Rethinking the foundations: towards powerful professional knowledge in teacher education in the USA and England

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we aim to outline what foundations can offer in terms of understanding education and educational practice, and thus for providing a basis for teachers’ professional knowledge. We look critically at the struggle foundation disciplines often experience with coherence and integration in terms of both their relation to each other and to broader (e.g. philosophical or sociological) thought. We begin to rethink foundations more as a (strong, disciplinary and professionally orientated) region rather than a singular or a set of singulars (to use Bernstein’s terms), although one that is rather different from other regions. In doing so, we suggest that Bernstein’s work, in providing a rich lens to understand curricula and pedagogic practice while holding social and political issues and implications close, is a useful exemplar of the type of educational knowledge which should be at the core of the foundations. A revitalized region of educational foundations can offer the ‘powerful professional knowledge’ that will enable teachers to make knowledgeable professional judgements in educational practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Foundations of education
• foundation disciplines
• Bernstein
• professional knowledge

Note

An earlier draft of this paper was prepared for the Symposium ‘Can Educational Knowledge be Powerful? Addressing the Challenges in the Sociology of Educational Knowledge and Curriculum Theory’ held at ECER 2019 in Hamburg.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brian Barrett

Brian Barrett is a professor and chair in the Foundations and Social Advocacy Department at the State University of New York College at Cortland (USA) and also serves as Graduate Research Coordinator for Cortland’s Urban Recruitment of Educators program. He has edited (with Elizabeth Rata) Knowledge and the future of the curriculum: International studies in social realism (Palgrave Macmillan 2014) and (with Ursula Hoadley and John Morgan) Knowledge, curriculum and equity: Social realist perspectives (Routledge 2017).

Jim Hordern

Jim Hordern works at the Department of Education at the University of Bath, UK. His research interests are in educational knowledge and practice, particularly in higher, professional and vocational education.