From powerful knowledge to powerful thinking: on how to empower students through pedagogy and curriculum

Abstract

Within the framework of the educational and curricular debate, the notion of powerful knowledge has been highlighted in response to more student-centred or more performative ones. However, education today is faced with new challenges, related to algorithms, disinformation, and artificial intelligence, which can change the relationship between knowledge and knowers. To respond to these challenges, in this article, we suggest a new approach to this debate, focused on what we define as powerful thinking. We construct this concept from a reinterpretation of Kohlberg's theory of moral development, in communication with Damasio's perspectives regarding the construction of knowing, Bernstein's concept of pedagogic rights, and his thoughts regarding school (un)success. It also involves a reframing of the power inherent in powerful knowledge, transporting it to the realm of reasoning. Thus, we arrive at a conception of powerful thinking, based on a dialectical relationship between the different levels of defined reasoning structures-preconventional, conventional, and postconventional-which become increasingly elaborate throughout this dialectic. With this theoretical essay, we hope to contribute to a deeper discussion about curriculum and learning, following the transformative potential that schools can have in the development and emancipation of each individual in these challenging times.