Powerful knowledge, esoteric knowledge, curriculum knowledge

This paper seeks to introduce a wider audience to a set of ideas developed by a group of sociologists of education who draw on Basil Bernstein’s late work on knowledge structures and whose epistemological stance is grounded in Social Realism. The paper’s main substantive focus is the concept of ‘powerful knowledge’ – recently popularised by Michael Young – and the implications of this notion for curriculum change. ‘Powerful knowledge’ connects with two other key ideas – ‘knowledge of the powerful’ and ‘esoteric knowledge’ – all of which have fed into recent debates about curriculum development and change. Various inter-connections between these ideas are examined. The paper concludes by identifying three chronic ‘tensions’ which impede efforts to extend powerful knowledge to socially and economically disadvantaged students.