This essay is an attempt to scrutinize dance improvisation in terms of Aristotle’s concept of the practical knowledge phronesis. By remembering and reflecting upon lessons and my own practical knowledge and experience as a teacher in the subject of dance improvisation, I want to examine the ability to improvise as the dance students´ phronesis. Awareness, spontaneity and intuition are vital elements for the comprehension of phronesis and even represented in the basis training in dance improvisation. During the contemplation I have used philosophical books and texts mainly about practical knowledge, intuition and reflection.

Subscribing to Hans-Georg Gadamer's belief that human beings are called to be insightful and discerning, this dissertation explores Gadamer's idea and practice of listening to language in order to understand the relationship between a constitutive theory of language and a life of wisdom. As Gadamer's texts reveal, the hermeneutic practice of listening to language is a reflective engagement of language that is theoretically grounded in a constitutive view of language. First, we need to listen to language because language, not consciousness, is the critical element in understanding. Second, the ontological priority of language over subjectivity comes with the nature of our primary relationship to language--we belong to it. Language is the medium in which we think and live, which makes us human. This means that our primary and most consequential relationship to language is as hearers, not users, of language. Third, the nature of language is both binding and expansive; hence the problems that come with its binding nature can be attended to from within language itself, by engaging its expansive nature. In other words, Gadamer does not believe in linguistic determinism. <br>The first chapter explores the conversation between Gadamer and communication studies by surveying what communication scholars have found significant for communication theory and practice in Gadamer's thought. The next three chapters examine Gadamer's idea and practice of listening to language through a close interpretive reading of Gadamer's texts. This reading reveals three key relationships that define the hermeneutic practice of listening to language: the relationship between ordinary language and conceptual thought (chapter two); the relationship between hearing and understanding (chapter three); and the relationship between language and reason (chapter four). The last chapter takes the conversation between Gadamer and communication studies further by considering some ways in which the hermeneutic practice of listening to language can assist communication scholars and practitioners in becoming discerning and insightful. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts / Communication and Rhetorical Studies / PhD / Dissertation

This thesis reports the findings of research conducted with Irish primary teachers who had recently completed probation. The study employed semi-structured interviews to examine the teachers’ perceptions of beneficial influences on the development of their teaching identity. The principals of the two schools involved were also interviewed. The interviews were designed to allow me to explore influences that had been identified in the literature as important in the formation of teacher identity. In the interviews, themes that have been identified in the literature on teacher identity were explored with participants. The teachers identified incidents and persons whom they perceived as having inspired them to become teachers. Their perceptions of how their interactions with pupils and parents had influenced their identities were examined, as were their experiences of school cultures and of working in collaboration with colleagues. Finally, their awareness of theoretical literature as a tool to help their further development was examined. The findings of the study confirm that teachers’ identities are formed by a combination of factors and add a more detailed understanding of those factors in the Irish context. Beginning teachers are influenced strongly by their own biographies, and by their experiences as students prior to and during their pre-service teacher education. They are sensitive to the perceptions of them by parents and pupils. Their willingness to engage collaboratively with other colleagues, including their principals and mentors, features strongly in their own perceptions of how their identities have been formed. The importance of the school culture in helping to shape the teacher’s identity is highlighted as a phenomenon which both shapes and is reshaped in turn by teachers and their colleagues. Literature is generally not considered relevant by the Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) in this study, although the principals’ responses indicate their familiarity with themes common in the literature concerning teacher induction, and with concepts of teachers as reflective practitioners who need to continuously examine their practice and experience in order to promote the ongoing shaping of their identity as teachers. The thesis argues for a conception of teacher professionalism which respects the identity of teachers and the agency of teachers as individuals in a world of individuals who are engaged in the constructionist creation of knowledge. This understanding prioritises practical wisdom, phronesis, over the technical knowledge, techne, and knowledge of subject, episteme, which teachers also require. This is at odds with widespread competency-based conceptions of teacher professionalism. The findings of the research indicate that the development of teacher identity is complex and is affected by a broader range of influences than the imperative to develop competencies. It calls for an alternative approach to teacher induction which acknowledges the importance of these factors.

