Challenge of Teaching Philosophy: Between Obstacles and Prospects—the Secondary Education Level as a Model

Teaching philosophy at the secondary level in Algeria has aroused significant interest among philosophical instruction students. This interest has been reinforced by earnest efforts over recent years to establish a philosophy lesson grounded in pedagogical practices that primarily aim to foster complex knowledge through philosophical discourse, all within an educational framework that aligns with the learner's capacities.

However, several crises have emerged within this reality that have hindered the philosophy lesson from attaining its intended level of competence. Experience has shown that the goal of cultivating philosophical thinking in students remains distant, mainly due to the dominance of stereotypical thinking among teachers and learners, a mindset often shaped by ideological preconceptions. Teachers frequently face resistance from students, who approach the subject with preconceived notions that it contradicts their religious beliefs, views often fuelled by populist cultural narratives.

Moreover, pedagogical obstacles have played a significant role in the crisis of philosophy lessons, mainly through the neglect of textual and narrative approaches within the educational unit and the absence of engagement with new philosophical discourses in contemporary thought. These and other crises have derailed the philosophy lesson, rendering philosophical practice nearly impossible and transforming the subject into one on the basis of rote memorisation rather than critical thinking.

• 2.    The Philosophy Lesson: Significance and Reality The experience of teaching philosophy at the secondary level constitutes a central focus and a subject of enduring importance for researchers and those concerned with philosophical education. This interest arises from a need to diagnose the causes of the ongoing crisis afflicting philosophy instruction, which has intensified over time, and from a desire to explore prospects for overcoming this crisis. The philosophy lesson may transcend the obstacles impeding its progress through the establishment of effective mechanisms.

Recognising the philosophy lesson's importance within the educational system emerges as an acknowledgement of its capacity to stimulate learners' creativity across various disciplines. Al-Bukhari (1984) notes:

Correcting our perception of philosophy and its role in society and developing our understanding of our religion and world can be realised only through qualitative and quantitative advancement s in teaching philosophy in schools, universities, and institutes. This development must encompass both form and content, and philosophy must be extended to all university departments, regardless of specialisation. For no matter how advanced a student's scientific expertise may become, they will inevitably encounter and pose questions that only philosophy is equipped to confront and to which it alone can offer appropriate solutions.

Speaking about philosophy suggests an intention to philosophise a process that, according to Kant, takes precedence over Hegel's perspective. Kant emphasises the necessity of learning to philosophise rather than merely learning philosophy. “In other words,” as Laham (n.d.) notes, “philosophy does not exist as a fixed or universally agreed-upon entity that can be taught; however, one can learn how to philosophise” (p. 67).

The act of philosophising, which is grounded in motivations such as wonder and inquiry in the Aristotelian sense ( thaumazein ), or existential dread in the Nietzschean sense, represents a subjective experience lived by the learner that reveals their capacity to problematise topics that require specific prior knowledge (Grayeche, 2019, p. 13). Through this lens, the problematisation approach places the learner in a state of wonder and perplexity, confronting them with a participatory philosophical challenge.

The teacher begins the lesson by raising a commonly accepted issue that invites a ready-made opinion. From these shared opinions among learners, the teacher seeks to refute and destabilise them, exposing their contradictions. As Blackburn (2016) explains, "We continue to hope that we truly know what we naturally assume we know. However, how do our ideas connect to one another?" (p. 67).

At first, learners may not feel that they possess a solution to their problem or a way out of their complex situation. However, to resolve this issue, they realise that they must overcome the obstacles that previously obscured the problem and make it appear so complicated. At this stage, learners demonstrate their competence when they discover that genuine knowledge arises not from ready-made opinions but from reasoned and constructed understanding.

The method of teaching philosophy differs from that of other subjects in that it represents a moment of intellectual contemplation, which lends it a distinctive character. The philosophy lesson does not merely aim to reveal the history of philosophy or to present its major theories and schools of thought, nor is it limited to introducing its prominent figures throughout different historical periods. Instead, it constituted a journey through the history of these periods, grounded in contemporary intellectual frameworks.

In line with this, the educational curriculum ultimately aspires to lead the learner to "engage in intellectual contemplation," "master the mechanisms of systematic thinking," and "gain control over philosophical reasoning and engage in real experiences of raising philosophical issues." To achieve the highest aim of teaching philosophy, the curriculum must "be based on a specific educational philosophy, as it determines the general orientations of the curriculum" (Hajarsi, n.d., p. 12).

