Em nossa leitura do diálogo Fédon, partiremos da análise dos motivos que Sócrates apresenta para não temer a morte, os quais se baseiam no discurso acerca da natureza da alma, para analisar os indícios que a racionalidade, mais precisamente a phronesis, oferece acerca dos limites entre o domínio supra-sensível e o domínio da vida humana. Tal reflexo, ao mesmo tempo em que denuncia sua natureza e orienta o homem verso ao exercício de filosofar, dá indicações acerca das limitações do intelecto para dizer sobre esse domínio, distinto do domínio da sensibilidade. Verificaremos a colaboração da phronesis na elaboração do discurso sobre a imortalidade, o qual justifica o destemor da morte, e os vários sentidos em que podemos compreendê-la no diálogo. / In our searching of the dialogue Phaedo, we will start by analyzing the reasons that Socrates presents to not fear death, wich are based on discourse about the nature of the soul, to examine the evidence that rationality, specifically the phronesis, offers about the boundaries between the area of the super-sensitive and the human life´s area. Such reflection, while denouncing their nature and guides the man towards to the exercise of philosophy, also provides at same time references about the limitations of the intellect to say about this area, distinct of the area of sensitivity. We will check the collaboration of phronesis in the development of the discourse on immortality, wich justifies the fearlessness of the death, and the various ways in which we can understand it in dialogue.

La présente étude se veut un examen de l’interprétation de la phronesis chez deux grands penseurs allemands du vingtième siècle, soit Martin Heidegger et Hans-Georg Gadamer. La motivation de ce projet découle d’un intérêt marqué pour l’étude de modèles alternatifs à la pensée technoscientifique de la connaissance. Considérant que Heidegger et Gadamer ont entrepris une importante réappropriation de la phronesis, nous avons jugé intéressant d’analyser leur pensée sous cet angle. Notre but est de mettre en relief les raisons qui ont poussé Heidegger et Gadamer à se tourner vers le concept de la phronesis et par la suite de tirer au clair les implications de cette réappropriation du concept aristotélicien au sein de leurs philosophies respectives. Cette étude est divisée en deux chapitres, traitant de la réappropriation de la phronesis chez Heidegger et Gadamer respectivement. Le premier chapitre porte sur l’interprétation heideggérienne de la phronesis en portant une attention particulière sur les cours maintenant publiés du plus jeune Heidegger. Dans le deuxième chapitre, nous traitons également de la réappropriation de la phronesis, mais cette fois, chez Gadamer afin de mettre en relief l’intérêt que présente la phronesis aristotélicienne pour l’herméneutique, mais aussi pour l’éthique de Gadamer. La dernière partie de ce chapitre propose une analyse comparative entre l’interprétation heideggérienne et gadamérienne de la phronesis. Notre étude veut montrer que Gadamer a suivi de près l’interprétation heideggérienne du concept aristotélicien de la phronesis, mais qu’il a aussi su s’en distinguer dans sa quête d’une conception plus authentique des sciences humaines, de l’herméneutique et de l’éthique. / The present study aims at examining the interpretation of phronesis conducted by two central figures in twentieth-century German philosophy, namely Martin Heidegger and his student Hans-Georg Gadamer. The impetus for the following project comes from a general interest in the study of the alternatives to the technoscientific model of knowledge. Seeing as both philosophers took up the concept of phronesis, we deemed it as an interesting point of departure for an analysis of both their philosophies. In effect, we want to put into relief the reasons that motivated both thinkers to turn to the concept of phronesis and thereafter clarify the ramifications of their reappropriation of this Aristotelean concept in the development of their thought. The present study is divided in two chapters, each of which addresses the reappropriation of phronesis. The first chapter is an in-depth examination of the use of phronesis by Martin Heidegger, specifically with respect to his earlier lectures. The second chapter is also an examination of Gadamer’s reappropriation of phronesis in connection to both his conception of hermeneutics and ethics. The last section of this project is devoted to a comparative analysis between Heidegger and Gadamer’s reappropriation of phronesis. Our study reveals that Gadamer followed closely the lead of his teacher, while at the same time making the concept of phronesis his own by integrating it in his quest for a more genuine conception of the Geisteswissenschaften, and in his substantial development of hermeneutics.

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Abstract  The following essay will discuss conflict- ridden situations in the classroom and how the teachers’ leadership can strengthen the pupils’ democratic development to resolve these situations. Furthermore, we analyzed how deliberative dialogue could be of use to the teacher when these situations occur, as well as how, through civics education, the pupils could learn how to resolve conflicts in a controlled and peaceful environment. This study will, in particular, discuss several concepts concerning, among others, intersubjectivity, agonism and phronesis and how these takes place in the classroom. We will explore the teachers’ leadership ability and approach to the resolvement of conflicts through deliberative conversations. Our method when searching for relevant scientific articles was a systematic use of several databases and scientific journals, including ERIC, ERC, and Taylor & Francis online, where we found a vast variety of articles. Most of the articles show the difficulties the teacher might encounter when teaching, and we strove to examine if deliberative conversations are a useful method when facing sudden conflict-ridden situations in the classroom. We found a lack of knowledge in reference to deliberative conversations as a method in these situations, as well as, the teacher’s insecurity facing sudden conflict-ridden situations.

