ABSTRACT

Focusing on one of the key Confucian values, harmony (he), this chapter explores the question “How can p4c be implemented in moral education in Japanese schools, where Confucian sensitivities are still influential?” Whereas the value of harmony appears crucial in the cultivation of intellectual safety in a community of inquiry, which is the most fundamental principle of the p4c Hawai‘i pedagogy, this value also carries a risk to encourage people to think that they should go along with what others say, and thus, to become a barrier to critical thinking. By observing p4c dialogues in Japanese classrooms, however, the author argues that as a community of inquiry grows over time, the value of harmony would change from a mere conformity of different viewpoints to a collaborative construction of deeper understanding. On the basis of the reflection of the dialogical interplay among students, this chapter demonstrates that harmony rooted in intellectual safety can be interpreted as a guiding principle for critical and creative thinking.