Powerful knowledge, educational potential and knowledge-rich curriculum: pushing the boundaries

Abstract

Building on and going beyond Young and Muller’s theory of powerful knowledge, this article seeks to articulate a model of a future-oriented, knowledge-rich curriculum by invoking David Lambert’s capabilities approach and Bildung-centred Didaktik. The curriculum is knowledge rich in three respects. First, it is informed by a vision of education centrally concerned with the cultivation of human powers (understanding, capabilities, dispositions) predicated on the contribution of knowledge. Second, the construction of a school subject—in the form of curriculum frameworks, syllabuses, and guidelines–entails selecting and organizing content in terms of educational potential and its realization in classrooms. Third, classroom teaching entails unlocking the educational potential of the content of a school subject for developing human powers. The curriculum is future-oriented in the sense that it aims at the formation of autonomous and responsible individuals who can thrive and flourish in the present and future world.