Sue, or “Dr Sue” as she known to the elementary school crowd, is passionate about helping young people (of all ages) learn to think courageously, critically, and fairly about everything they do, feel and say so that they can, as far as possible, steer, and hence take responsibility for, their own lives. To that end, she founded, in 1988, The Vancouver Institute of Philosophy for Children (http://vip4c.ca) and, in 2013, The Thinking Playground (http://thinkingplayground.org), a Philosophy for Children (P4C) summer camps for youngsters ages 6-13, that runs every July at the University of the Fraser Valley.
Sue’s foundational education belief is that all education should meaningfully connect with students’ lives. Her critical thinking text, Thinking Your Way to Freedom: A Guide to Owning Your Own Practical Reasoning, published in 2009 by Temple University Press, and used in university classrooms, thus requires students to apply reasoning skills (such as fortifying their own position with good reasoning, being open to opposing viewpoints, being fair-minded in judging the merits of the view of the opposition relative to their own) to real life issues in their own lives.
She has also written two thinking-books for the younger crowd. One, Tinker Thinkers, written with Amy Leask, focuses on logical skills. The other, Meeting the Ignos, written with Arthur wolf, Educational Director of The Thinking Playground focuses on helping youngsters (and their parents) become more aware of and hence potentially neutralize, the forces that tend to “close the mind” to genuine reasoned interaction.
The following is a list of Sue’s articles, reviews and projects. The titles of the articles are bolded for ease of reviewing.
ARTICLES
“Human Agency: Its Pedagogical Implications.” International Journal of Applied Philosophy. Spring, 2018.
“Combatting Consumer Madness” (co-authored with Wayne Henry and Richard Morehouse. Teaching Ethics. Vol. 17, no. 2, 2017.
“The Necessity of Truth in the Community of Inquiry.” Chapter in a book entitled History, Theory and Practice of Philosophy for Children: International Perspectives. Edited by Saeed Naji, Rosnani Hashim.London: Routledge, 2017.
“Authenticity: It Should and Can Be Nurtured.” (co-authored with Daniel Anderson.) Mind, Culture, and Activity. 22 (4) (Oct., 2015): 392-401.
“Commentary of ‘Inquiry is no Mere Conversation.’” Journal for Philosophy in Schools. May, 2015. http://www.ojs.unisa.edu.au/index.php/jps/index
“Selling the Reason Game.” Teaching Ethics. Vol. 15, Issue 1, Spring, 2015. 129-136.
“Respect and the Veil.” In Respect: How Do We Get There? A Philosophical Inquiry. Eva Marsal, Barbara Weber, Susan T. Gardner (eds.) Munster, Germany: Lit Verlag Fresnostre, 2013. 23-33.
“Love Them or Leave Them? Respect Requires Neither.” The International Journal of Applied Philosophy. Spring 2013. Also published in Respect: How Do We Get There? A Philosophical Inquiry. Eva Marsal, Barbara Weber, Susan T. Gardner (eds.) Munster, Germany: Lit Verlag Fresnostre, 2013. 77-91.
“The Complexity of Respecting Together.” Analytic Teaching and Philosophical Praxis. Vol. 13, 2012. 1-12. Also published in Respect: How Do We Get There? A Philosophical Inquiry. Eva Marsal, Barbara Weber, Susan T. Gardner (eds.) Lit. Publisher Münster, Berlin, Wien, Zürich 2013. 5-21.
“Taking Selves Seriously.” Cultural Politics and Identity. Eds. B. Weber, H Karfriedrich, E. Marsal, T. Dobashi, P Schweitzer. Berlin: Lit Verlag, 2011. 79-89. Also published in Hermeneutics—Ethics—Education. Ed. Andrej Wiercinski. Zurich: Lit Verlang, 2015, 463-472.
“Teaching Children to Think Ethically.” Analytic Teaching and Philosophical Praxis, Vol. 32, Nov. 2011. 75-81.
“Questioning to Hesitation rather than Hesitating to Question: A Pragmatic Hermeneutic Perspective on Educational Inquiry.” Philosophical Study. Vol. 1, No. 5, Oct. 2011. 352-358.
“What Would Socrates Say to Mrs Smith?” Philosophy Now. Issue 84. May/June 2011. 24-26.
“The Evolution of Connectivity: A Bridge Beyond” in The Politics of Empathy: New Interdisciplinary Perspectives on an Ancient Phenomenon. Eds. Weber B., Marsal E., Dobashi T. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2011. 51-59.
