This book explores what constitutes valid or powerful educational knowledge and the role of educational theorising in questions of educational practice. It examines the challenges facing the ‘deliberative’ educational knowledge traditions of educational foundations, curriculum theory and Didaktik as a consequence of the rising tide of empiricism in educational research, the ‘what works’ agenda in global educational reform and internal fragmentation within the traditions themselves. By examining the potential for the reconfiguration or reconstruction of these traditions, the book explores the possibility of reinvigorating deliberative educational theorising in ways that could provide a meaningful basis for educators to conceptualise their practice, and a robust response to policies that seek to narrow educational activity to a focus solely on learning outcomes and technical efficiency. This insightful volume will be of interest to all those concerned about the future of education, and particular the relationship between educational theory and educational practice in curriculum studies, teacher education and professional development. It will be a key resource for teachers, curriculum developers, policy makers and researchers in the field of curriculum theory and didactics. The book was originally published as a special issue of Journal of Curriculum Studies.

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.

This book presents a new way for educators at all levels - from early years to university - to think about curriculum priorities. It focuses on the curriculum as a form of specialised knowledge, optimally designed to enable students to gain access to the best knowledge available in any field. Papers jointly written by the authors over the last eight years are revised for this volume. It draws on the sociology of knowledge and in particular the work of Emile Durkheim and Basil Bernstein, opening up the possibilities for collaborative inter-disciplinary enquiry with historians, philosophers and psychologists. Although primarily directed to researchers, university teachers and graduate students, its arguments about specialised knowledge have profound implications for policy makers.

This volume presents a mix of translations of classical and modern papers from the German Didaktik tradition, newly prepared essays by German scholars and practitioners writing from within the tradition, and interpretive essays by U.S. scholars. It brings this tradition, which virtually dominated German curricular thought and teacher education until the 1960s when American curriculum theory entered Germany--and which is now experiencing a renaissance--to the English-speaking world, where it has been essentially unknown. The intent is to capture in one volume the core (at least) of the tradition of Didaktik and to communicate its potential relevance to English-language curricularists and teacher educators. It introduces a theoretical tradition which, although very different in almost every respect from those we know, offers a set of approaches that suggest ways of thinking about problems of reflection on curricular and teaching praxis (the core focus of the tradition) which the editors believe are accessible to North American readers--with appropriate "translation." These ways of thinking and related praxis are very relevant to notions such as reflective teaching and the discourse on teachers as professionals. By raising the possibility that the "new" tradition of Didaktik can be highly suggestive for thinking through issues related to a number of central ideas within contemporary discourse--and for exploring the implications of these ideas for both teacher education and for a curriculum theory appropriate to these new contexts for theorizing, this book opens up a gold mine of theoretical and practical possibilities.

In this revolutionary book, a renowned computer scientist explains the importance of teaching children the basics of computing and how it can prepare them to succeed in the ever-evolving tech world. Computers have completely changed the way we teach children. We have Mindstorms to thank for that. In this book, pioneering computer scientist Seymour Papert uses the invention of LOGO, the first child-friendly programming language, to make the case for the value of teaching children with computers. Papert argues that children are more than capable of mastering computers, and that teaching computational processes like de-bugging in the classroom can change the way we learn everything else. He also shows that schools saturated with technology can actually improve socialization and interaction among students and between students and teachers. Technology changes every day, but the basic ways that computers can help us learn remain. For thousands of teachers and parents who have sought creative ways to help children learn with computers, Mindstorms is their bible.

Written at a time of uncertainty about the implications of the English government's curriculum policies, Knowledge and the Future School engages with the debate between the government and large sections of the educational community. It provides a forward-looking framework for head teachers, their staff and those involved in training teachers to use when developing the curriculum of individual schools in the context of a national curriculum. While explaining recent ideas in the sociology of educational knowledge, the authors draw on Michael Young's earlier research with Johan Muller to distinguish three models of the curriculum in terms of their assumptions about knowledge, referred to in this book as Future 1, Future 2 and Future 3. They link Future 3 to the idea of 'powerful knowledge' for all pupils as a curriculum principle for any school, arguing that the question of knowledge is intimately linked to the issue of social justice and that access to 'powerful knowledge' is a necessary component of the education of all pupils. Knowledge and the Future School offers a new way of thinking about the problems that head teachers, their staff and curriculum designers face. In charting a course for schools that goes beyond current debates, it also provides a perspective that policy makers should not avoid.

This book unites and explores different approaches to understand and develop knowledge-based religious education. While the importance of methodological issues in RE is understood and acknowledged, the editors and contributors interrogate what kind of knowledge should be explored, how this knowledge is defined and what the consequences would be. Subsequently, the book focuses on the concept of powerful knowledge which transcends students' everyday experiences, and how it can be incorporated into the RE curriculum. Drawing together international research from RE teaching and learning, the book explores various paths to integrate a truly knowledge-based religious education. The book will appeal to students and scholars of religious education, sociology of education and the philosophy of religion.