Curriculum Subject Specialism Research Group

Conducting and promoting research into subject-specialist teaching. We are interested in all areas of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment, and the role of knowledge in school teaching.

The Subject Specialism Research Group (SSRG) was established in January 2017. It is seed funded by IOE.

In 2023, this research group has been re-launched as Curriculum Subject Specialism Research Group (CSSRG), with a renewed focus on curriculum work at all levels of education.

The CSSRG has the following aims:

• To bring research in various subject areas such as mathematics, science, history, and geography together in the study of curriculum and pedagogy.
• To strengthen research-informed teacher education in the areas of curriculum and pedagogy.
• To foster an academic culture and the exchange of ideas among faculty members and doctoral students.
• To conduct and promote research into subject-specialist teaching, across the areas of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.
• To investigate the leading role of knowledge within our schools.

Team

Leadership group

• Professor Arthur Chapman (History Education)
• Professor Zongyi Deng (Curriculum and Pedagogy)
• Dr Cosette Crisan (Mathematics Education)
• Alexis Stones (Religious Education)
• Dr Grace Healy (Geography Education)

Past members of the Leadership group

• Dr Jennie Golding (Mathematics Education) (2019–2022)
• Dr Mark Hardman (Science Education) (2019–2023)

Membership

To become a member of this research group, please enrol on the CSSRG moodle space.

Mission

Our members’ research is currently focussed in one or more of the following areas:

• To bring research in various subject areas such as mathematics, science, history, and geography together in the study of curriculum and pedagogy.
• To strengthen research-informed teacher education in the areas of curriculum and pedagogy.
• To foster an academic culture and the exchange of ideas among faculty members and doctoral students.
• To conduct and promote research into subject-specialist teaching, across the areas of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.
• To investigate the leading role of knowledge within our schools.

Collaborators

ROSE group, Karlstad University, Sweden

The research group ROSE (Research On Subject-specific Education) is rooted in several academic disciplines specialising in different school subjects. ROSE researchers share a focus on subject-specific education in relation to teaching and learning. 

The Research Council has awarded the ROSE research group SEK 1.2 million to develop an interdisciplinary network of internationally prominent researchers with focus on school subjects and teacher education. The goal is to produce new knowledge with the potential to advance teacher training in Sweden and abroad.

More info: ROSE news

HuSoEd group, University of Helsinki, Finland

The main foci of the Research Community for Humanities and Social Sciences Education, HuSoEd Group (pronounced who said), are the learning and teaching of subjects related to humanities and social sciences in early childhood education, comprehensive education and adult education.

The subjects that are mainly linked to humanities and social sciences are mother tongue and literature, Finnish as a second language, foreign languages, history, social sciences, religious education, secular ethics, philosophy, and geography.

Publications

• Deng, Z. (in press) Powerful knowledge, Transformations and Didaktik/Curriculum Thinking. British Educational Research Journal
• Crisan, C. (in press) From a Personal to a Pedagogically Powerful Understanding of School Mathematics. In N. Gericke, C. Olin-Schelle, M. Stolare, B. Hudson (Eds.), International Perspectives on Powerful Knowledge and Epistemic Quality: Implications for Innovation in Teacher Education Policy and Practice. Bloomsbury Publishing. Bloomsbury Publishing
• Golding, J. (in press) Epistemic quality in the intended mathematics curriculum and implications for policy. In B. Hudson, N. Gericke, C. Olin-Schelle, M. Stolare (Eds.), International Perspectives on Powerful Knowledge and Epistemic Quality: Implications for Innovation in Teacher Education Policy and Practice. London: Bloomsbury
• Deng. Z. (2021) Constructing ‘powerful’ curriculum theory. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 53(2), 179–196
• Deng, Z. (2020) Knowledge, content, curriculum theory and Didaktik: Beyond social realism. Abingdon: Routledge
• Derry, J; (2020) A Problem for Cognitive Load Theory-the Distinctively Human Life-form. Journal Of Philosophy Of Education, 54 (1)
• Pearce, P., Stones, A., Reiss, M. J. & Mujtaba, T. (2021) Science is purely about the truth so I don’t think you could compare it to non-truth versus the truth.’ Students’ perceptions of religion and science, and the relationship(s) between them: Religious education and the need for epistemic literacy. British Journal of Religious Education, 43(2), 174–189
• Reiss, M. J. (2020) Science Education in the light of COVID-19: The contribution of History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science. Science & Education, 29(4), 1079–1092. DOI: 10.1007/s11191-020-00143-5.
• Stones, A., Pearce, J., Reiss, M. J. & Mujtaba, T. (2020) Students’ perceptions of religion and science, and how they relate: The effects of a classroom intervention. Religious Education, 115(3), 349–363
• Deng, Z. (2018). Contemporary curriculum theorizing: Crisis and resolution. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 50 (6), 691–710
• Derry, J. (2018). Knowledge in education why philosophy matters. UCL Institute of Education Press (University College London Institute of Education Press)
• Chapman, A. (2018) Desenvolvendo o Pensamento Histórico: Abordagens conceituais e estratégias didáticas. Curitiba: W.A. Editores Ltda
• Chapman, A., Burn, K. and Kiston, A. (2018) What is School History for? British student-teachers perspectives. ARBOR Ciencia, Pensamiento y Cultura, 194 (788)
• Knowledge and subject-specialist teaching. London Review of Education, Special Issue: 16, 3, November 2018
• Lambert, A. (2018). Teaching as a research-engaged profession: Uncovering a blind spot and revealing new possibilities, pp. 357–370(14)
• Golding, J. (2018). Mathematics education in the spotlight: its purpose and some implications. London Review of Education, 16 (3), 460–473
• Standish, A. (2018). What to Teach? Conceptualising a Geography Curriculum. Journal of Geographical Research, 68, 73–88
• Billingsley, B., & Hardman, M. A. (2017). Epistemic insight and the power and limitations of science in multidisciplinary arenas. School Science Review, 99 (367), 16–17
• Billingsley, B., & Hardman, M. A. (2017). Epistemic insight: teaching and learning about the nature of science in real-world and multidisciplinary arenas. School Science Review, 98 (365), 57–58
• Crisan, C. (2017). Mathematics. In A. Standish, A. Sehgal-Cuthbert (Eds.), What should schools teach? Disciplines, subjects and the pursuit of truth (pp. 20–37). UK: UCL IOE Press
• Derry, J. (2017). An introduction to inferentialism in mathematics education. Mathematics Education Research Journal
• Golding, J. (2017) Is it mathematics or is it school mathematics? Presidential address to The Mathematical Association The Mathematical Gazette 101, 385–400
• McCrory, C. (2017). Using a beginning history teacher’s consideration of students’ prior knowledge in a single lesson case study to reframe discussion of historical knowledge. Revista Electronica Interuniversitaria de Formación del Profesorado
• Mujtaba, T., Reiss, M. J., & Stones, A. (2017). Epistemic insight: Teaching about science and RE in secondary schools. School Science Review, 99 (367), 67–75
• Standish, A. (2017). Geography. In: Sehgal Cuthbert, A and Standish, A, (eds.) What should schools teach? Disciplines, subjects, and the pursuit of truth. UCL IOE Press: London, UK
• Mitchell, D., & Lambert, D. (2015). Subject knowledge and teacher preparation in English secondary schools: the case of geography. Teacher Development, 19 (3), 365–380
• McCrory, C. (2015). The knowledge illusion: who is doing what thinking? Teaching History