Att lyckas nå fram med sitt budskap är beroende av ett flertal olika faktorer. Till exempel målgruppens förtroende för avsändaren. Hur ska en göra om målgruppen redan innan budskapet förs fram har en skeptisk inställning gentemot avsändaren? Med utgångspunkt i retorikens ethos undersöker jag i denna studie hur en kommunal verksamhet kan använda ethos för att bygga upp sin trovärdighet gentemot sin målgrupp. Genom att ta fasta på verksamhetens kompetens, deras värderingar och välvilja, och lyfta fram dessa i en informationstext om verksamheten, ligger förhoppningen i att målgruppens benägenhet att nyttja verksamhetens tjänster ökar. Till grund för denna studie ligger teorier rörande ethos samt kvalitativa intervjuer med målgrupp, avsändare och sakkunnig. / A succesfully communicated message is dependent on a number of factors. One example of such factor is that the target group have confidence in the sender. What should one do if the target group even before the message is communicated, are sceptic towards the sender? With rhetoric and the ethos as a starting-point in this study, I examine how a public organisation can use ethos to build it’s credibility towards the target group. By focusing on the organisation’s competence, values and good-will and expressing all this in an informative text about the organisation in question, the expectation is that the tendency to use their product and services will increase among the target group. Theories of ethos serve as base for this study, as do qualitative interviews with the target group, the sender and one expert.

This thesis explores the question of what it means to be a critical being, and how we can cultivate and enact a critical orientation through the ancient Aristotelian notion of phronesis. I begin by defending the claim that the familiar traditions and methods of rhetoric and hermeneutics have their practical, experiential and critical origins in a fundamental and constitutive human desire to express and understand ourselves and others through the most primary of human capabilities: listening, speaking, interpreting and understanding. This way of describing hermeneutics and rhetoric gives us a sense of their origins in lived experience. It also reminds us that rhetorical expression and hermeneutic understanding are not to be thought of as merely ‘systematized disciplines’, ‘instruments’ or ‘methods’ that we can be indifferent to, but part of our participatory linguistic experience. I argue that once the interpenetrating relation of rhetorical expression and hermeneutic understanding is made apparent, an implicit critical-thinking dimension in experience also becomes visible. This ‘critical dimension’ is not discovered in static theory, procedure or method, but, rather, something that is enacted over time with and among others. It is Aristotle’s concept of phronesis, and his understanding of insight and practical reasoning that best captures the emergence and enactment of critical thinking-being. Phronesis is a mode of practical reasoning that is always in motion, always challenging and interrogating the relation between the particular circumstances we find ourselves in, and the historical traditions, general rules, laws or procedures that form our normative background. I allow this argument for a critical hermeneutics through phronesis to be challenged by Jürgen Habermas’s critical sociological approach. I conclude, firstly, that Habermas’s critical theory relies for its critical thrust on a hermeneutical reflective tradition of immanent critique and insights about communication that can be grasped through phronetic reasoning, tradition and concrete embodied linguistic practices. Secondly, I argue that critical hermeneutics enacted through practical reasoning and phronesis describes a way of thinking-acting-desiring being that is more congruent with our actual experience, and therefore capable of meeting the personal, occupational, moral and political exigencies of a complex and diverse contemporary world.

In the present context of South African education many learners may be denied access to the modern world, and from developing as empowered individuals for a world of uncertainty, due to inadequate schooling. The learners’ poor results in national and international studies and dysfunctional schools, for example, are clear evidence of inadequate schooling. If we are to improve schooling, and hence, the quality of teaching and learning in South African schools, we need to address the quality of teacher education that student teachers receive as part of their professional development. These improvements in schooling will depend on how student teachers are professionally developed, not to teach, but to facilitate learning. It is on this basis that I explore how student teachers construct and use phronesis to enhance their professional development. Within this question I explore the student teachers’ baseline phronesis when they enter the programme and how the student teachers utilise the contribution of the mentor teacher and the specialisation programme to construct and use phronesis to enhance their professional development. An interpretive, mixed methods, case study participatory action research methodology was used to explore these research questions. The participants in this study were three Postgraduate Certificate in Education Life Sciences student teachers, the specialisation lecturer, mentor teacher and the researcher. The context of this study was in the setting of a radical, innovative teacher education programme at the University of Pretoria, which focused strongly on the construction and use of phronesis. A variety of data collection instruments, including visual data, personal profile questionnaires and document analysis were used to collect the data. Ethical and research rigour issues were attended to and implemented. The findings are presented in four case study participatory action research cycles, each having a particular context and purpose. The descriptive data from each of these cycles was analysed to develop responses for the research questions. The finding in response to research question one indicated that the student teachers’ beliefs, emotions, desire and vision for the type of facilitator that they wanted to be influenced their perception of a facilitator of learning. Furthermore, their awareness of the challenges and constraints that ‘teachers’ experienced when teaching in particular contexts did not deter them from becoming facilitators of learning. The mentor teachers’ contributions were: direct with regard to providing support in designing learning tasks, resources and assessment feedback. Indirect contributions were in terms of the student teachers developing the need to generate ideas for effective practice and to change their beliefs about the role of a facilitator of learning, and the impact of this role on the learners’ work ethic and relationships. The contributions of the specialisation programme were in terms of challenging and changing student teachers’ beliefs about the role of a facilitator of learning and the development of learning practice in authentic contexts. The student teachers constructed and used their phronesis to enhance their professional development. Incorporated in each student teacher’s practice theory are their personal and professional transformations on their journey to becoming facilitators of learning. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Curriculum Studies / unrestricted

