ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how and why the intellectual knowledge base for teaching is considered to be ‘fragile’. An analysis is then offered as to how philosophy for children and communities can help to recalibrate knowledge through an emphasis on dialogic inquiry as an explicit and essential form of pedagogy within initial teacher education programmes. A particular focus is taken on the role of concepts in philosophical dialogue. It is argued that when teachers (re)connect with the collective wisdom of the profession through communities of philosophical inquiry, they are empowered to evaluate and elaborate their individual experiences in a more coherent and cumulative manner. Such conceptual commitments render the knowledge base of the profession to be more philosophical, more collaborative, and more thoughtful in relation to the profession’s commitment to its ‘inner’ purposes.
