Celebrating the Insecure Practitioner. A Critique of Evidence-Based Practice in Adapted Physical Activity

Phronetic social science: a means of better researching and analysing coaching?

“…By adopting such a perspective, our judgement of coaches could be moved away from one purely done in terms of instrumental outcomes, to also include coaches' decisions in relation to the best interests of the individuals and the collective in their charge. Phronesis then, gives credence to Standal's (2008) recent call to 'celebrate the insecure practitioner'; to recognise and embrace the shifting sands on which coaching is built and to develop ways to cope with and thrive in the inescapable insecurity (Jones, 2006;Standal, 2008). In doing so, the 'patterns that connect' (Bateson, 1979) coaching practice and, hence, the practical wisdom (Flyvbjerg, 2001) of coaches, can be better understood and transmitted.…”

“…For example, if all knowledge is taken as being contingent then it is necessarily in flux, allowing little appreciation for regularities in social life (Phillips & Jorgensen, 2002). On the other hand, a preoccupation with evidence-based practice across the pedagogical professions has undermined any standing given to practitioners' professional wisdom in dealing with problems created by power contextualities and the ubiquities of interactions (Standal, 2008). What appears to be at work here is something akin to a 'Cartesian anxiety' where a definitive position is encouraged.…”

“…That is, while techne is concerned with the mechanical application of means to ends, phronesis 'is a habit of attentiveness that makes one's past experience flexibly available [while] allowing the present situation to unconceal its own particular significance' (Dunne, 1993, p. 305). Despite presented arguments that within Aristotle's thinking, the difference between techne and phronesis is perhaps not so clear-cut (Standal, 2008), the important point is that the 'distinction grounds a significant difference between technical and moral modes of practical engagement with the world' (Carr, 2003, p. 258; for a fuller discussion of the distinction between techne and phronesis, see Standal, 2008). At the heart of Flyvbjerg's phronetic concept then, lies a virtuous practical value rationality which refers to a reflective analysis on personal-value judgements in relation to future actions.…”

Phenomenology and Adapted Physical Activity: Philosophy and Professional Practice

“…Thus, phenomenology as pedagogy is based on the kind of evidence that can be derived from sensitive, pedagogical seeing (van Manen, 1993). This point can be seen as either an opposition to, or as complementary to, the evidence traditionally valued in evidence-based practice Reid, Bouffard, & MacDonald, 2012;Standal, 2008). In this sense, it illustrates the difference between the first-person and third-person perspective.…”

Manipulating practices: A critical physiotherapy reader

“…There continues to be a transfer of ideas about evidence and quality of services originating in medicine and spreading into areas not only within health, but also fields like education, social work, management, policy and many others (Bouffard & Reid, 2012;Greenhalgh & Russell, 2009;Standal, 2008;Rousseau, 2006). This has led to an ongoing debate about whether or not the principles of "evidence based everything" (Fowler, 1997) can be imported from medicine to such a variety of other domains (Standal, 2008). We think it is timely to critically examine the importance and significance of applying EBP to physiotherapy and the possible impact on professional practice and research within this field.…”