Enacting powerful knowledge: overcoming the chasm of curriculum and teaching through teacher professionalism

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article, I examine how teachers can enact ‘powerful knowledge’ (PK)—a curriculum principle proposed by Michael Young—by linking it with the scholarship of teacher professionalism (TP). Despite the significance of teachers’ role in curriculum enactment, effort to understand this topic has been insufficient. I first indicate that separating the curriculum from teaching, as proposed by Young, is not applicable in schools, and it could rather confine TP limited to how to teach. Instead, by utilizing the concepts of ‘transformation’ and ‘recontextualisation’, I support that curriculum making and teaching is an interconnected process that calls for extensive teacher intervention based on profound professionalism. By integrating key ideas from the literature on TP, I argue three requirements should be met for the meaningful enactment of PK by teachers: first, a national curriculum grounded in the principles of PK and transformation/recontextualisation; second, alteration of the demanded professionalism assigned by external authorities; and finally, comprehensive and autonomous teacher professional learning for enacting good judgement regarding what, why and how to teach.