About Us
Philosophy Matters, was established in 2018 by a community of thinkers and practitioners from Hillbrook School, who were keen to continue and extend the quality and influence of Hillbrook’s Philosophical Inquiry course, as well as to explore how this could impact within and beyond Hillbrook.
Hillbrook is an independent secondary school in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In 2015 we embarked on a fundamental change to our core curriculum: the implementation of collaborative philosophical inquiry (PI). Since then comprehensive curriculum programs for Years 7 – 10 have been developed and all teachers have undertaken professional development. All Year 7 – 10 students now participate in PI weekly, and the authority subject ‘Philosophy and Reason’ is available as an elective in the senior school. At Hillbrook, Philosophy matters greatly to us.
The curriculum materials available through this website were designed and written by Hillbrook’s Philosophical Inquiry Teacher Mentor, Lynne Hinton, in collaboration with, and ongoing review by, Hillbrook teachers.
The training programs were developed by Lynne Hinton and Philosophical Inquiry Teacher Coach, Amy Eberhardt.
In 2020 a study was commissioned to explore the impact on our students after having done Philosophical Inquiry for four years as a core subject. Read a summary of the results here.
Lynne was recruited to Hillbrook in 2014 to create and deliver the Philosophical Inquiry programme. Prior to this, Lynne was a school principal, an educational consultant (nationally and internationally) and an Adjunct Professor at Queensland University of Technology. Lynne is the creator of the PI curriculum and wrote both the Introductory and Advanced teacher training courses.
Tegan taught Years 7-10 Philosophical Inquiry at Hillbrook from 2015 - 2021 and Philosophy and Reason in 2020 and 2021. Tegan has completed her Level 2 Teacher Educator Certificate in Philosophical Inquiry, and is currently one of the PI training course facilitators. Tegan has also completed a Bachelor of Arts Distinction, with a major in Philosophy and minors in Anthropology and Education, from Deakin University.
Amy has taught Philosophy at both primary and secondary levels in Australia and New Zealand for 14 years and has facilitated the training of PI at several schools in both countries. In her current role at Hillbrook she facilitates PI workshops, consults with schools and writes Philosophical Inquiry curriculum.
Stephen is the Head of Philosophy and Reason, and Philosophical Inquiry at Hillbrook. He develops and teaches the Philosophical Inquiry (PI) curriculum to students from years 8 to 10. In addition, he trains teachers in how to teach PI, consulting with schools and running workshops. He has a keen interest in seeing Philosophy run well in schools, be it in a primary or secondary setting.
