The end of powerful knowledge?

Abstract

This is a response to two discussions of my article ‘The Weakness of “Powerful Knowledge”’ featuring in 2018 in the London Review of Education 16 (2), the first by Johan Muller and Michael Young and the second by Jim Hordern. It also makes brief comments on pieces on powerful knowledge in the London Review of Education Special Issue 16 (3). The question I focus on here, as in 2018, is ‘What is powerful knowledge?’ I raise doubts about Muller and Young’s new answer to this question as well as about Hordern’s defence of Young’s position more generally. I suggest in conclusion that it would be helpful to abandon the term ‘powerful knowledge’ and use language more suitable to impartial scholarly investigations.