François Gerin Lajoie - Canada

holds a BA in Arts, Philosophy and Music and a Master degree in Education from the University of Ottawa. He is a teacher at Horizon-Jeunesse, a French elementary school in the Ottawa part of the CECCE, school board since 2009 and has assumed a leadership in the introduction of philosophy as vehicle for teaching 21st century skills, for the last ten years. . He is presently conducting a pilot project using several Play Wise games with teacher training and implementation across the entire school. He has produced a series of educational posters, a taxonomy of thinking skills and disposition fostering critical thinking with measures of evaluations ties to the curriculum. A Philos club to train for the Olympiads is being set up for at lunch time. He is the author of the excellent video produced with TW Ontario (TFO) on teaching critical thinking through philosophy for children workshops posted at You tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KCviPEUsII

Jamie M. A. Smith - Canada

specializes in the history of the philosophy of the social sciences, with a focus on secondary and postsecondary teaching. In his professional educational practice he strives to support students who are in transition between phases of their educational and personal development. His rich teaching background includes University of Guelph-Humber, Humber College, and George Brown College, teaching undergrads, college students, high school students, and students in transition, or 'Pathways', programs. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Ontario Philosophy Teacher's Association since 2006.

Gao Zhenyu - China

is the associate professor of curriculum studies and director of the Institute of Philosophy for Children at Hangzhou Normal University, China.He received his MA and Ph.D. respectively from the University of Macau and East China Normal University, and studied in University of Alberta from 2010 to 2012. His research has been in the areas of curriculum studies, teacher development, philosophy for children, and other fields of child studies, such as ADHD( Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) , the history of children and childhood, and the sociology of childhood. He is the author of two books Philosophy for Children : Theory into Pracitce and Children and Childhood in Early Modern Chinese Schools (1902-1949), and (co)author of the book chapters Curriculum Studies in China: Retrospect and Prospect in the International Handbook of Curriculum Research, and Philosophy for children in China: Teacher knowledge and teacher development in the Autobiography and Teacher Development in China: Subjectivity and culture in curriculum reform.

Alessandra Macaione CRIF (Centro di Ricerca sull’Indagine Filosofica) - Italy

a graduate in philosophy from the University of Palermo in 2006 with a dissertation on “The role of dialogue in Matthew Lipman’s Thinking.” In August 2006, Alessandra has obtained the title of Philosophy for Children Teacher at the Federico II University in Naples. She regularly participates in the ICPIC conferences ( Padua, Italy 2009), Jinju South Korea 2011, and Cape Town South Africa 2013). Since 2009 she has been an active member of ICPIC, contributing to the PEACE project at Federico II University in Naples: having presented a poster about PEACE experimentation at the ICPIC Conference in Vancouver (Canada 2015). She has been a Philosophy for Children teacher in several Palermo primary schools since 2008. She has experimented with Play Wise in the Italian context and. plans to translate in Italian the game and the book Growing Up Wise: Dialogue with Matthew Lipman on Philosophy and Educational Reform ( Ghanotakis, 2017).

Georges Leroux - Canada

Dr. George Leroux is a professor emeritus in the department of Philosophy at the University of Quebec à Montreal ( UQAM) and one of the designers of the Program of Ethics and Religious Culture of the Ministry of Education of Quebec. The author of several books including Ethique , Culture Religieuse , Dialogue   and  Le philosophe et la mémoire du siècle, he was awarded the Prix d’excellence en enseignement, is member of  the Académie des Lettres du Québec and collaborates with many medias such as Le Devoir and Radio-Canada. He is also involved in the project PhiloJeunes sponsored by the UNESCO Chair of studies of the foundations of justice and the democratic society.

Michel Sasseville - Canada

Michel Sasseville has been awarded a Doctor honoris causa in the teaching of philosophy from the University of South Bohemia in Czech Republic. He is a full professor in the Philosophy Department at Laval University and the director of the philosophy for children program (P4C).  Between 1997 and 1999, he was president of the International Council of Philosophical Inquiry with Children (ICPIC). He is also a researcher at the Institute of applied ethics, Laval University. For more than 15 years Dr. Sasseville collaborated with Drs. Matthew Lipman and Ann Margaret Sharp, cofounders of the P4C program. He has thus participated to many trainings and has given many conferences (about a hundred) in many countries around the world on P4C.  He has been visiting professor at Montclair State University, New Jersey, the University Iberoamericana, Mexico, the University of Geneva, Switzerland and the University of South Bohemia in Czech Republic.

