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This book explores how different classroom discourses and concepts of knowledge permeate teaching in high- and low-performance classrooms. Drawing on empirical research from classrooms in Sweden, it presents a theory-based framework for classroom research. The book examines the central concepts of knowledge, curriculum, pedagogy and equity to discuss differences in access to knowledge and the implications of these differences for students' future opportunities and well-being. It analyses the relationships between different teaching factors and discusses teaching from democratic perspectives developed within curriculum theory. Combining insights from curriculum theory with insights from sociolinguistic and sociocultural classroom research, this project breaks new ground in how knowledge from curriculum content is recontextualised into concrete teaching practices in the context of a standards-based curriculum. Providing valuable insights into the intersections between classroom practice, student performance and teacher expectations, this book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and post-graduate students in the fields of curriculum research, education policy, teacher education and classroom practice.

This chapter examines the use of evidence in legitimating national school reforms in a globalized context. Although international policy knowledge is becoming increasingly important in legitimating national school reforms, the national context still seems to affect whether and how it is used. This chapter draws attention to the selective use of international policy knowledge in domestic policy agendas and the increasingly important role of people and institutions acting as intermediaries in selecting, interpreting, and presenting useful policy knowledge to politicians. By taking the complexity of context seriously, this chapter provides valuable insights into the multidirectional policy process that filters the expert knowledge that is ultimately used by politicians as evidence in legitimating school reforms.

In this article, we analyse key policy documents on teacher quality produced by the OECD andthe EU during the period 2005 to 2017 using an educational connoisseurship and criticismapproach. The purpose of this article is to explore how Eisner's concepts of educational connoisseurshipand educational criticism can be understood and used to analyse educational policy,especially how teacher quality is discursively constructed in transnational authoritative texts oneducation policy. Eisner's three aspects of criticism, description, interpretation and evaluation canbe utilised in a differentiated critical approach to the analysis of transnational policy documentson education. While the critical descriptive discourse can be viewed as 'identifying a simplerelationship' between social development and educational needs, the interpretative critical discoursecan be regarded as 'recognising the complexity' of teachers' tasks in changing societies andthe critical evaluative discourse as 'recognising and problematising contradictory interests' thataffect teachers' work. We argue that the philosophical concepts of connoisseurship and criticismcontribute to policy research by demonstrating that a multifaceted concept of teacher quality isneeded to capture the complex nature of education.

In this article, we use the basic concepts of Dewey's pedagogical philosophy on democracy and education as analytical tools for exploring the democratic potential of a transnational education policy within the contemporary European risk discourse. A Deweyan reading of main policy documents, starting with the 2000 Lisbon Strategy, allows for critical discussion of some of the basic assumptions and consequences of the EU-advocated transnational education policy. The data sources include 28 EU policy documents from 2000 to 2014. The analysis shows that in addition to a prevailing "human capital" discourse, there is potential for a communicative "democratic discourse" that promotes social cohesion. The democratic discourse underlines the full and free communication between different groups as the only way to promote and ensure the conditions for social cohesion. In this crisis of nearby wars, terror attacks and refugees in Europe, economy and competition are not viable concepts for seeking solutions. We argue that a shift to a language adapted to the real crisis and the fear of future crises in Europe is needed. We argue that a language that understands social efficiency, communication and a moral interest in the way Dewey outlined the concepts in Democracy and Educationcorresponds to the strong need to maintain and strengthen a democratic education and a democratic way of living for all.

Theoretically based conversations are not sufficient to closing the elusive performance gap between different education environments, but we believe they are a necessary part, and our hope is that the content of this book can contribute to worthwhile dialogues. A conclusion from this study is that the encounter between the teaching content, the social learning environment and the student is central to a student's opportunity to develop new knowledge, develop a sense of citizenship and develop individual potential. The teacher's democratic stance in the authoring of teaching content in the classroom makes a difference for what the student gets the opportunity to co-author and learn. We argue that the much-debated concept of powerful in connection with knowledge might be misleading as a basis for curricula and teaching and suggest a shift from matters of facts to matters of concern, as well as a shift from powerful knowledge to meaningful knowledge, if we really want different groups of students to direct their interest towards the teaching content and become involved in their own education.