What are we Teaching?

Dr Richard Bustin teaches Geography and leads the department at Lancing College, where he is responsible for staff development and teacher training. Richard's research on curriculum has resulted in multiple publications, invitations to speak at education conferences and work with trainee teachers around the world.

Richard Bustin's book is a much-needed addition to the academic discussion on the meaning and role of subjects in school education. Much has previously been written about the concept of powerful knowledge and its potential to highlight the importance of specialised knowledge in education: scholars in several discipline-based subject groups - for example, in geography and history - have studied it, but most of this work has been done in the context of these individual subjects. In this book, Richard looks at different subjects and gives voice to teachers themselves. In the theoretical part of the book, he makes a clear introduction to the concepts of powerful knowledge and the capability approach to help teachers explore what kind of contribution their subjects can have for their students. Even though the book is mainly targeted at readers in the UK, it also works well for the international audience interested in the role of subject-based education. I highly recommend this book to all teachers, teacher educators and student teachers.Sirpa Tani