As a distinctive subject, philosophy possesses the freedom and capacity to raise questions that other subjects cannot address. Philosophical thinking involves questions that do not admit definitive answers and provoke intellectual unease. Only the philosophical mind dares to pose such questions, as it can break the taboos restricting intellectual freedom. As Ray, Carette, and Kahn (2015) observe, "learning in this view is not understood as the individual recording a set of facts, but rather as a transformation of their cognitive structure" (p. 24). Thus, the competence aimed at through the philosophy lesson goes beyond mere acquisition of knowledge; it focuses instead on using knowledge to effect profound cognitive transformation in the learner over time.

The success of a teaching philosophy is closely linked to the appropriate selection of teaching methods and approaches, which must first and foremost be clearly defined. Philosophy teachers often face several obstacles, the most significant of which is the absence of epistemological and methodological tools that facilitate the process of philosophising. Among these is the learner's mental preparedness, which is often hindered by preconceived judgments about the subject inherited from their everyday culture. It is well known that, in many Arab-Islamic countries, philosophy is frequently viewed with suspicion and is often associated with atheism or dismissed as idle talk. However, as Searle (2011) noted, "common sense is not a completely clear idea; rather, as I understand it, it is a matter of beliefs that are widely held and usually go unchallenged" (p. 23).

The initial educational reforms were modest in scope, as they did not affect the content of the curriculum. The same programmes were primarily retained, with an uneven distribution across school streams, failing to consider the allotted instructional hours for each specialisation, which does not permit adequate engagement with major philosophical problems. It appears that competencies were defined first, and only thereafter was the philosophical content developed aligned with those predefined competencies.

The method of rote instruction, which reduces the educational process to the repetition and transmission of others’ ideas, has stifled learners’ creative potential. This approach to teaching philosophy, which is based on memorisation, has stripped it of one of its most essential foundations: intellectual freedom. As Taoufik Ouaziz (1990) states, “philosophy can only emerge when thought feels it is free” (p. 14). Equally affected is the second foundational principle of philosophy, critical thinking, which is no less vital. The absence of a critical spirit among learners is evident mainly because the curricula have remained rigid and dogmatic, with no space for developing a philosophical standpoint. This dry approach has undermined learners' capacity for critical analysis, as it "is the task of philosophy to expose human existence, for it is philosophy that has the merit of promoting enlightenment and of guiding human beings from a state of intellectual immaturity to a moment of rational maturity" (El Haddadi, 2016, p. 33).

Furthermore, the curriculum's focus on stimulating major philosophical problems has led to the exclusion of interpretative and argumentative content. When philosophy instruction should encompass a range of epistemological dimensions, historical, linguistic, and methodological, it has instead been reduced to the delivery of philosophical content alone, even though philosophy is concerned with meaning, not merely subject matter.

3.    The Competency-Based Approach: From Rote Learning to Critical Thinking

The changes experienced by the Algerian school system “and the ongoing efforts to achieve higher levels of quality in line with global developments and the aspirations of advanced educational systems” (Ministry of National Education, 2013) have compelled the national educational system, in parallel with the reforms being implemented, to adopt a new teaching method aligned with the ambitions of these reforms. This competency-based approach is introduced as an alternative to the objective-based approach.

The competency-based approach is not a product of the twentieth century. Instead, its roots have reached deep into the history of Greek thought. Socrates is the first educator to articulate a method emphasising the learner's role in the teaching– learning process. As Amira Hilmi Matar (1998) noted, "Socrates brought philosophy down from the heavens to earth, brought it into households, and made it govern human actions" (p. 141).

The Socratic method, which is based on two key stages: irony, where the teacher provocatively feigns ignorance to stimulate the learner, and maieutics, where the process of drawing out ideas the learner was unaware of them, was more than mere dialogue. It was a genuine method of philosophising, providing tools through which the mind could activate its intellectual functions. "Despite the superficial similarity between Socratic irony and the sophists' rhetorical tricks, the former never led to a circular argument. It remained inseparable from a method of inquiry, of maieutics, of the art of forcing ideas into existence. What is truly needed is for a person to find a new moral and intellectual position" (Ducassé, 1983, p. 42).

Thus, Socrates pioneered a method for teaching philosophy, and maieutics remains an effective technique for uncovering profound ideas, enabling learners to think independently.

The competency-based approach centres the learner as the core of the instructional process. It emphasises the learner's participation in addressing epistemological problems by placing them in situations that provoke wonder and anxiety. Through these intellectually stimulating contexts, the teacher encourages learners to uncover truths already latent within themselves, using guided questions grounded in the principle that knowledge is recollection and ignorance is forgetting. In this way, the learner is gradually led toward discovering truth.

However, philosophy lessons have struggled to achieve their transformative potential due to stagnation, which has affected them, and students' disengagement, which is largely caused by outdated teaching methods that rely entirely on the teacher.

