ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on some professional development instituted to promote teachers' critical reflection on discourses of childhood that influence their everyday practice in Philosophy with Children (PwC). These professional development sessions, in the form of workshops with teachers, grew out of research carried out for the Philosophy for Children in Schools Project. This is an ongoing research project, which explores the impact of PwC on classroom practice in schools in South Wales (UK). The research has identified discourses of childhood as a key construct that impacts on teacher engagement with PwC. It raises the question of how we imagine, construct or understand the 'C' in PwC and what this might indicate about society's values and adult-child power relationships. The Western scientific study of childhood has produced a developmental model of the child. Epistemologically scientific study assumes that there are truths about human beings that can be discovered through rigorous, systematic study.
