Knowledge-building and classroom discourse: possibilities for exploring teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge

This coda discusses the contribution of papers to the Special Issue on Exploring Knowledge-building in Classrooms. The papers demonstrate the pedagogic work necessary for teachers to provide students with meaningful access to subject-specific knowledge and discourses. The studies analyse how teachers enact their practices through organising concepts, shaping values and integrating multiple forms of knowledge, particularly in classrooms where students are learning in an additional language. In doing so, they move beyond forms of research that tend to dominate teaching-focused studies, such as reporting stakeholder perspectives. The coda also revisits the importance of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) and the challenges of using PCK in empirical classroom studies. It argues that although taxonomies have been valuable in identifying the knowledge bases of teaching, they have not provided precise conceptual tools for analysing teachers’ pedagogic work. Drawing on concepts and analytic tools from LCT, the papers reveal the underlying principles that guide teachers in managing concepts and creating opportunities for students to articulate their learning. The coda argues that analysing knowledge-building through classroom discourse offers important new directions for researching classroom practice and understanding how teachers enact PCK in teaching.