In this paper we outline an empirical research framework building on the concepts of powerful knowledge and transformation. Powerful knowledge as an idea was coined by Michael Young (2009) to re-establish the importance of knowledge in teaching and curriculum development. Powerful knowledge is defined by Young as a subject specific coherent conceptual disciplinary knowledge that when learnt will empower students to make decisions, and become action-competent in a way that influence their lives in a positive way. 

We develop the concept of powerful knowledge in two important ways. First, instead of only discussing powerful knowledge as an idea related to educational practices, we take a research position suggesting that powerful knowledge could be used as a tool in educational research related to subject specific education. In doing so we, in line with Deng (2015), propose to align the curricular concept of powerful knowledge to the European research tradition of didactics in general, and subject didactics in particular. Second, we develop the concept of powerful knowledge by refuting the dichotomization suggested by Young (2015) that curriculum (‘what to teach’) can be separated from pedagogy (‘how to teach’). Instead we view these two questions as interrelated in didactical research.

We suggest an expansion of the concept of powerful knowledge by using the analytical concept of transformation as a key concept in describing powerful knowledge in different disciplines, institutions and school subjects. The reason for this is that the concept of transformation is a central issue for didactical research from different European research traditions. Transformation as we understand it can be described as an integrative process in which the content knowledge is transformed into knowledge that is taught and learned through various transformation processes outside and within the educational system in relation to individual, institutional and societal level. Such processes of transformation are apparent in concepts related to a number of different frameworks including: ‘transposition’ (Chevallard 2007), ‘omstilling’ (Ongstad 2006) and ‘reconstruction’ (Duit et al. 2012), and are also reflected in the work of Bernstein (1971) in relation to the concept of ‘re-contextualisation’ within the curriculum tradition. The school subject is never a simple reduction of the discipline. The content knowledge is always transformed to fit the educational purpose of teaching. Hence, to study the concept of powerful knowledge within school subjects we need to study its transformation processes, and address the ‘why’ question in addition to the ‘what’ and ‘how’ questions.

Moreover, the concept of powerful knowledge and the transformation processes the content of powerful knowledge undergo, must be placed in a wider context, where questions addressing societal challenges are raised. In a changing society the argument is being made that it is not obvious that powerful knowledge only stems from academic disciplines. For example, how does the emerging and rapidly changing media landscape affect powerful knowledge and how could powerful knowledge be understood in a connected classroom? How should interdisciplinary topics such as sustainability and migration be taught? What is powerful knowledge in such topics then emerges as a relevant question.

In this article, we explore the concept of 'powerful knowledge' which, from a curriculum studies perspective, refers to the aspects of content knowledge towards which teaching should be oriented. We then consider how the concept of 'powerful knowledge' can be developed and operationalized as a research framework within studies in subject-specific didactics across the curriculum by relating it to the analytical concept of 'transformation'. Transformation is perceived in this case as an integrative process in which content knowledge is transformed into knowledge that is taught and learned through various transformation processes both outside and within the educational system. We argue that powerful knowledge cannot be identified based on the discipline alone, but needs to consider transformation processes and be empirically explored. A variety of theories and frameworks developed within the European research tradition of didactics are described as ways to study transformation processes related to powerful knowledge at different institutional levels as well as between different subjects and disciplines. A comparative research framework related to subject-specific education is proposed around three research questions.

Niklas Gericke Brian Hudson Christina Olin-Scheller Martin Stolare Knowledge building in schools can be a transformative and empowering process, transforming pupils’ capacities, sense of self-efficacy and agency, while also acting as a powerful engine of social justice and social transformation (Muller 2016) . Still, knowledge building is notorious for sometimes being a dry and inert process that makes little difference to pupils’ lives and entrenches social inequality (Young and Muller 2010) . This book aims to develop understanding of how educators and education systems can ensure that school-based knowledge building reaches its transformative potential. In so doing, it draws on the concepts ‘powerful knowledge’ and ‘epistemic quality’ to help understand knowledge building’s qualities when it is effective and empowering, and how educational processes can build and develop these characteristics. The underlying research studies focus on the ways in which knowledge itself is transformed as it is re-contextualized at the individual,...

In reflecting on the studies outlined in this book, we return to the KOSS research questions with respect to how the nature of powerful knowledge and epistemic quality in different school subjects can be characterized. We also consider how one may describe the transformation processes related to powerful knowledge and epistemic quality. As we do so, we develop a theoretical framework based on the concepts outlined earlier in the volume: powerful knowledge, transformation processes and epistemic quality. Our ambition with this book, and this chapter in particular, is to help create a common conceptual framework as well as a language for subject-specific research and scholarship as concerns different disciplines and school subjects. In this way, we try to find common ground for use by teachers, scholars and educational researchers interested in subject-specific research. In this final chapter, we will not once again...