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This paper aims to describe and discuss psychotherapy in rhetorical terms; in particular how psychotherapists can use their ethos, or person, as a means for convincing the patient, and subsequently discuss how these insights in turn can be useful for other rhetors. Classical rhetoric is commonly associated with one speaker exercising influence on an audience of many, but modern rhetoric is broader, and includes all situations where someone is attempting, by speech or in writing, to affect anyone, including the rhetor himself. With this broader definition, psychotherapy may also be considered a form of rhetoric. Psychotherapy does, however, highlight the aspect of power distribution, in that it is clear that it is up to the patient to determine whether the rhetoric will achieve its purpose or not, that is, if he will be influenced by it. In psychotherapy, it is also important to differentiate between persuading and convincing: for a permanent change to occur in the patient’s thoughts and actions, the deeper, "internal" form of conviction is necessary for change to take place. When attempting to convince an audience, it is important for the speaker to establish a credible ethos, that is, present a trustworthy persona. A psychotherapist can do this in several ways, including demonstrating compassion and empathy; retain an expert role but still be personal when the situation requires; and strike a balance between direct and indirect control of the situation. Creatively explored, these aspects may be fruitful for other rhetors as well. / Denna uppsats syftar till att beskriva och diskutera psykoterapi med hjälp av retoriska begrepp; i synnerhet hur en psykoterapeut kan använda sitt ethos, eller person, som ett medel för att övertyga patienten, och därefter diskutera hur dessa insikter i sin tur kan användas i andra retoriska situationer. Klassisk retorik förknippas med en talare som utövar påverkan på en månghövdad publik, men den moderna retoriken är bredare, och inbegriper alla tillfällen där någon söker i tal eller skrift påverka någon annan, inklusive sig själv. Med denna bredare definition kan även psykoterapi räknas som en form av retorik. Psykoterapin gör dock maktfördelningen mellan talare och tilltalad extra tydlig, i och med att det är upp till patienten att avgöra om retoriken ska uppnå sitt syfte eller ej, det vill säga om åhöraren ska låta sig påverkas av den. I psykoterapi är det också viktigt att göra skillnad mellan att övertalas och övertygas: för att en beständig förändring ska inträda hos patienten måste den djupare, ”inre” formen av förändring äga rum. Ett viktigt medel för att övertyga en åhörare är att talaren etablerar ett trovärdigt ethos, det vill säga presenterar en trovärdig personlighet. En psykoterapeut kan göra detta på flera sätt, till exempel genom att visa medkänsla och empati; behålla sin roll som expert men ändå vara personlig när situationen kräver; och skapa en balans mellan direkt och indirekt styrande av den aktuella terapisituationen. Applicerade med en dos kreativitet kan dessa aspekter vara givande att utforska även i andra retoriska situationer.