“Agitating for Munificence or Going out of Business: Philosophy’s Dilemma” in Analytic Teaching and Philosophical Praxis, Vol. 31, Jan. 2011. 1-4.
“Love Thy Neighbor? Maybe Not.” Published in Children Philosophize Worldwide. Theoretical and Practical Concepts. Eds. Eva Marsal, Takara Dobashi and Barbara Weber. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Publisher 2009. 423-429.
“Communicating Toward Personhood” in Analytic Teaching, Vol. 29, No. 1, March, 2009. 1-9
“Back to The Future; In Philosophical Dialogue,” co-authored with Dr. Barbara Weber in Analytic Teaching, Vol. 29, No. 1, March, 2009. 25-30
“Ich” Durch “Wir”: Autonomie Durch Gemeinschaft.” Published in: Ethische Reflexionskompetenz Im Vor- Und Grundschulalter.Konzepte Des Philosophierens Mit Kindern. Eds: Marsal, Eva, Takara Dobashi, Barbara Weber and Felix G. Lund. Hodos: Peter-Lang Edition, 2007. 145-153.
“Interactive Reasoning: The Road to Freedom.” Published in Critical and Creative Thinking: The Australian Journal of Philosophy in Education. Vol. 12, No 2. November, 2004, pp. 1 – 12.
“Autonomy: A Philosophical Capture.” Published in Practical Philosophy, Vol. 4, no. 2, July, 2001, pp. 19-22.
“Teaching Freedom.” Analytic Teaching, Vol. 21, No. 1, November, 2001, pp. 24-28.
“Truth in Ethics (and elsewhere).” Analytic Teaching. Vol. 19, No. 1, 1999. 78-88.
“Philosophy for Children Really Works! A Report on a Two Year Empirical Study. Published” in The Australian Journal for Critical and Creative Thinking, Vol. 6, No. 1, March, 1998, pp. 1-13, also published in Philosophy for the Children on Top of the World. Iceland: The University of Akureyri, 1999. 88-104.
“Fair-minded from the Beginning, or, Philosophy: A Gender Blender.” Published in Analytic Teaching, Vol. 17, No. 2, April, 1997, pp. 35 – 44.
“Inquiry is No Mere Conversation: It is Hard Work. Published in Analytic Teaching, April 1996, Vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 41 – 50 as well as The Australian Journal for Critical and Creative Thinking, Vol. 3, No. 2, October, 1995, pp. 38-49.
“Empirical Study of Self-Rated Defence Styles” (with M. Bond, J. Christian, and J.J. Segal) in Archives of General Psychiatry, March 1983, vol. 40, pp. 333 -338.
REVIEWS
“Perceiving ‘The Philosophical Child’: A Guide for the Perplexed.” A review of Jana Mohr Lone’s “The Philosophical Child.” Analytic Teaching and Philosophical Praxis. Vol. 33, Issue 2, 2013. 73-76.
“Seeing Children: A Review of Eulalia Bosch’s Education and Everyday Life.” Analytic Teaching, Vol. 27, No. 2, November, 2007, 18-19.
“What is a Person?” Review of M. Goodman in Journal of Moral Education, May 1989, vol. 18, no. 2, pp 148 – 149.
PROJECTS
Vice-President of the International Council of Philosophical Inquiry with Children. 2017- present.
Co -organizer (along with a Mexican colleague) of the 2018 North American Association of the Community of Inquiry to be held in Puebla, Mexico, June 15 – 17, 2018
Primary organizer of the 17th ICPIC conference which was co-hosted by the Vancouver Institute of Philosophy for Children (of which I am the Director) and UBC in Vancouver, June 25 – 27, 2014.
Member of the editorial board of Analytic Teaching and Philosophical Praxes. July 2012- present.
Primary organizer of the Seventh International Conference of the North American Association of the Community of Inquiry which was hosted by the Vancouver Institute of Philosophy for Children (of which I am the Director) in Vancouver, June 29 – July 2, 2012.
Co-director of the North American Association of the Community of Inquiry (NAACI) from July 2008-present.
Primary organizer of the Fourth International Conference of the North American Association of the Community of Inquiry which is being hosted by the Vancouver Institute of Philosophy for Children (of which I am the Director) in Vancouver, June 28 – July 2, 2000.