About the Philosophy for Schools Program at Flinders University

The Philosophy Department at Flinders has been instrumental in introducing Philosophy into secondary schools in South Australia and in supporting the professional development of secondary school Philosophy teachers. In response to queries from schools teaching the International Baccalaureate, staff at Flinders began offering workshops to support the Theory of Knowledge component, which is a central part of the IB. In 1998 we hosted a conference for teachers interested in introducing Philosophy into SACE. Since then members of our staff have served on the Subject Advisory Committee organised by SSABSA (the South Australian curriculum body) to introduce the new subjects in year 11 and 12 as part of the Society and Environment stream. Dr. Lynda Burns from the Flinders Philosophy Department and Dr. Sue Knight from the University of South Australia were foundation members of this committee which has written syllabus and overseen the development of the new subjects. These were taught in schools at year 11 and 12 for the first time in 2003.

At present our efforts to support professional development for teachers are concentrated on the introduction of a Graduate Certificate in Education (Teaching Philosophy).