Book Series

Knowledge and the Curriculum

Series Editors: Arthur Chapman, Cosette Crisan, Jennie Golding and Alex Standish, all at IOE. 

The series explores the nature of knowledge in contemporary societies, academic disciplines, school subjects and other fields of knowledge production. In doing so, it aims to foster inquiry into the relationships between knowledge disciplines in schools and elsewhere. Promoting equity in access to knowledge is a key driver.

This series emerged from the Subject Specialism Research Group in IOE and a major international network of curriculum theorists (KOSS) centred around a research group in Karlstad (ROSE) and in Helsinki (HuSoEd). 

Details:

• Knowledge and The Curriculum book series (UCL Press)

Call for book proposals

• Monographs and edited collections welcome. We aim to publish two volumes a year. Open access. Peer reviewed publications.
• Email us on ssrg@ucl.ac.uk if interested.

Related events

• Watch the webinar: What Should Schools Teach? The moral and epistemological case for the curriculum

Projects

Knowledge and Quality in School Subjects and Teacher Education, KOSS

The SSRG members were key in developing the Knowledge and Quality across School Subjects and Teacher Education (KOSS) Network with colleagues in the ROSE research group at the University of Karlstad and the HuSoEd research group at the University of Helsinki.

KOSS colleagues draw upon the concepts ‘powerful knowledge’ and ‘epistemic quality’ to help us understand the qualities that knowledge building has when it is effective and empowering at all levels: individual students and teachers, classroom, school, and educational systems.

The KOSS research questions are:

• How can the nature of powerful knowledge and epistemic quality in different school subjects be characterized?
• How can the transformation processes related to powerful knowledge and epistemic quality be described? 
• How can the nature of teachers’ powerful professional knowledge be characterized and what are the implications for teacher education policy and practice? 

Recent publications of KOSS collaborators:

• B. Hudson, N. Gericke, C. Olin-Schelle, M. Stolare (Eds.), International Perspectives on Powerful Knowledge and Epistemic Quality: Implications for Innovation in Teacher Education Policy and Practice | London: Bloomsbury.

GeoCapabilities 3: Teachers as Curriculum Leaders

The project will strengthen the profile of the teaching profession by helping geography teachers take on a leadership role as curriculum makers using powerful disciplinary knowledge (PDK).

We aim to help teachers make powerful knowledge available for less privileged young people, through such curriculum leadership.

We are viewing Geocapabilities as an educational conceptual tool for social justice and seek to examine ways in which this approach can serve to counter the undermining of teachers’ curriculum making in schools situated specifically in areas of socio-economic deprivation.
 
In the project we are asking:

• Is there a social justice dimension to Geocapabilities?
• How can a Geocapabilities approach benefit schools (teachers/ pupils) in challenging (socio-economic) circumstances toward the goal of ‘powerful knowledge for all’? 

PI and other contributors

• Dr David Mitchell (PI)
• Nottingham University (UK)
• Charles University (Czech Republic)
• University Paris 7/ Andre Revuz didactic laboratory (France)
• Sint-Lodewijkscollege (Belgium)
• Eurogeo (Belgium)

Length of project: two-year project (start 1 October 2018).

Related projects: GeoCapabilities 2