Michel Tozzi - France

Michel Tozzi is professor emeritus in Education Sciences at the University Paul Valéry (Montpellier, France) and has been a leading researcher and innovator in the didactics of philosophy with children and teens since 1988. He designed the DVDP method for conducting discussions with philosophical and democratic framework  ( discussion à visée philosophique et démocratique) which is being used  since 2000 by Alain Delsol and Sylvain Connac, with adults, children and youth. He has served as expert for UNESCO and is involved in the project Philosophy for Youth ( Philojeunes) as a  prevention measure for violence and radicalisation.

Susan Gardner - Canada

Dr. Susan T. Gardner is a Professor of Philosophy at Capilano University in North Vancouver, Canada. Her publications are primarily in the fields of Critical Thinking (Thinking Your Way to Freedom, 2009), and Philosophy for Children (P4C). She is also co-director of the Vancouver Institute of Philosophy for Children (www.vip4c.ca) and was the prime mover in bringing P4C camps to Vancouver in 2014 (www.thinkfuncamps.ca).

Arie Kizel - Israel

Dr. Arie Kizel is the head of the department of Learning, Instruction and Teacher Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Israel. His research areas are: Philosophy of Education, Philosophy for/with Children, Curriculum and Textbooks and Narratives of social groups. He was the Head of the German-Israeli commission for research of Textbook (2010 – 2015). Among his books in Hebrew: Subservient History: A Critical Analysis of History Curricula and Textbooks in Israel (2008), The New Mizrahi Narrative in Israel (2014).

Kerstin Michalik - Germany

Dr. Kerstin Mihalik is Professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Hamburg (Germany), Von-Melle-Park 8, 20146 Hamburg Kerstin. Mich. She studied   History, Philosophy and Educational Science at the University of Hamburg and the Sorbonne University Paris. She has been a teacher in Philosophy and History  in secondary schools and   Assistant Professor at the University of Luxemburg. Since 2010  she is Professor in Educational Science at the University of Hamburg. Dr. Mihalik is Chairwoman of the “Society for the advancement of Philosophizing with Children in Germany” (www.gesellschaftphilosophierenmitkindern.de).

Alina Reznitskaya - United-States

Dr. Alina Reznitskaya is Professor in the Department of Educational Foundations at Montclair State University. Her background includes studies in educational psychology, quantitative research methodology, and psycho-educational measurement, and she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on these topics. Her research focuses on developing and evaluating instructional strategies that support teachers in their use of classroom talk to promote student learning. Dr. Reznitskaya’s work has appeared in a variety of journals and edited books, including Educational Psychologist, The Reading Teacher, Contemporary Educational Psychology, Cambridge Journal of Education, Elementary School Journal, Discourse Processes, Comprehension Instruction: Research-Based Best Practices, and Positive Psychology in Practice.

Rike Zeus - Germany

Rike Zeus is a Critical Thinking and Dialogic Teaching Facilitator of Philosophical Inquiry with Children and Teenagers affiliated with the Technical University of Munich, Germany. In addition to providing workshops in Southern Germany, she is involved in translation, testing and adaptation of the Play Wise materials for use in German schools. She participated in the Biennial NAACI Conference at Montclair State College.

Daniel Anderson - Canada

Daniel Anderson has a philosophy honours degree from the University of British Columbia, and currently serves as an Associate Director for the Vancouver Institute of Philosophy for Children. He is also an Associate Director at Think Fun Camps, which runs a children’s philosophy program during the summer at the University of the Frazer Valley using games. Daniel’s primary philosophical interests include moral education, moral motivation, animal ethics and the politics of identity.

Wendy Turgeon - United-States

Dr. Wendy C. Turgeon is a Professor of Philosophy at St. Joseph’s College-NY.  She has been involved in 'Philosophy with/for Young People' for many years and has developed courses and programs for undergraduates and graduate students in introducing philosophy in pre-college education. She has served on the boards of ICPIC, PLATO, and NAACI, three organizations that work to promote philosophy throughout education and advocate for children as thinkers and members of society.

