Abstract
High-quality education has been considered important for social justice, although what good education means is contested. A project aimed at identifying varieties of conceptions of ethical competence (EthiCo) was presented as well as another that focused on a fiction-based approach to ethics education (EE). A multidimensional ethical competence mediated through a multitude of narratives was shown as a strong contribution to EE. The aim was to discuss as to what extent such a multidimensional ethical competence mediated through a multitude of narratives could be understood as powerful knowledge. Sweden, where national tests lately have been understood as a tool to increase achievements, but where an unclear understanding of desired knowledge in EE exists, was the setting. Methodologically, the article drew on Michael Young’s definition of powerful knowledge, a hermeneutic meta-study on the findings of EthiCo concerning conceptions of ethical competence, as well as Mark Tappan’s sociocultural perspective on moral development. These perspectives were brought together to discuss powerful knowledge in EE as a contribution to education for social justice. Whether a multidimensional ethical competence mediated through a multitude of narratives could be understood as powerful knowledge was shown to be dependent on the definition. Whilst Young’s powerful knowledge is restricted to an academic language, Tappan stresses vernacular language as characteristic for a functional moral discourse. One conclusion was the centrality of fiction in EE for the development of moral discourses that transcend reality and shape ‘knowledge of possibilities’ – powerful in the shaping of societal justice.
Highlights
A high-quality education for all children can be understood as an important factor for developing social mobility and social justice in society
Ethical competences that could have been stressed upon in the Swedish religious education (RE) syllabus include an identifying competence, concerning ethical dilemmas in everyday life; a weighing competence, in relation to collective and societal values; a competence of being wellinformed about the issues at stake; an action competence; a perseverance competence; and a reconsidering competence, and the competence to contextualise ethical issues in today’s multicultural global society. This summary of the empirical part of ethical competence (EthiCo) project is in line with the findings from the systematic review of previous http://www.hts.org.za studies in ethics and moral education conducted within the project (Osbeck et al 2018)
A narratively mediated multidimensional ethical competence as powerful knowledge Upon this background, the article discusses to what extent a multidimensional ethical competence, mediated by a multitude of narratives, of which we aim, and have reasons to believe, would develop through the EthiCo II teaching model and be understood as powerful knowledge, contributing to social mobility and social justice
Summary
A high-quality education for all children can be understood as an important factor for developing social mobility and social justice in society. One strand in the challenges of a progressive pedagogy that has drawn a great deal of attention in Swedish subject-matter education research lately is the perspective on ‘powerful knowledge’, launched by the British educational researcher Michael Young (2013a, 2013b). This challenge involves the doubt concerning the potential of such a pedagogy to develop powerful knowledge for all children. Abstract knowledge has a wider scope and could be applied to different kinds of practices whereas everyday life discourse is more contextually bound
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