CFP: Third Biennial Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization Conference

The third PLATO Conference will take place June 29-30, 2015, at the University of Washington in Seattle. The conference theme is Equity and Inquiry. Sessions will include talks from invited speakers, hands-on workshops, a poster session and submitted presentations and paper talks.

Keynote Address: Jonathan Kozol
The conference will begin with an invited keynote address by noted educator Jonathan Kozol. Kozol is the National Book Award–winning author of Savage Inequalities, Death at an Early Age, The Shame of the Nation, and Amazing Grace, among others. He has been working with children in inner-city schools for nearly fifty years. One of the most widely read and highly honored education writers in the United States, Kozol has devoted nearly his entire life to the challenge of providing equal opportunity within our public schools to every child.

Description of Conference
The 2015 PLATO Conference will consist of concurrent sessions involving hands-on workshops, papers, and presentations on the general theme of Equity and Inquiry. There will also be a poster session, with the posters exhibited throughout the conference, showcasing pre-college philosophy programs and initiatives. Sessions will be scheduled by relevance and subject matter in the following four tracks (conference participants will be able to move freely between tracks throughout the conference):

Philosophy in the elementary school classroom
Philosophy in the middle school classroom
Philosophy in the high school classroom
Theoretical issues in pre-college philosophy

We welcome proposals for workshops, presentations/papers, and the poster session from professors, graduate students, teachers and others practicing and/or interested in pre-college philosophy. Proposals for workshops should be no longer than 1,000 words. If you are proposing a presentation/paper or inclusion in the poster session, your proposal should be in the form of an abstract, which should be no longer than 500 words.

Those submitting proposals are encouraged to note which track(s) (see above) are most relevant to their submission. Possible proposal topics include, but are not limited to:

Outreach to underserved populations
Childhood and philosophy
Methods for engaging students in philosophical discussion
Philosophy across the curriculum
Assessment
Outcomes: the impact of pre-college philosophy
Afterschool philosophy programs
High School Ethics Bowls
Creating communities of philosophical inquiry
Philosophy and conflict resolution

Proposals will be blind-refereed and the authors will be informed by the end of January 2015 whether their proposals have been accepted. All proposals must be submitted by email attachment no later than December 1, 2014, to [email protected]. Other inquiries about the conference may also be sent to that address.

The Third Biennial PLATO Conference will be funded in part by the Squire Family Foundation, the Teagle Foundationand the University of Washington.