CHILDHOODS BETWEEN THOUGHT, POWER, AND EXPERIENCE: PHILOSOPHICAL AND EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

This article, grounded in bibliographical research and a theoretical-conceptual approach, examines childhood through the contributions of Matthew Lipman, Walter Kohan, Michel Foucault, Jorge Larrosa, and Giorgio Agamben. It seeks to understand childhood not merely as a biological stage of life but as an experience shaped by language and by relations of knowledge and power. First, it analyzes Lipman's Philosophy for Children program and Kohan's critique of reducing philosophy to a predetermined method. It then draws on Foucault to problematize the historical constitution of schooled childhood through discipline, examination, normalization, and the government of conduct. Subsequently, Larrosa's work makes it possible to conceive of childhood as enigma, otherness, and a demand for hospitality. Finally, Agamben's reflections articulate childhood, language, experience, and history. The discussion highlights the tension between practices that seek to capture and govern children and the potential of childhood as a space of questioning, difference, creation, and openness to the new.