Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

Journal / Book Title

Childhood and Philosophy

Abstract

This dialogical article examines persistent challenges in engaging racism, colonialism, and white supremacy within the theory and practice of Philosophy for/with Children (P4/wC). Framed as a mutual interview between two long-standing colleagues, the dialogue revisits formative encounters in the P4/wC community and situates them within broader intellectual traditions, including American pragmatism, deliberative democracy, and Africana philosophy. Drawing on personal experience, archival material, and critical scholarship, the authors interrogate the metaphilosophical assumptions underpinning the “community of inquiry,” particularly its commitments to reasonableness, consensus, and democratic dialogue. Concepts such as the “gated community of inquiry,” white ignorance, nonideal theory, and insurrectionist ethics are mobilized to illuminate how norms of reasonableness can function as mechanisms of exclusion. Rather than abandoning dialogue, the authors explore the possibilities for reconstructing the community of inquiry in light of nonideal realities, positioning it as a site not only of deliberation but of critical transformation.

Journal ISSN / Book ISBN

1984-5987

Published Citation

Gregory, Maughn Rollins and Darren Chetty (2026) Desegregating the community of inquiry in philosophy for / with children: A dialogue on racism. Childhood and Philosophy 22: 1-25. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12957/childphilo.2026.96051.

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