A Polanyian Perspective on the Place of Knowledge Within the Curriculum

A new national school curriculum in Wales that parallels reforms in other
countries and regions is in the process of being implemented. Several
issues debated in the context of these reforms relate to the effectiveness of
a school’s curriculum to help young people develop skills and dispositions
believed to be necessary for participation in the modern economy. Others
are concerned about the loss of core subject related knowledge linked to
academic disciplines. Wrestling with these questions motivated me to
consider how Polanyi’s thought could point the way to addressing these
issues, particularly his concept of commitment and argument for a hierarchically structured view of reality. In this paper I explore these issues
by drawing from the sociologist Michael F.D. Young’s work on ‘powerful
knowledge’ as a way to frame my consideration of the curriculum debates
from a Polanyian perspective. Young argues that providing access to
knowledge should be seen as the primary goal of school curriculums and
argues that the best route to achieving this is through academic subjects.
The paper will show how this argument is strengthened by consideration
of insights from Polanyi.