Thinking and Children

Thinking and Children

Examining the philosophical adequacy of the story 'The Little Black Fish'for the community of philosophical inquiry (CPI) from the perspective of controlling aggressive attitudes in children

Document Type : Scientific- research

Authors
Azindokht Gholami 1
Nasser Noshadi 2
1 M.A. in Educational Psychology. Yasouj University. Faculty of Humanities. Dep of Educational Sciences and Psychology. Yasouj. Iran,
2 Associate Professor of Curriculum Development. Yasouj University. Faculty of Humanities. Dep of Educational Sciences and Psychology. Yasouj. Iran.
10.30465/fabak.2026.52423.2469
Abstract
The rationale behind the establishment of the philosophy for children by Lipman is to control aggression through reading stories. The story of Little Black Fish by Samad Behrangi has a special place in Iranian children's literature. This article aims to investigate the ability of the P4C Reading of the Little Black Fish (Mahi Siyah Koucholou) story by Samad Behrangi. The current research aimed to measure philosophical adequacy in two studies. In the first study, the effectiveness of the Little Black Fish story on children's aggression was measured. The research method was semi-experimental with pre-test & post-test, a control group, and a follow-up group. The experimental group was taught philosophy to children during 9 sessions of 120 minutes, but the control group did not receive any intervention. Eysenck and Wilson's Children's Aggressive Attitude Scale, designed for elementary school, was used as a tool. The subjects included sixth-grade students in the academic year 2023-2024. Data analysis was done using the covariance analysis (ANCOVA) method. The second study examined the philosophical adequacy of the story in terms of both form and content. The findings revealed that The Little Black Fish significantly influenced children’s aggressive attitudes ( ). Additionally, the results indicated philosophical inadequacies in the story’s content and form.
Keywords: Philosophy for children, Aggression, Little Black Fish, Philosophical adequacy, Samad Behrangi
Introduction
The Oxford English Dictionary (Oxforddictionaries.com) defines aggression as “an attitude or behavior that involves physical force with the intent to hurt, injure, or kill someone.” Aggression is a common theme in children’s fiction (Zhong & Lin, 2023). Many children’s stories are also filled with graphic depictions of aggression and violence (Decker & Castro, 2012). In some children’s fiction, authors attempt to portray children as self-centered, disobedient, and aggressive (Roysircar et al., 2019; Peltonen & Punamaki, 2010). Research has shown that aggressive stories lead to social delay in children (McKeough, Yates and Marini, 1994). In a study (1993), Howard showed that boys participating in the aggressive story group showed a significant tendency towards aggressive behavior compared to the social and cooperative story group, and portrayed the characters more negatively than the social story group. Thus, there is a significant relationship between children's picture books with aggressive themes and children's aggressive behavior (Fodor, 2010; McClelland, 1985) and, at a macro level, the depiction of violence in children's storybooks predicts whether countries will go to war in the future (Winter, 2000). The findings also showed that children's stories with aggressive themes are significant predictors of aggressive behavior among people in a society (Yule, 1985; Howard, 1994; McGrew & Teglasi, 1990; McKeough, Yates, & Marini, 1994). One of the most important theorists in the field of child aggression is Bandura (1979), who, while challenging the basic assumptions of behaviorist and psychoanalytic theories, showed that aggression is the result of observing aggressive behavior. Regarding behaviorist theory, he showed that aggression is the result of observing the behavior of others rather than encouragement and punishment. On the other hand, he also challenged the psychoanalytic theory that vicarious aggression - for example, showing a violent film - creates a catharsis and reduces aggressive behavior. Hence, children's cartoons that depict aggression contribute more to children's aggressive attitudes and behavior (Todorova, 2021). Therefore, the problem of the present study stems from the confusion between philosophical and non-philosophical stories in research related to the field of P4C in Iran, and also, since the research related to the story of the Little Black Fish was descriptive rather than experimental; therefore, a void of an experimental study was felt to test the contradictions of previous research on this story. Hence, the main question of the present study is: "Does the story of the Little Black Fish have philosophical adequacy for the CPI from the perspective of aggression’s control?"

Materials & methods
The present study was based on two studies. The research method in the first study was quasi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design and a control group. Before implementing the design, both experimental and control groups were pre-tested. Then, the philosophy education program for children was implemented as an intervention for the experimental group. Finally, both groups of subjects participated in the post-test. Due to the existence of an independent and dependent variable, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to compare before and after the experimental procedure (Van Breukelen, 2006). The pre-test and post-test were measured by the Eysenck and Wilson Children's Aggressive Attitude Scale, which was designed for elementary school. Finally, the research data were analyzed by observing parametric assumptions, using the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) method, and using SPSS version 22 software.

Discussion & Result
As can be seen in the results, the difference between the experimental and control group subjects in terms of the aggression variable was significant. The effect size (eta coefficient) in the experimental group was equal to (Partial Ƞ2=.17), which means that 17 percent of the difference in aggressive attitude between the control and experimental groups was related to the effect of the Little Black Fish story. Also, the findings indicated aggression in the content and form of the story of the Little Black Fish. The article indicated the philosophical inadequacy of the story from the perspective of controlling aggression based on content. In the index of "having a philosophical theme," the story's main question is: Where is the end of the stream? is in contrast to the question of the phebeki, which has a divergent and reflective approach. In the phebeki, we are not supposed to give a specific actuality to the children's questioning power and present a closed-answer question. Philosophical questions are without certainty and encourage one to face an uncertain future. The phebeki is not a race with a finish line; rather, it is a two-way relay race in which each child can pass the torch of their question to another to help each other through questions. In the phebeki, our survival in the group is a question that we inherit from ourselves, so that others can actively participate in it.

Conclusion
The findings revealed that The Little Black Fish significantly influenced children’s aggressive attitudes. Additionally, the results indicated philosophical inadequacies in the story’s content and form. Both studies indicated that the story of the little black fish has philosophical inadequacies from the point of view of controlling aggression in the community of philosophical inquiry (CPI).
Keywords
Philosophy for children
Aggression
Little Black Fish
Philosophical adequacy
Samad Behrangi
Subjects
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Thinking and Children
Volume 17, Issue 1 - Serial Number 33
Spring and Summer
August 2026
Pages 155-192

  • Receive Date 10 July 2025
  • Revise Date 27 January 2026
  • Accept Date 15 February 2026
  • Publish Date 23 July 2026