<i>Kairos</i> and <i>phronesis</i> in teaching well

Abstract The article argues that the concept of kairos can enrich understanding of good teaching and the conditions needed to teach well. The article first gives a general introduction to establish what is involved in teaching well, drawing on the concept of phronesis in Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics. Because of variations of translation, I adopt the sense of phronesis as practical judgement with the attributes of virtuous behaviour and wisdom. The article outlines the concept of chronos as a preliminary to understanding what kairos represents in the conceptualization of time. I claim that chronos predominates in the contemporary context of education. I next discuss kairos and use two examples to convey the nature of the kairos moment. This approach helps us get at kairos from inside the concept itself, which is how Papastephanou and van Manen illustrate the concept in relation to education. In the last part of the article, I suggest some implications for policy and practice. I conclude that phronesis and kairos are complementary explanatory concepts that underlie what happens when people teach well (virtuously). The good teacher knows how (phronesis) and knows when (kairos). However, given the conditions described in the section on chronos, good teaching may not always be possible.