Care and phronesis in teaching and coaching: dealing with personality disorder

Abstract

My aim in this article is to contribute to the discussion about how teachers and coaches come to act in appropriate ways given the complex nature of both practices. I focus on two specific dispositions or qualities from the philosophical literature, namely the virtue of care and the Aristotelian concept of phronesis (or practical wisdom), which have been put forward as possible explanations. I argue that care and phronesis are fundamental qualities for both good teachers and coaches. Talk of care and phronesis in the literature is welcome, but these concepts are themselves complex. Care and phronesis, like other virtues are context specific, difficult to acquire (or teach) and their particular expression depends on a host of complex factors, not least one's character and personal and professional experience. I illustrate my argument with reference to a former professional football player who exhibited symptoms of personality disorder (PD) from an early age and who presented challenges to his teachers and coaches through his disruptive behaviour. .

‘Being’ in the coaching world: new insights on youth performance coaching from an interpretative phenomenological approach

“…The vignette above provides evidence of a devoted and caring coach and this is consistent with examples from the other coaches in this study and a handful of coaching studies which also describe 'maternal like' devotion and concern for athletes (Annerstedt & Eva-Carin, 2014;Jones, 2015;Jones, 2009). The question remains however as to whether these prevalent accounts of care are incidental or essential to the phenomenon of youth performance coaching.…”

Balancing performance-based expectations with a holistic perspective on coaching: a qualitative study of Swedish women’s national football team coaches’ practice experiences

“…Such virtue (Hoveid & Finne, 2014; Jones et al, 2013) is argued to respond to ethical and moral questions of acting “well” and getting it “right” (Jones, 2017). A number of sport coaching and education scholars discuss coaches’ virtue of care (e.g., Hoveid & Finne, 2014; Jones, 2017; Jones et al, 2013). In this literature, caring is seen as an outcome of virtues that reflects a genuine concern for and ethical treatment of others.…”

Carefully supporting autonomy – learning coaching lessons and advancing theory from women’s netball in England

“…Fenton et al, 2017;Gillet et al, 2010;Amorosa & Anderson-Butcher, 2007). In contrast, care theory has been informed by philosophical arguments (Jones, 2015), a legal framework (Partington, 2017), and a small number of interpretivist qualitative case studies (e.g. Annerstedt & Eva-Carin, 2014).…”

“…Indeed, it could be argued that the coaches are acting with a utilitarian ethic in mind, in which they carefully consider the amount and type of direction they provide in order to benefit the individual. While easily said however, straddling the juxtaposition between athlete autonomy (theme 1) and coach intervention (theme 2) is a difficult task (Jones, 2015);…”