A component part of modern project management practice is the ‘lessons learned’ activity that is designed to transfer experience and best practice from one project to another, thus improving the practice of project management. The departure point for this thesis is: If we are learning lessons from our experiences in project management, then why are we not better at managing projects? It is widely cited in most project management literature that 50–70% of all projects fail for one reason or another, a figure that has steadfastly refused to improve over many years. My contention is that the current rational approach to understanding lessons learned in project management, one entrenched in the if–then causality of first-order systems thinking where the nature of movement is a ‘corrective repetition of the past in order to realise an optimal future state’ (Stacey 2011: 301), does not reflect the actual everyday experience of organisational life. I see this as an experience of changing priorities, competing initiatives, unrealistic timescales, evaporation of resources, non-rational decisions based on power relations between actors in the organisations we find ourselves in; and every other manner of challenge that presents itself in modern large commercial organisations. I propose a move away from what I see as the current reductionist view of lessons learned, with its emphasis on objective observation, to one of involved subjective understanding. This is an understanding rooted in the particular experience of the individual acting into the social, an act that necessarily changes both the individual and the social. My contention is that a narrative approach to sense making as first-order abstractions in the activity of lessons learned within project management is what is required if we are to better learn from our experiences. This narrative approach that I have termed ‘thick simplification’ supports learning by enabling the reader of the lessons learned account to situate the ‘lesson learned’ within their own experience through treating the lessons learned as a potential future understanding .This requires a different view of what is going on between people in organisations – one that challenges the current reliance on detached process and recognises the importance of embedded phronesis, the Aristotelian virtue of practical judgement. It is an approach that necessarily ‘focuses attention directly on patterns of human relating, and asks what kind of power relations, ideology and communication they reflect’ (Stacey 2007: 266).

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Geography / Bimal Kanti Paul / Farm-to-school (FTS) programs are promoted as direct-marketing opportunities for farmers. As such, they are regarded by advocates and state and federal agencies as a pathway to rural economic development. The implementation of FTS food procurement poses significant challenges, however. Farmers make decisions regarding whether or not to market products to schools after learning about the program and considering an array of signals from multiscalar policies and governance structures. Research to date has left a gap in understanding farmers’ agency as it relates to governance structures and policy signals. This research on farmers’ engagement with the Oklahoma FTS Program contributes evidence to bridge this gap by examining the experiences not only of producers who participated in a FTS program but also of those who ceased participation or who chose not to participate. Employing a phronetic approach to social science, this explanatory, sequential, mixed-methods case study obtained quantitative and textual data from a mail survey, as well as data from two stints of qualitative fieldwork, in fall 2011 and fall 2012, which involved semistructured interviews and participant observation. Archival research completed the study methods used to gain a deeper understanding of farmers’ perspectives, practices, values, and experiences that informed their decisions to participate or not in a top-down-administered FTS program. Data collection was driven by the concept of farmers’ engagement. As such, eight categories of farmers’ engagement with the Oklahoma Farm to School Program emerged. This research answers these value-rational questions (Flyvbjerg, 2001): (1) Which farmers gain, and which farmers lose, by which mechanisms of power? (2) Is this desirable? (3) What should be done? Results provide evidence of geographically uneven development of a FTS program and incompatibilities between small- to midscale farming and the structure and governance of federal child-nutrition programs.

This study examines boundaries and synergies between continuing professional learning contexts of academy, workplace and profession, and considers what factors and approaches of learning contribute to common good in societies. In a review of literature, historical trends in professions and professional learning, concerns of managerialism and performativity, and educational theories of socially constructivism, developmental and ethical learning were considered. A constructivist grounded theory approach was used to collect and analyse data from eighty work-based student documents and from twelve semi-structured interviews with practitioners in four Scottish professions. The findings indicated that learning across contexts was disconnected, creating additional demands for professionals. Increased academic study indicated a more knowledgeable and skilled workforce, with a caveat of market-led credentialism in response to demands for higher qualifications. Professional CPD provided benefits of quality assurance and public safety, but was reported as individualised procedural accountability. Interpersonal communicative action was identified as key to workplace learning, although was afforded less significance than accredited learning in professional and academic contexts. Factors of individualism, accountability and credentialism were noted to have effect on participative workplace learning, which, the study argued, impacted on ethical agency in professions. To address these trends, adaptability, reciprocity and dialogical critical thinking were identified as necessary factors for a continuing professional learning that contributes to common good in societies.

