Powerful knowledge? A multidimensional ethical competence through a multitude of narratives

Powerful Knowledge and the 2017 Swedish National Test in Religious Education

“…Understanding universal ethical principles and how they can be applied to many different social and historical contexts, which go beyond the lived experiences of students, can as mentioned above be seen as a central aspect of PK in Swedish RE (Osbeck 2020). We suggest that such an understanding is essential to answering Item 9.…”

“…There is little research on RE from a PK perspective, as it is an emerging field within educational research (Franck and Thalén 2023). Here, we highlight Franck (2021a) and Osbeck (2020) because they have studied Swedish RE from a PK perspective, and from them we derive some ideas about PK in Swedish RE. Franck (2021a) discusses subject-specific as well as subject-transcending issues relating to potential powerful knowledge in RE and raises critical points regarding the definitional process in which researchers, politicians, administrators, and teachers all make claims where "knowledge of the powerful" is at stake.…”

“…Osbeck (2020) notices, with regard to ethics as a part of Swedish RE, that Young himself refers to a general ethical principle, namely Kant's categorical imperative-"treat everyone as an end in themselves and not as a means to your end"-as an example of powerful knowledge, "because it is almost 'a generalizable (or universal) principle for how human beings should treat others" (Osbeck 2020, p. 7). With reference to a discussion on Young's criteria for powerful knowledge, Osbeck (2020) opens the way for the possibility of identifying ethical knowledge as representing a complex moral discourse, with regard to which studies may contribute to the development of what can be defined as powerful knowledge. She remarks that "what becomes powerful is related to the context and the people present-even if different types of moral discourses are also traditionally associated with different amounts of power" (p. 8).…”

“…We choose these categories because they include both subject knowledge and the abilities entailed in disciplinary knowledge. More specifically, considering the content of Swedish RE, we focus on PK in relation to religious studies, religious history (Franck 2021a), and ethics (Osbeck 2020). According to Franck (2021a), RE should have a focus on theoretical knowledge (such as about religions, religious history, and religious texts) that goes beyond simple facts and how religious beliefs are expressed in people's lives.…”

Migrationsbiografiers didaktiska potential

“…Samhällsdebatten om migration har det senaste decenniet blivit mer polariserad och inte alltid grundad i kunskap (IOM, 2019). Kunskap, och elevers tillgång till annan kunskap än den som utvecklas genom vardagslivets erfarenheter, är något som kommit att diskuteras inom svensk ämnesdidaktisk forskning på ett övergripande plan (Gericke et al, 2018;Carlgren, 2020) liksom i de samhällsorienterande ämnenas didaktik (Bladh et al, 2018;Franck, 2021;Nordgren, 2017;Osbeck, 2020). Där har Young och Mullers förslag om kraftfull kunskap (Muller & Young, 2019;Young & Muller, 2013, 2015 fått genomslag.…”