Phronesis: An Overlooked Connection between Democratic Theory and Practice?
This master’s thesis in social studies in the teacher training program (GLU 5-10) is an articlebased thesis and thus consists of two parts: an introductory chapter and an article. My article is written with the purpose of publishing it in the Journal of Moral Education, and the introductory chapter is understood as its framework and context. The thesis as a whole is related to the themes of democratic education and virtue ethics, and it can be relevant both for the subject of social studies in Norwegian schools and when facing some of the global challenges of today.
The introductory chapter is divided into seven chapters which as a whole is understood as the conceptual framework around the article. In the first two chapters, I first present the personal and professional background for the choice of this specific thesis and then explain the method, analytical political theory, that is used in the article. After these chapters, I place the article within the context of the Norwegian literary field of social studies. Here, I argue that my article is relevant because of its focus on character education as a key part of democratic education. In chapter five I point out two implications that the argument in my article have for the role of the teacher and the role of the student. When it comes to the role of the teacher, the article shows the importance of virtuous and moral teachers. For the role of the pupil, I argue that they should be seen as citizens who can cultivate virtue both for their own sake and for the sake of society. In the last chapter I unpack some of the theoretical framework for my article. Here, I focus on the two last parts of MacIntyre’s threefold definition of virtue, the field of character education and the democratic theoretical context that my article builds on.
In the second part of my thesis, I present the article which has the following title: “Phronesis: An Overlooked Connection between Democratic Theory and Practice?” Here, I argue that the cultivation of phronesis (practical wisdom) is necessary in order to improve decision-making processes in deliberative democracies. The cultivation of phronesis is done through a neo- Aristotelian character education. My article is divided into three main parts, and I start by presenting the relevant democratic theories and relevant criticism. In the second part I unpack my argument further by first conceptualizing the concept of phronesis before I present three approaches to how to do neo-Aristotelian character education. Before concluding, I address two objections against this approach to character education and give a short response.
The introductory chapter is divided into seven chapters which as a whole is understood as the conceptual framework around the article. In the first two chapters, I first present the personal and professional background for the choice of this specific thesis and then explain the method, analytical political theory, that is used in the article. After these chapters, I place the article within the context of the Norwegian literary field of social studies. Here, I argue that my article is relevant because of its focus on character education as a key part of democratic education. In chapter five I point out two implications that the argument in my article have for the role of the teacher and the role of the student. When it comes to the role of the teacher, the article shows the importance of virtuous and moral teachers. For the role of the pupil, I argue that they should be seen as citizens who can cultivate virtue both for their own sake and for the sake of society. In the last chapter I unpack some of the theoretical framework for my article. Here, I focus on the two last parts of MacIntyre’s threefold definition of virtue, the field of character education and the democratic theoretical context that my article builds on.
In the second part of my thesis, I present the article which has the following title: “Phronesis: An Overlooked Connection between Democratic Theory and Practice?” Here, I argue that the cultivation of phronesis (practical wisdom) is necessary in order to improve decision-making processes in deliberative democracies. The cultivation of phronesis is done through a neo- Aristotelian character education. My article is divided into three main parts, and I start by presenting the relevant democratic theories and relevant criticism. In the second part I unpack my argument further by first conceptualizing the concept of phronesis before I present three approaches to how to do neo-Aristotelian character education. Before concluding, I address two objections against this approach to character education and give a short response.
Publisert i 2025
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