Given the teacher-as-technician view and the instrumentalist values that pervade professional schools, practices, and policy decisions (Kinsella & Pitman, 2012a; Zeichner, 2012) with regard to teacher qualification, evidence-based practices, and scripted curricula, there is growing concern that something of fundamental importance and moral significance is missing from the vision of what it means to be a professional, particularly in the field of education. In order to articulate teacher practical knowledge in a way that reflects the complexities of practice, a framework that captures the complexity of teaching practice and helps to define the type of knowledge beyond content and technique, which enables teachers to make practically wise decisions is needed. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the practical reasoning of highly competent teachers as it is revealed through meaning making about their experiences of pedagogical reasoning. The aim of this study was to provide an interpretive description of teacher pedagogical reasoning, then utilize the construct of professional phronesis as a framework for understanding the dimension of teacher knowledge involved in judgment (Coulter & Wiens, 2002; Kinsella, 2012). In order to develop a detailed, multi-perspectival account of the constructs of pedagogical reasoning and professional phronesis, I employed an interpretive phenomenological case study design (Smith et al. 2009) to examine the experiences of three participants. Analysis of the data revealed the pedagogical reasoning of the participants as a knowledge that continuously develops over time through a corpus of instructional experiences including: purposeful professional development, problem solving and reflection. The pedagogical reasoning of the participants was also found to operate as an instructional decision-making process that occurs in two modes: in deliberate planning and preparation for instruction, and spontaneously as they engage in instruction. Finally, the pedagogical reasoning of the participants was characterized by an orientation towards achieving multiple goals at once. All participants acknowledged the content of her discipline as an established goal; however, they described their decision-making in terms of goals for both themselves as practitioners regarding their role in student learning, as well as goals for student outcomes that extended beyond the development of student content knowledge. Professional/personal and instructional goals are tied to the identities of the individual participants and reflect how the unique dispositions of the participants influences the factors they consider in making instructional decisions, regardless of operational mode. Finally, all participants discussed a personal paradigmatic shift in focus from an early-career focus on content delivery to a focus on the needs of individual students and the necessity of developing relationships with students in order to achieve their personal/professional goals and goals for student growth. These themes regarding the experience of pedagogical reasoning reflected the six features of professional phronesis outlined by Kinsella and Pitman (2012b), which suggests that phronesis is a viable construct within the practice knowledge of highly competent teachers.

Zugl.: Freiburg, Univ., Diss., 2008

Uppsatsen är till formen en reflekterande vetenskaplig essä som undersöker akutsjuksköterskans yrkespraktik. Den egna erfarenheten gestaltad i form av en berättelse från ett arbetspass på sjukhuset är i fokus och undersökningen tar sitt avstamp i den. Det som belyses är de olika kunskapsformer som akutsjuksköterskan lutar sig mot när hon använder sin "kliniska blick"och hur de samverkar och är beroende av varandra. Kunskapsformerna är hämtade från Aristoteles kunskapsbegrepp och stort utrymme ges till den praktiska kunskapen och den praktiska klokheten, som av Aristoteles benämndes fronesis. Texten undersöker också det för sjuksköterskan centrala begreppet omvårdnad utifrån den egna erfarenheten. Omvårdnadsbegreppet diskuteras ur ett fenomenologiskt perspektiv. Det är tolkandet, omsorgstiden, det etiska medvetandet och känslornas kunskap och dess påverkan på omvårdnaden som belyses. Undersökningen visar att det är det är det personliga engagemanget, nyfikenheten och motivationen som är den kraft som kan och lotsa sjuksköterskan genom vårdens svåra utmaningar och som kan hjälpa sjuksköterskan att stå upp för den goda omsorgen och omvårdnaden i en allt mer slimmad och pressad vårdorganisation. / This reflective scientific essay examines emergency-care nurse's professional practice. The nurse's personal experience is in focus and is portrayed in a narrative from an evening shift at the emergency hospital. The narrative serves as a foundation from where the reflective process forms it's content. The subjects explored are the different forms of knowledge that emergency-care nurse's uses when she uses her "clinical gaze" and how they interact and are interdependent. The theories of knowledge are taken from Aristotle's philosophy and great space are given to the practical knowledge and skill and practical wisdom, phronesis. The essay also examines the emergency-care nurse's central concept of nursing and caring. Nursing concept is discussed from a phenomenological perspective. The ability to interpret, the experience of time in nursing care, ethical awareness and emotional knowledge and its impact on the care are investigated. The essay shows that it is the personal commitment, curiosity and motivation, that can guide the emergency-care nurse through the challenges of everyday work and help the nurse to ensure that human dignity in nursing care stays as a main value and quality in the discipline despite increasingly lean and tight healthcare organizations.