Natalie Fletcher - Canada

Natalie M. Fletcher is a philosophical practitioner and researcher from Montreal, Canada, where she works as teaching faculty in the philosophy department at John Abbott College and as the founding director of Brila Youth Projects (www.brila.org), a registered educational charity that fosters multidimensional thinking and creativity in young people through philosophical dialogue and digital magazine production. She is currently pursuing interdisciplinary doctoral research at Concordia University, fusing the fields of ethics, political philosophy, dialogic pedagogy and aesthetics education. She is on the executive of the International Council of Philosophical Inquiry with Children and of the American Philosophical Association’s Committee on Pre-College Instruction in Philosophy. Her research has been published by Routledge, Rowman and Littlefield, Philosophical Inquiry in Education, Analytic Teaching and Philosophical Praxis, and Childhood and Philosophy. She is currently editing a volume on philosophy for children from Canadian perspectives for McGill-Queens University Press.

Maria del Rosario del Collado Azuela - Mexico

Maria is a doctoral student in Human Development in Motolinia University and is also a teacher in the Master of Human Development in the Iberoamericana University and in Motolinia University in Mexico City. She has been a teacher trainer in P4C for more than 20 years of practice. Maria is the owner of the “Dialogando Center”. She has a ,aster in Human Development in Iberoamericana University, and is currently the coordinator of P4C ( Philosophy for Children)  in Montini Elementary School.

Farzaneh Shahrtash - Iran

Farzaneh Shahrtas is a PhD student at Gyeongsang National University (Korea) in the Department of Ethics, She is an Independent Researcher, Publisher, Writer, Translator, Editor, as well as a P4C and Science Teacher Trainer in Ministry of Education of Public and Private primary Schools. Her current interest center on the Digital Community of Inquiry co-coaching model is to teach and cultivate “reflective thinking” including critical, creative and caring thinking along with higher-order discussion skills among experienced and novice Thinking/P4C teachers in Iran. Combining the face-to-face “Community of Inquiry” framework during the workshops and “Digital Community of Inquiry” afterwards as an ongoing experience among Thinking/P4C teachers during the last eight years since 2008, is designed to help volunteer teachers in learning reflective thinking and overcome their problems as a reflective thinker in their Thinking/P4C classrooms.

Maura Striano - Italy

Dr. Maura Striano is full professor of Education at the Department  of Humanities, University of Naples, Federico II. She is Scientific Responsible of the Educational Section of the Center for Active and Participatory Inclusion for Students. Her current interests include Developing Cosmopolitan Thinking Through Philosophical Inquiry  aimed at introducing to a broad audience of scholars and practitioners in community of inquiry  a set of tools developed and validated within a three years action-research project  funded by the European Commission aimed at developing, testing and fine-tuning a new curriculum (composed of philosophical novels and manuals) designed to sustain the development of a cosmopolitan frame of mind through philosophical inquiry ( the PEACE Project).

Jason Howard - United-States

Dr. Jason Howard teaches at Viterbo College in the areas of philosophy of emotion, moral education, aesthetics and the philosophy of film. He recently published a book on how to use fantasy role-playing games as a way to introduce philosophy to adolescents, Adventures in Reasoning: Communal Inquiry through Fantasy Role-Play. He is also the editor of the peer-reviewed, open-access, online journal, Analytic Teaching and Philosophical Inquiry.

Ibrahim Najjar - Liban / Canada

Ibrahim Najjar received a doctoral degree in philosophy from the University of Toronto specializing in the work of Bertrand Russell. He taught at the American University of Beirut, the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and Dhofar University in the Sultanate of Oman where he was Head of the Social Sciences Department. Besides his work on analytic philosophy and Russell's thought, he published a translation of Averoes' (Ibn Rushed) writings. His interests include the philosophy of culture, the philosophy of religion, Islamic Philosophy, the theory of emotions, critical thinking, human rights and the teaching of philosophy in Arab world. He has been supportive of Philosophy for Youth through the Canadian Philosophical Association since 1986 and is the author in Arabic of Introduction to Philosophy, used in teaching and learning about philosophical concepts and thinkers. 

