The Didactics of Philosophy Working Group focuses on the philosophical foundations of subject-specific pedagogy (a), interdisciplinary (b) and intercultural philosophy pedagogy (c), as well as research into various specific issues (d).

On a: Philosophical Foundations of Subject-Specific Pedagogy

Philosophy instruction contributes—or should contribute—to comprehensive personal development like no other school subject. This includes the development of one’s own judgment, participation in philosophical debates, the ability to endure, accept, and tolerate a broad spectrum of opinions, and an attitude of orienting oneself toward the better argument rather than toward contingent fads promoted by various opinion leaders. The aim is both to make the tradition of educational philosophical positions fruitful for contemporary philosophy didactics and, while maintaining a critical distance from that tradition, to redefine the didactics of philosophy from an educational philosophical perspective.

On b: Interdisciplinary Subject Didactics

Dass eine Fachdidaktik Philosophie von den Erkenntnissen etwa der naturwissenschaftlichen Fachdidaktik profitieren kann, wird bereits deutlich, wenn man folgende Themenfelder als für den Philosophieunterricht bzw. für dessen inhaltlich-methodische Fundierung für relevant hält: a) Umgang mit Präkonzepten, b) Verhältnis Beobachtung/Sinneswahrnehmung/Empirismus und Experiment und c) Reflexion auf Begriffe wie „Natur“, „Evolution“, „Wissen“ etc. 

On c: Intercultural Subject Didactics

Learning groups are becoming increasingly ethnically, socioculturally, and ideologically diverse. To speak primarily of opportunities, enrichment, and potential in this context is both politically and socially naive and unsophisticated, as well as theoretically unsound. Instead, the challenges and, in some cases, significant obstacles involved in planning and conducting philosophy classes for as many students as possible can only be adequately addressed if we not only reflect on intercultural philosophy pedagogy but also demand it (critique of the canon; incorporation of non-Western thought;

On d: Specific Questions

• What can and should an inclusive philosophy didactics be, and what can or should it achieve? Is a genuinely new didactics necessary to establish inclusion in philosophy classes?
• How can one critique a competency-oriented approach in philosophy classes given that it is unclear what philosophical competencies are supposed to be, yet at the same time most common approaches within philosophy didactics consider a competency-oriented approach to be at least plausible?
• What subject-specific didactic potentials emerge through and in the wake of philosophical positions? This refers in part to the unwritten subject didactics that could be reconstructed, for example, in the examination of Nietzsche’s interpretation of the teachability of philosophy.