Identifying the challenges of teaching philosophy to children from the perspective of preschool educators (a phenomenological study)

The aim of the present study was to understand the lived experiences of preschool teachers regarding the challenges of teaching philosophy to children. This qualitative research was performed using phenomenological method. The method of data collection was semi-structured interviews. For this purpose, data were collected by interviewing 15 instructors who had an experience of teaching philosophy to students. Data were analyzed by Strabert and Carpenter (2003). The analysis of the interviews indicates four main themes including cultural challenges, content challenges, administrative and structural challenges, methodological challenges and 22 sub-themes including unfamiliarity with the phenomenon of teaching philosophy to children in society, ridicule Lack of parental involvement in teaching philosophy to children, prejudiced attitude towards teaching philosophy to children, low parental education, lack of appropriate resources, improper content organization, incomplete translations, lack of communication and compatibility of content, acceptance of abstract concept of philosophy and inconsistency with child, Presenting a philosophy textbook, the achievements of teaching philosophy are not tangible, refusing to teach philosophy to children in the formal curriculum, lack of formal instructor training, lack of material and spiritual support, high population density, assigning philosophy teaching to a rich group, lack of tools related to teaching philosophy to the child, the low quality of the trainers was the lack of attention to the child's age, providing the final answer to the child, ignoring the child and lack of connection with the extraction environment.