This paper reports on a research study conducted with a group of practising primary school teachers (n = 24) in North East Scotland during 2011-12. The teachers were all participants in a newly developed Masters course that had been designed within a didactical design research framework with the aim of promoting the development of mathematical thinking in the primary classroom as part of project supported by the Scottish Government. The paper presents the background for this initiative within the context of the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence reform. It reports on the research design, research questions and methods of data collection of the research study related to the project as a whole. Further it explores the impact on pupil learning arising from the teachers’ experiences of this course and, in particular, from the process of classroom inquiry through their action research projects. The analysis of classroom interaction utilises a theoretical framework based on the concept of joint action in didactics. This framework is applied to the analysis of data from one teacher-researcher’s action research project based on the development of a topic-based approach to teaching and learning mathematics on the theme of “The Rainforest”. The findings from this study highlight the ways in which the children actively engaged in the ‘milieu’, the ways in which the teacher developed the ‘didactic game’ by extending the ‘epistemic games’ through the use of the open-ended topic-based approach combined with effective teacher questioning. They also highlight the ways in which the discursive elements of ‘learning games‘ as part of these lessons proved to be very effective means through which to support the children to engage in the milieu and to develop mathematical thinking. It was evident in this study that children had very differing prior knowledge and experiences to bring to the problem solving elements of the tasks and that, due to their ability to visualise the problems, the mathematics became more accessible leading to an evolution in mathematical thinking for all.

This paper reports on a study that aims to address the challenges of UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all. The study focuses on school mathematics in particular. With regard to ensuring equitable access to quality education, it is argued that there is a need to consider the epistemic quality of what students come to know, make sense of and be able to do in school mathematics. Accordingly, the aim is to maximize the chances that all pupils will have epistemic access to school mathematics of high epistemic quality. The study is based on the theoretical framework of Joint Action Theory in Didactics (JATD). Associated research questions focus on the quality of teacher-student(s) joint action and on the epistemic quality of the content. The paper draws on empirical research findings of the Developing Mathematical Thinking in the Primary Classroom (DMTPC) project (2010-12) and also on the findings of a parallel study of mathematics teachers' assessment practices in Ghana. One teacher's action research project is used as an exemplar to illustrate how mathematics can become more accessible and inclusive thus leading to an evolution in mathematical thinking and high-quality epistemic access for all.

This chapter builds on the idea of epistemic quality, as discussed in Hudson (2018, 2019) , which arose from the outcomes of the Developing Mathematical Thinking in the Primary Classroom (DMTPC) project (Hudson et al. 2015) . It does so by relating epistemic quality to a continuum that reflects a trajectory of epistemic ascent (Winch 2013) in the development of expertise from the novice towards that of an expert in the subject. The significance of epistemic quality stems from the need to maximize the chances that all pupils will have epistemic access (Morrow 2008; Young 2013: 115) to high-quality education in school mathematics. This is regarded as a way of making quality education visible and as a precondition for addressing the challenges of UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all (UN 2015) . The idea of epistemic quality is in turn...

This article contributes to current debates on progressive, knowledge-based approaches to the curriculum by addressing the question of what it is that studentsare entitled to learn in school mathematics. From the outset it recognizes progressivearguments that teaching should be reconnected with the emancipatory ambitionsof education. In doing so, it takes the notion of powerful knowledge as a startingpoint, based on what knowledge school students have the right to have access to.In turn, it considers this as a question of epistemic quality. This is elaborated as aconcept by drawing on outcomes from a recent study arising from the DevelopingMathematical Thinking in the Primary Classroom (DMTPC) project. This conceptis founded on the analysis of a distinction between mathematical fallibilism,based on a heuristic view of mathematics as a human activity, and mathematicalfundamentalism, which reflects an authoritarian view of the subject as beinginfallible, absolutist and irrefutable. The relation between powerful knowledge andepistemic quality is considered further by framing it within a sociological theoryof knowledge. This helps to highlight a further distinction between knowing thatand knowing how, which is used to illustrate examples of high and low epistemicquality in school mathematics. The first example of high epistemic quality is drawnfrom the DMTPC project. The second example is of low epistemic quality andcomes from the highly promoted Core Knowledge Foundation that has recentlybeen imported into English schools from the USA. Finally, the article considers therole of teachers as curriculum makers at the classroom level where curriculum andpedagogy effectively merge. In conclusion, the implications for both policyand practice are considered, in particular proposals are made in relation to therole and place of subject didactics in teaching and teacher education.

