‘Canon in colour’: Contextual Knowledge of Race and Empire as Powerful Knowledge

Abstract

This paper uses the concept of powerful knowledge to consider the teaching of canonical literature in the secondary English classroom. Drawing on Muller and Young’s definition of powerful knowledge which draws on potentia rather than potestas, a distinction which focuses on the enabling potential, rather than the idea of power over others, I argue for the relevance and significance of teaching canonical literature with the context of race and empire. The theoretical analysis is supported by small amounts of empirical data from a survey of teachers about their teaching of diversity in the English classroom in the UK, and specifically open-ended questions about their teaching of 19th century texts, and the plays Othello and The Tempest. I argue that ‘canon in colour’ is an example of powerful knowledge and link this account to Hodgson and Harris’s concept of horizontal literacy.