Allan Pitman

Engaging Phronesis in Professional Practice and Education

This book originated from a continuing conversation in which we voiced concern (bordering on distress) regarding the instrumentalist values that permeate (often without question) our professional schools, professional practices, and policy decisions. Like others, we were grappling with a sense that something of fundamental importance—of moral significance—was missing in the vision of what it means to be a professional, and in the ensuing educational aims in professional schools and continuing professional education.

Phronesis as Professional Knowledge

The contributors to this book have brought to the surface the complexity of thought surrounding current understandings of phronesis—what it means and what it may mean for professional work and education. In our concluding thoughts, we first draw together reflections from the chapters to consider emerging insights concerning phronesis as professional knowledge. We then explore some of the implications of taking phronesis seriously as an organising framework for professional practice. Finally, some concluding reflections are presented.

Professionalism and Professionalisation

The professions represent a privileged group of occupations in society as an outcome of institutional and political histories, the relation between their practitioners and society, and the formalisation of organisational and legal structures surrounding their practice. In this chapter, I focus on the tensions (perhaps inextricably embedded) in the notion of a modern profession, between, on the one hand, the call for a practical wisdom and reflective judgement using one’s knowledge in service of some good—a disposition characterised by a form of phronesis—and, on the other hand, the demands of conformity and adherence to forms of protocol mandated to practice within a professional structure.

Information Technology and Control in Educational Management

The use of information technology in educational management offers many advantages to schools, but in this paper we will argue that it also serves a role in acting to control schools. School systems in Victoria, Australia and Ontario, Canada have in recent years decentralised many of their administrative functions, and similar decentralization appears to have occurred in other countries. At the same time that many countries have been decentralising their educational administration, however, they have often also strengthened central control in other areas, most notably in curriculum and overall accountability. In this paper, the authors examine the use of information technology in educational management (ITEM), and argue that this technology may play a significant role in tightening the coupling between schools and central education authorities. We will argue that this leads to greater standardisation and control over the way that schools perform their administrative functions.

Issues of decentralisation and central control in educational management

School systems in many countries appear to have undergone a process of decentralisation in their administrative functions. Closer inspection, however, reveals that this has been linked with a tightening of central control in some areas. This paper will examine the role, in this process, played by the use of information technology in education management. It will use a discussion of how school systems in Victoria, Australia and Ontario, Canada have handled both decentralisation and the introduction of school management information systems to suggest that this introduction has led to a tighter coupling between schools and central education authorities, and within schools themselves.