Abstract The purpose of this research is to increase understanding of discursive practices in organizational change. By approaching organizational change as a social construction, this dissertation examines how discursive practices are involved in organizational change through a qualitative case study. Current organizational literature demonstrates a discursive turn in which negotiation, interactive meaning creation and tension exploitation through discursive struggles characterize the execution of organizational change. Compared to earlier decades, when change was treated rather mechanistically as a process to be executed in controllable phases, the discursive approach is more capable of examining the social aspects of organizational change in practice. Despite the recent tendency to study change within organizations through the lenses of social constructionism and social constructivism, few scholars have approached discourse directly through practice in the context of organizational change. This study examines aspects that are often taken for granted, such as talk. Discursive practices in organizational change are analysed with a case study method through the practice lens, which views practice as a combination of change practices, change praxis and change practitioners. The narrative analysis of this research in the context of a public university hospital indicates that discursive practices play a role in organizational change through discourse phronesis, the context-dependent practical wisdom of talk, and more specifically through the discursive practices that apply discourse phronesis. Four examples of discursive practices were identified in the case study: field practices, mandate practices, priority practices and word practices. In addition, the agency of the strategy text in translating change was analysed, with the conclusion that while a strategy text is material in nature, it is also a discursive practice which reflects collective identities and their power positions during and as the result of organizational change. The study also suggests that permanent tensions in an organization can be harnessed for the benefit of change through discourse. The dynamic contradiction between permanent tensions and change in an organization is termed the renewal paradox. / Tiivistelmä Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on lisätä ymmärrystä diskursiivisista käytännöistä organisaation muutoksessa. Väitöskirjassa lähestytään organisaation muutosta sosiaalisena konstruktiona ja tutkitaan laadullisen case-tutkimuksen avulla, kuinka diskursiiviset käytännöt liittyvät organisaation muutokseen. Organisaatiomuutoskirjallisuudessa on tällä hetkellä nähtävissä diskursiivinen vaihe, jossa neuvottelu, vuorovaikutteinen ymmärryksen rakentuminen ja jännitteiden hyödyntäminen keskustelullisten mittelöiden kautta luonnehtivat organisaation muutoksen toimeenpanoa. Verrattuna aiempiin vuosikymmeniin, jolloin muutoksen toteutusta lähestyttiin melko mekaanisesti kontrolloitavien vaiheiden kautta, diskursiivinen lähestymistapa kykenee tutkimaan paremmin organisaatiomuutoskäytäntöjen sosiaalista luonnetta. Huolimatta viimeaikaisesta kehityksestä tutkia muutosta organisaatiossa sosiaalisen konstruktionismin ja sosiaalisen konstruktivismin kautta, harvat tutkijat ovat suoraan lähestyneet diskursiota käytänteiden kautta oganisaatiomuutoksen kontekstissa. Tämä tutkimus tarkastelee sellaista, mikä joskus otetaan itsestäänselvyytenä, kuten puhetta. Diskursiivisia käytäntöjä organisaatiomuutoksessa analysoidaan case-tutkimusmetodilla käyttämällä käytäntönäkökulmaa, jossa käytäntö nähdään yhdistelmänä muutoskäytäntöjä, muutoksen toteutumista ja muutoksessa toimijoita. Tämän tutkimuksen narratiivinen analyysi julkisen yliopistosairaalan kontekstissa ehdottaa, että diskursiiviset käytännöt liittyvät organisaation muutokseen diskurssin phronesiksen, kontekstiriippuvaisen käytännöllisen puheen tietämyksen, kautta ja erityisesti diskurssin phronesista käyttävien diskursiivisten käytäntöjen kautta. Case-tutkimuksesta tunnistettiin neljä esimerkkiä diskursiivisista käytännöistä: alan käytännöt, mandaattikäytännöt, priorisointikäytännöt ja sanakäytännöt. Lisäksi tutkittiin strategiatekstin roolia muutoksen tulkitsijana todeten, että vaikka strategiateksti on luonteeltaan materialistinen, se on myös diskursiivinen käytäntö, joka reflektoi kollektiivisia identiteettejä ja niiden välisiä valtasuhteita organisaatiomuutoksen aikana ja tuloksena. Tutkimuksessa myös ehdotetaan, että organisaation pysyviä jännitteitä voidaan hyödyntää organisaatiomuutoksen hyväksi diskurssin avulla. Organisaation pysyvien jännitteiden ja muutoksen välinen dynaaminen vastakkainasettelu on nimetty uudistumisen paradoksiksi.

Der Begriff von Orthos Logos ist zentral für die ethische Lehre Aristoteles’. In der Literatur ist jedoch umstritten, was der Inhalt von OL ist. Das genaue Wesen von OL liegt immer noch im Dunkel. Ziel meiner Dissertation ist es, den Beitrag von OL für Aristoteles’ Ethik zu erforschen. Dabei soll vor allem erläutert werden, was OL ist bzw. was OL leisten kann. Auf dieser Untersuchung basierend versuche ich, eine ausführliche bzw. in sich konsistente Interpretation der wichtigen Bestandteile der Nicomachischen Ethik zu liefern. Ich werde dafür argumentieren, dass OL als der praktische Syllogismus selbst aufzufassen ist, der die moralischen Subjekte darüber informiert, was sie tun sollen bzw. weswegen sie gerade dies und nicht etwas anderes tun sollen. Sofern ein hinsichtlich der Moralität noch lernender Mensch den Syllogismus nicht vollständig begreift, ist es allerdings möglich, dass OL diesem Menschen etwas anderes zu sein scheint. / The notion of the orthos logos (abbr. OL) is vital and decisive for Aristotle’s ethical project. The question of what OL really means is a vigorously debated issue. But what the OL exactly is still remains ambiguous and obscure. The purpose of my dissertation is to inquire into the philosophical contribution of the OL in Aristotle’s Ethics. To fulfil this goal, it is essentially to determine what the OL is and what the OL can do. Through this inquiry I seek to present a comprehensive and consistent reading of important parts of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. I will argue that the OL is the practical syllogism per se, which could tell moral people what should they do and why should they do this or that. But it could also appear to be something else for moral learners, since they are not capable of fully understanding the syllogism yet.