Returning to the Socratic method has become necessary, which entails abandoning the teacher's authoritarian role and the notion of a singular truth that must be grasped. The shift from rote instruction to a thinking-based approach involves the learner in generating knowledge and places the learner at the centre of the teaching–learning process. Unlike other subjects, philosophy possesses the unique capacity to raise problematic questions in ways unfamiliar to learners. From this point, the construction of the philosophical lesson begins by transforming these problems into subjects for reflection.

To philosophise means to think about something with the aim of understanding it that is, to grasp the meaning of the object of thought. This intellectual identity of philosophy is found throughout the entire history of philosophising, regardless of the differences in its methods, the diversity of its principles, or the variation in its structures (Al-Chouli, 2016, p. 25).

Accordingly, the didactics of philosophy within the competency-based approach urges a shift away from the mere transmission of philosophical knowledge toward transforming that knowledge into topics for philosophising, defined by operational educational content and objectives. "The role of the teacher no longer consists in simply transmitting 'knowledge'

It is well known that thought arises from crises; for this reason, it must first be the one to provoke such crises.

Reducing the problem of teaching philosophy to the method of instruction alone disregards half the truth. While teaching methods represent a challenge, they are only one part of a broader set of issues. This is evidence that changing the method has not yielded the desired outcomes. Even the Socratic method, which is based on dialogical exchange, still reflects the teacher's dominance through their control of the questioning process. Furthermore, Socrates's selective interlocutor choice makes philosophy inaccessible to all learners.

Other contributing factors include how examinations are designed and the limited instructional time allocated to the subject, particularly in scientific streams. Both of these factors play a significant role in diminishing student motivation and reinforcing disengagement from the subject.

• 4.    Examinations: Memorisation over Understanding If the primary aim of the competency-based approach is to involve the learner in the generation of knowledge, break free from the monotony of passive reception, and activate the mind by liberating it from intellectual stagnation, thus transforming the philosophy lesson into an interactive space based on critical thinking and offering learners the opportunity to apply their cognitive skills to solve complex problems, then it must be acknowledged that a sig-

  nificant challenge remains. As Ray, Carette, and Kahn (2015) observe, “It is clear that introducing the concept of competence into educational discourse represents a substantial challenge. Through their experience, teachers are well aware that guiding students towards solving complex problems is a difficult task and that many of them cannot do so" (p. 40).

5.    The Philosophical Text: The Necessary yet Neglected Element

By the end of each school year, official examinations reveal the significant gap between the philosophy lesson as it ought to be and the actual reality of classroom practice. A clear distinction must be made between teaching philosophy and philosophical thinking, as Gagnon (2011) noted: "In general, we observed that s, standard evaluation, whether in the form of traditional numerical or letter grades, or even a simple remark, does not assess the process of acquiring knowledge. Rather, it judges the pupil’s ‘level’ subjectively, on the basis of success or failure in a given assignment” (p. 41).

Although the competency-based approach views error positively, fostering learners' capacity for free thought requires continual engagement with correcting mistakes as they arise while philosophising. The pursuit of truth can only occur by confronting such errors. As Bachelard (1981) noted, "Intellectual habits that were once useful can become obstacles to thought" (p. 14). The discovery of errors becomes a stimulus that activates and deepens intellectual activity.

The end-of-year examination does not reflect the learner's capacity for philosophical thinking. Instead, it is often a mere reproduction of preformulated answers, representing the intellectual authority imposed by the originator of those responses on the learner's thought and reinforcing the teacher's rationality in the learner's mind. During the exam, the learner recalls accumulated information, yet afterwards, it emerges devoid of retained knowledge. As Gagnon (2011) observes, "In the baccalaureate, it is not specifically English, or history, or even geography, despite the value of such knowledge that matters, but rather the ability to analyse something and produce something else” (p. 56).

As a result, the educational system graduates learners who, year after year, emerge intellectually unprepared, as they lack critical thinking skills and perpetuate inherited flawed patterns of thought. “These principles and facts have made the goal of education the development of cognitive, emotional, and intellectual capacities, through the explicit and direct teaching of cognitive and emotional processes, and the cultivation of thinking skills” (Al-Haroun, 2009, p. 28).

The philosophical text was conceived as a fundamental pillar of the philosophy lesson. Suppose the goal of the philosophy lesson is to establish a mode of intellectual communication among a group of minds. In that case, the philosophical text facilitates this objective through argumentative engagement within philosophical discourse. As Gadamer (2006) explains, "It presents, as required by historical consciousness and the art of interpretation, each issue individually. The understanding guided by methodological awareness should not only develop its preconceptions but also examine them by rendering them conscious to achieve a correct understanding on the basis of the things themselves” (p. 125).

