Investigating philosophical discussion with children as co-researchers: A case story of doing educative research using collaborative philosophical inquiry

This thesis is about an investigation of how children with philosophical experience use philosophical discussion as a way of doing research. A Lawrence Stenhouse description of 'research' as "systematic and sustained enquiry made public" (Bridges 1996, p. 2) served as my starting point for what to count as 'research'. As an interpretive case story of children participating in research as co-researchers, this research is about how I engaged in an after-school Discussion Research Group co-research project with seventeen volunteer students from my Philosophy for Children classes. Our co-research was a methodological experiment in merging genres of research (Anderson, 1989) in which we adapted and combined Philosophy for Children and qualitative research techniques in a philosophical exploration of philosophical discussion. Bringing together the children's philosophical expertise and my interest in the use of qualitative research methodologies, I explored how and whether 'to do philosophy' is 'to do research'.;Using an open and systematic inquiry approach, I answer the dissertation research question in three ways: by demonstration, by surfacing philosophical inquiry research acts and by conceptual investigation. In a set of co-researching stories, I use document and verbatim transcribed data obtained from audio and video tapes of forty-eight co-research sessions to demonstrate the co-researcher children at work using their own voices. Using these data I surface philosophical inquiry research acts by identifying philosophical inquiry 'moves' the children use in the research context. And I present a conceptual investigation of research roles as a way of answering how the philosophical work the children co-researchers do can be seen as 'doing research'.;This investigation offers a textured portrayal of children using philosophical discussion as a way of doing research. It presents their work as a complex and comprehensive account of 'philosophical discussion'. It uses children's verbatim data to surface the philosophical in research thereby supporting my assertion that to do philosophy is to do research. It presents a conceptual refinement of a variety of research roles. And it presents a viable example of how philosophical and qualitative research methodologies can work together for mutual benefit.