paths of the world's philosophy of childhood in such an open manner, wondering how Chinese scholars and practitioners have balanced these different paths and whether they are all appropriate for China. Dr. Gao pointed out that we still do not know enough about the different paths and models of children's philosophy in the international arena, but to the extent known, the Chinese people are open to these paths and models, and different people have different preferences for children's philosophy models, all of which are suitable for the Chinese educational context to some extent. However, in the long run, it is necessary to find a model that is more relevant to the Chinese culture and educational context, that is, to "create blood on its own", in order to truly solve the problem of children's philosophy in China and to better influence the development of children's philosophy abroad. Some scholars also expressed their delight at the popularity of philosophy for children in China, but were concerned about the future development trend. Dr. Gao Zhenyu pointed out that China is currently in a critical period of deepening education reform, and it is in this context that philosophy for children has entered a stage of rapid development, and as long as the pace of national reform does not stop in the future, philosophy for children will certainly gain further popularity and development.

October 31 Session B Special Report

Session B in the afternoon was co-chaired by Leng Lu and Lennie Mak. The first half consisted of three reporting experts, the first of whom was Saria Chan from the Hong Kong University Graduates Association (HKUGA) Education Foundation, whose topic was "Beyond Borders-Review of a 3-year PI implementation in the Hong Kong context and way forward ". Saria Chan pointed out that HKUGA was established in 2006 and the Philosophy Inquiry Project was launched in 2017 with the aim of promoting the development of students' reasoning skills and fostering caring and collaborative attitudes. Philosophy for children in Hong Kong is promoted as a whole school approach and is integrated into different subject areas (English, Science, Mathematics and Chinese, etc.). Sally Chan describes the successes and challenges in the promotion of philosophy for children.

The second reporting scholar was Dr. Leng Lu from Jinan University, whose presentation was titled "The Application of philosophy for children Hawaii Approach to Education in Mainland China". Dr. Leng Lu's presentation focused on exploring the application of the Hawaiian Children's Philosophical Model in China. Based on teachers' comments, reflections and questions, we can summarize the strengths and challenges of the Hawaiian Philosophy for Children model in practice. Dr. Leng points out that the concept of "mini-philosophy," the use of group balls, the "don't rush" mantra, and the level of inquiry in vanilla ice cream are all core features of the Hawaiian Philosophy for Children model. The spirit of "philosophers' pedagogy," the assessment of the effectiveness of children's philosophy teaching, and the local translation of children's philosophy curricula and their philosophical views on education are all important challenges for Chinese practitioners and researchers of children's philosophy.

The third reporting scholar was Soroor Saremifar from Iran, whose topic was "Six Online P4C classes across Iran based on IAPC program: an action report". Soroor noted that philosophy for children is used in different cities in Iran, and this report is the result of a collective study by philosophy for children practitioners from these cities, focusing on how to use Lippmann's approach to online philosophy for children courses, to assess the development of children's thinking skills by Lippmann's philosophy for children program, to examine the level of interest of Iranian children in Lippmann's philosophy for children novels and the relevance of these The action report is directed at a project that is not only a project for the children of Iran, but also a project for the children of Iran. This action report refers to a short-term summer philosophy program for elementary school students from different cities and economic levels, consisting of 15-20 sessions, each lasting 90-120 minutes, for a total of 30-40 hours, lasting ten weeks. The results of the study suggest that an online approach to children's philosophy classes can reach more participating students from different cultural classes and cities, and thus can prompt children to look at the same issue from more different perspectives. Parents report that they have seen a marked change in their children's thinking skills. The participants also have a strong interest in Lippmann's philosophical novels, which do not require particularly obvious localization, but certain details (such as the songs in the reflection exercises) do need to be fine-tuned.

The second half of the session also consisted of three scholars. The first scholar was Leander P. Marquez from the University of the Philippines Diliman, whose presentation was titled "Integrating Philosophical Inquiry in Philippine K-12 Education". The presentation focused on what philosophy for children looks like in practice in the Philippine K12 education system. It is noted that teachers can be made to teach in a philosophical way, i.e., to avoid making teachers feel that philosophy for children is an additional burden. The report focuses on two models, one of which is the philosophy lesson plan model and the other is the philosophy textbook writing model. The former encourages teachers to integrate philosophy for children into their own lesson plans without altering their daily teaching routines, and to better meet their teaching objectives. The latter suggests incorporating children's philosophy into textbooks to help teachers and students understand what is being taught in a philosophical way. The report suggests that both models have worldwide application.

The second scholar was Dr. Tokui Chiaki of the University of Tsukuba, Japan, whose topic was "Expansion and Issues of Philosophy for Children in Japanese School Education". Dr. Tokui Chiaki pointed out that children's philosophy has been widely used in classroom practice in Japanese elementary, junior high, and high schools. His presentation focused on answering the questions of why children's philosophy is practiced in Japanese school education, how children's philosophy is implemented in Japanese elementary and secondary school classrooms, and he also focused on what the future needs to focus on if we want to further promote the development of children's philosophy in Japan possible challenges and problems. This presentation provides a more comprehensive understanding of the development of philosophy for children in Japan.

The third scholar was Dr. Thomas Low from Singapore, whose topic was "The Journey of P4C in Singapore". Dr. Thomas Low noted that philosophy for children has developed into an important pedagogy in Singapore, and that the Philosophy for Children organization in Singapore has organized two major philosophy for children seminars for educators and practitioners in the last two decades. Thomas Rau was the main organizer of the second Philosophy for Children seminar back in 2016. But although philosophy for children entered the field of education in Singapore two decades ago, the process has not been particularly smooth. Thomas Rau took this debriefing opportunity to showcase, in particular, how philosophy for children has evolved in Singapore to date and how it is being implemented in the present.

Although the Asia Pacific International Conference on Philosophy of Childhood came to an end, its contribution to the promotion of academic research and practical exploration of philosophy of childhood in the whole Asia Pacific region is indelible, and it has further strengthened the connection and cooperation between philosophy of childhood in the Asia Pacific region and other regions of the world. We expect that we will continue to strengthen our cooperation in the future through publishing monographs, papers, special topics, conferences, online teacher workshops, online philosophy of children circle talks, and other ways to jointly promote the localization and internationalization of philosophy of children. We also look forward to more schools and kindergartens in China becoming the international philosophy of children practice base of the Asia Pacific Society for Philosophy of Children and Youth.