Philosophy teaching and the constitution of personal identity: Formation, autonomy and gender

Abstract

This article investigates the contribution of philosophy in basic education classes for the formation of the students as individuals, helping them in the process of identity construction. Philosophy teaching in high school contributes to constituteself-aware individuals in space and time. It helps them with the ability to reflect critically on the social context in which they are inserted and on the expectations in terms of fixed gender roles imposed from the outside in. In this sense, the particularity of philosophical knowledge, as critical thinking through the creation of concepts, entails a more authentic and autonomous individual formation. This also justifies the presence of philosophy as a subject in high school. The personal gender experience is central in the formation of identity. So it is important to discuss this topic with the students. Due to that, we advocate the importance of bringing gender issues to philosophy classes. It refers a real experience that can be problematized in order to deconstruct naturalized gender performativity and think about the inequalities that pervade this social category. Thus, students can constitute a more conscious individual identity, critical to social position that their genders occupy in the social environment.