Drawing together an international author team from Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the UK, this book examines how we might democratize and open up access to ‘knowledge of the powerful’ for all. This book moves beyond the narrow knowledge vs skills debate of the 20th century to interrogate the epistemic quality of education in schools, and is a valuable resource for reflecting on the design and implementation of teacher education. Based on a range of national studies by the Knowledge and Quality across School Subjects and Teacher Education network (KOSS), funded by the Swedish Research Council (2019-22), the chapters explore teachers’ powerful professional knowledge and the implications this has for innovation in teacher education, policy and practice in educational settings.

Drawing together an international author team from Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the UK, this book examines how we might democratize and open up access to 'knowledge of the powerful' for all. This book moves beyond the narrow knowledge vs skills debate of the 20th century to interrogate the epistemic quality of education in schools, and is a valuable resource for reflecting on the design and implementation of teacher education. Based on a range of national studies by the Knowledge and Quality across School Subjects and Teacher Education network (KOSS), funded by the Swedish Research Council (2019-22), the chapters explore teachers' powerful professional knowledge and the implications this has for innovation in teacher education, policy and practice in educational settings.

This paper outlines the development of a comparative research framework in subject didactics and applies this in the process of analysing the transformations from academic disciplines across different school subjects. The theoretical framework builds on the concepts of ‘powerful knowledge’ and ‘transformation’ and ‘epistemic quality’ within which transformation processes from the classroom to the societal level are considered as ‘trajectories of powerful knowledge and epistemic quality’. The framework is used to analyse the findings from recent empirical studies across school subjects that have been reported on in publications arising from the Knowledge and Quality across School Subjects and Teacher Education (KOSS) network. 1 The paper then focuses on analysing the transformations from disciplines across school subjects, given that the first boundary in defining powerful knowledge concerns knowledge that is specialized in both how it is produced and transmitted. To analyse this boundary, the findings from the empirical studies are grouped into broad subject categories. These are then compared with the corresponding disciplines by using the widely cited Biglan classification scheme of academic disciplines in higher education. Finally, we consider the implications for curriculum planning and teacher education policy and reflect on the concept of subject-specific educational content knowledge (SSECK). 

This paper reports on a research study conducted with a group of practising primary school teachers (n = 24) in North East Scotland during 2011–2012. The teachers were all participants in a newly developed Masters course that had been designed with the aim of promoting the development of mathematical thinking in the primary classroom as part of project supported by the Scottish Government. The paper presents the background for this initiative within the context of the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence reform. Particular attention is given to the epistemological positioning of the researchers as this influenced both the curriculum design process and also the theoretical framing of the research study which are both described. The project was set up within a design research framework, which aimed to promote classroom-based action research on the part of participants through the course and also research by the university researchers into the process of curriculum development. The research questions focused on the teachers’ confidence, competence, attitudes and beliefs in relation to mathematics and their expectations and experiences of the impact on pupil learning arising from this course. Empirical data were drawn from pre- and post-course surveys, interviews and observations of the discussion forums in the online environment. Findings from this study highlight the way the course had a transformational and emancipatory impact on these teachers. They also highlight ways in which the ‘framing’ of particular aspects of the curriculum had an oppressive impact on learners in the ways that suppressed creativity and limited the exercise of learner autonomy. Furthermore, they highlight the ways in which a number of these teachers had experienced mathematics as a school subject in very negative ways, involving high levels of ‘symbolic violence’ and of being ‘labelled’.

The study reported in this chapter was conducted in 2015 when, as part of a whole research team, we observed a dance lesson with a class in a high school in France. This was part of a case study (Loquet et al. 2017) within the Joint Action in Didactics in Europe (JADE) project which has cross-curricular foci on mathematics, physical education and first-language teaching in school. The dance lesson was one of a series of lessons in Physical Education (PE) held in November 2015 at the Rosa Parks College, which is a secondary high school that is part of a Priority Education Zone located within a Sensitive Urban Zone characterized by social, cultural and ethnic diversity. Students at the college originate from forty-seven different countries, and the particular class of twenty-five students was very diverse. Some students were studying special vocational training courses for...

This chapter arises from the study of a German language lesson at a primary school in Frankfurt/Main, Germany carried out in March 2017. This was one of the case studies conducted as part of the Joint Action in Didactics in Europe (JADE) project (Wegner et al. 2019) , which has cross-curricular foci on mathematics, physical education and first-language teaching in school. The theoretical framework for the study is based on the perspective of Bildungsgangforschung and -didaktik developed within the tradition of German didactics in combination with the concept of epistemic quality. The study focuses on the question of how the nature of epistemic quality in language and language use can be characterized and relates this to the three levels of interaction and co-operation in the instructional process that arises from consideration of Bildungsgangforschung and -didaktik. The analysis concentrates on the epistemic quality of the...