Jessica Ching-Sze, Wang - Taiwan

Jessica Ching-Sze, Wan holds a doctorate in education from Indiana university and is is Associate professor  at National Chiayi University, Xining (  NCYU) , Taiwan. Among her many contributions in the field of education is John Dewey in China: To Teach and to Learn and    Philosophy for children and education for democracy: A Deweyan perspective.  Paper presented at the Annual conference of Asia Pacific Network for Moral Education (APNME), Nagasaki Japan.

Mei Dang - Canada / Popular China

Dr. Mei Dang holds a doctorate in science from the University of Ottawa and is publishing director of DC Canada Education Publishing. Dr Dang has taught science in Canada and China where she introduced a science textbook into millions of copies.  She has recently translated in Chinese the  philosophy for children illustrated series My Little Book of Questions  based on the Game of Wisdom which has been serialized monthly  by the important  Early Education Magazine in China reaching more than 300 000 teachers and parents. She is also co-editor with Institut Philos of the Play Wise game in English and French. 

Leslie Cazares - Mexico

Dr. Leslie Cázares is the National President of the Mexican Federation of Philosophy for Children, A.C. having promoted the program linking countries like Spain, Uruguay, Brazil, and Argentina. She has 19 years of experience training teachers in Philosophy for Children in different states of the Mexican Republic. Her book on the Philosophy for Children "Integrating Philosophy for Children in Learning Centers" prefaced by Juan Carlos Lago Bornstein from Madrid, Spain. She loves participating in literary creation projects which can stimulate the personal and intellectual growth in students of all ages.

Lizzy Lewis - England

Initially a primary school teacher, school governor then teacher trainer, Dr. Lizzy Lewis is a UK based consultant and speaker, specializing in Philosophy for Children (P4C). Her current roles include P4C school training (as a registered SAPERE Trainer), Development Manager for SAPERE (UK charity promoting P4C), Partner of A Level Philosophy and  President of ICPIC(The International Council of Philosophical Inquiry with Children). Lizzy has published articles in this field and co-edited Philosophy for Children through the Secondary Curriculum, Continuum, 2012. Lizzy is a Director of Thinking Space, on the Advisory Board for BRILA Youth Projects, Associate of the Philosophy in Education Project

Eugenio Echeverria - United-States

Eugenio Echeverría  has earned  a master’s degree in Philosophy for Children at the Montclair University, USA and a PhD in teachers training at the University of Hawaii, working with children and teenagers from the island of Oahu in several educational contexts, building on his experience with at risk children. He has been a member of Matthew Lipman’s staff as a teacher trainer, and since 1982 has worked in Philosophy for Children with teenagers and children from preschool years to university. Currently he is the director of the Latin American Center of Philosophy for Children, San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico.

Imre Hoffman - Switzerland

Imre Hoffman holds degrees in philosophy, anthropology and a teaching certificate from the University of Zurich in Switzerland. In addition to being  a secondary school teacher he runs a philosophical praxis ELENCHOS in Zurich, providing philosophical training and  life skills programs for youth to better face ethical challenges .

Abby Karos - Canada

As the the co-founder and director of Compass, Abby Karos has spent the past four years building Compass and developing her entrepreneurial skills. She has several years of teaching experience in a variety of settings, both public and private and had dreamed of opening an alternative to school for over 20 years. She has extensive experience in project management and editing in the not-for-profit sector. Abby holds a Masters in Educational Philosophy and teaching certifications from the University of Ottawa and the National Coalition of Alternative Community Schools. Most importantly, she is passionate about helping young people find their place in the world. She is a mother to two boys, one of whom attends classes at Compass.

Silène Chenu - France

She discovered popular education through scouting. She then graduated in sociocultural organisation, then got a BPJEPS LTP in France which makes her an experienced organiser around popular education. She is also a summer camps manager and has been a volunteer working organiser among different structures. She currently does a Service Civique through which she acts as organiser, event planner, and helps promoting and renovating cultural heritage among other tasks. She is an activist who see working as a tool to make a better world through popular education.