Abstract
Previous subject-specific education research has shown that education in social studies subjects is dominated by strong subject traditions, while current social issues are seldom addressed and the connection to academic disciplines is weak. Putting this result into context, we discuss how the debate initiated by Michael Young about 'powerful knowledge' as a curriculum principle for the selection of school knowledge gives important theoretical insights. However, we argue that these insights can be developed further by linking them to continental Didaktik theory, in particular to Wolfgang Klafki's models of 'categorical Bildung' and 'critical-constructive didactics' and Ingrid Carlgren's perspective on teaching as different knowledge practices. These ideas make clear the link between the selection of knowledge at curriculum level and the selection and transformation of knowledge at classroom level. Based on this theoretical argument, we discuss how researchers and teachers can collaborate around the selection and transformation of knowledge in a school setting, thereby contributing to a knowledge reservoir for the teaching profession. We conclude with a discussion of an ongoing case study taking place in an upper primary school in Sweden, which exemplifies our theoretical argumentation, showing how a 'time-geographical' perspective can inform teaching about migration as a phenomenon and current social issue.
Highlights
The discussion that has been taking place in the sociology of knowledge about ‘powerful knowledge’ as a curriculum principle (Young, 2008, 2014) has been an important contribution to the ongoing debate about knowledge, curriculum and the future school
Young emphasizes the importance of considering pupils’ access to ‘the best possible’ specialized, disciplinary knowledge in education a matter of social justice. This discussion has inspired our perspective as Nordic researchers in subject-specific didactics, especially with regard to fundamental questions of the selection and transformation of content in teaching and learning
This article aims to contribute to the debate by problematizing and contextualizing three central themes: (1) Which principles should we draw on when selecting content?; (2) How can we understand educational didactic practices that
Summary
The discussion that has been taking place in the sociology of knowledge about ‘powerful knowledge’ as a curriculum principle (Young, 2008, 2014) has been an important contribution to the ongoing debate about knowledge, curriculum and the future school (for example, Young et al, 2014; Young and Muller, 2016; Deng, 2018; Nordgren, 2017; Maude, 2018). Young emphasizes the importance of considering pupils’ access to ‘the best possible’ specialized, disciplinary knowledge in education a matter of social justice This discussion has inspired our perspective as Nordic researchers in subject-specific didactics, especially with regard to fundamental questions of the selection and transformation of content in teaching and learning. Curriculum principles, didactic practice and social issues 399 focus on the transformation of content?; and (3) How can researchers’ and teachers’ differing knowledge bases jointly contribute to the development of knowledge practices in teaching and learning?. We begin the article by describing the background, goals and context of social science education in grades 4–6 in Sweden and identifying some challenges These challenges are followed up in our theoretical discussion about curriculum principles and teachers’ knowledge practices, and in the methodological discussion about research and development circles. We briefly illustrate how we will construct our migration case, and introduce a design prototype based on a time-geographical perspective
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