Knowing History in Schools

Powerful knowledge and the powers of knowledge

Edited by Arthur Chapman

ISBN: 9781787357303

Publication: January 07, 2021

Series: Knowledge and the Curriculum

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The ‘knowledge turn’ in curriculum studies has drawn attention to the central role that knowledge of the disciplines plays in education, and to the need for new thinking about how we understand knowledge and knowledge-building.

Knowing History in Schools explores these issues in the context of teaching and learning history through a dialogue between the eminent sociologist of curriculum Michael Young, and leading figures in history education research and practice from a range of traditions and contexts. With a focus on Young’s ‘powerful knowledge’ theorisation of the curriculum, and on his more recent articulations of the ‘powers’ of knowledge, this dialogue explores the many complexities posed for history education by the challenge of building children’s historical knowledge and understanding. The book builds towards a clarification of how we can best conceptualise knowledge-building in history education. Crucially, it aims to help history education students, history teachers, teacher educators and history curriculum designers navigate the challenges that knowledge-building processes pose for learning history in schools.

Arthur Chapman is an Associate Professor in History Education at the UCL Institute of Education

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About the contributors

Acknowledgements

1. Introduction: historical knowing and the ‘knowledge turn’

Arthur Chapman

2. How helpful is the theory of Powerful Knowledge for history educators?

Alison Kitson

3. Inferentialism in history education: locating the ‘power’ and the ‘knowledge’ by thinking about what it is for a concept to have meaning in the first place.

Catherine McCrory

4. Powerful knowledge building and conceptual change research: learning from research on ‘historical accounts’ in England and Cyprus

Arthur Chapman and Maria Georgiou

5. Disciplinary knowledge denied?

Richard Harris

6. The power of knowledge: the impact on history teachers of sustained subject-rich professional development

Katharine Burn

7. Two concepts of power: knowledge (re)production in English history education discourse

Joe Smith and Darius Jackson

8. Powerful knowledge for what? History education and 45-degree discourse

Kenneth Nordgren

9. Ka Mura, Ka Muri [Look to the past to inform the future]: disciplinary history, cultural responsiveness and Māori perspectives of the past