Philosophical analysis of the text represents a form of engagement with the philosopher's thought. Murdoch and Magee (2018) noted, "The quality and significance of philosophical writing lie in considerations that go beyond literary and aesthetic value. If any philosopher excels in their writing style, it is undoubtedly a merit that will make them all the more seductive and worthy of being studied" (p. 21). Through philosophical text, one can better and more precisely identify philosophical theories, schools of thought, and significant traditions. The text thus serves as an essential entry point for broader philosophical inquiry.

The centrality of the philosophical text requires the teacher to possess a broad and diverse intellectual and cultural background and a solid grasp of the various philosophical conceptions of the text itself. For instance, Paul Ricœur's understanding of the text differs from that of Roland Barthes and Julia Kristeva. As Grayeche (2019) noted, "In philosophy more than in other disciplines, the philosopher-intraining must reflect on beginnings and original texts" (p. 74). The diversity of philosophers' interpretations of what constitutes philosophical text naturally leads to a plurality of reading methods, something the teacher may rightly consider pedagogically enriching.

This analytical approach to the text also entails a process whereby the self is stripped of its illusions and grounded existentially in a way that affirms truth. As Amara (2007) affirms, “By working to approach the subject through the purification of the self from its illusions, and equipping it with an existential foundation, one can affirm the truth” (p. 14). The philosophical text alone can reconcile both Kant's and Hegel's approaches to teaching philosophy, as it presents the particularities of philosophical problems with greater precision. Philosophising is a mode of thinking of reasoning, analysis, synthesis, and critique, and it is precisely this that the philosophical text offers. In contrast, teaching philosophy involves a return to its history, and through philosophical texts, the ideas of philosophers are conveyed, their theories are introduced, and their conceptual frameworks are brought closer to the learner. Understanding the history of philosophy is thus intrinsically linked to returning to the original texts of the philosophers themselves.

Gadamer (2007) stated, "Writing is a form of selfalienation, and overcoming it, that is, reading the text, is the highest task of understanding. Even the mere marks of an inscription may be approached distinctly and properly articulated if the text can be translated into language. As we have said, this translation always constitutes a relationship with what the text means, that is, with the subject matter being discussed. At this point, the act of understanding shifts entirely toward the world of meaning produced by the linguistic tradition" (p. 513).

The philosophical text analysis methodology is rooted in Paul Ricœur's hermeneutics. It begins by uncovering the structure of the text and the relationships among its internal components, identifying its key ideas, and clarifying its logical framework. At that point, the ownership of the text shifts from its author to its reader, opening the text to interpretation and allowing it to be revived anew. In this context, “the critical thinker, in this sense, realises when beginning to form a conviction that one day they might encounter new information that compels them to abandon it. They rarely regard the outcomes of thought as final or absolute” (Yass, 2015, p. 143).

The direct manner in which official examination questions are posed pushes candidates towards memorisation rather than critical thinking, contributing to an almost complete disinterest in engaging with philosophical texts. Exceptions are typically limited to those who choose the text-based question either unwillingly owing to a general lack of interest in the subject or out of ignorance regarding the first two prompts. This explains why the proportion of scientific-stream students opting for text-based essays is often greater than that of literary-stream students.

Even when candidates select the text-based option, their essay is often a preconstructed template standardised and prepared in advance, which they apply indiscriminately to any given text. Learners merely fill in the blanks, as if completing a language game, without genuine analysis or interpretation. The format of the questions contributes significantly to learners' reluctance to choose text-based options, even though it offers greater freedom of thought. It allows learners to engage with the content of the text through a reasoned, argumentative approach and simultaneously trains them in the skills of critique, reasoning, and synthesis. As Farmawi (2009) stated, "In this way, they acquire specific methods for selfregulation of their cognitive activity in ways that may prove beneficial for achieving autonomous learning" (p. 121).

Moreover, the text-based approach encourages learners to draw upon their accumulated philosophical and cultural knowledge.

6.    Conclusion

Despite all the efforts invested in reforming educational curricula, philosophy lessons and the competency-based approach have not yet achieved their primary objective: equipping the learner with the capacity for critical thinking. Identifying and addressing the obstacles to teaching philosophy is a complex undertaking, given the interrelated nature of these challenges. Nevertheless, it remains necessary to confront the most significant among them and to correct what can be corrected because the progress of nations is intrinsically linked to the advancement of their education systems. At its core, philosophy is an attempt to resolve the problems of reality. If philosophy requires education to be transmitted, it needs philosophy to give it meaning.