A critical knowledge-led approach to curriculum research and teacher education across school subjects

This paper introduces and provides an overview of the special issue of this journal on Transnational and Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Subject Didactics. It describes a perspective on Subject Didactics that draws on insights from both the long tradition of General Didactics and from more contemporary subject-specific practices. In doing so it presents the crucial bridging position of subject didactics between academic disciplines and educational sciences. An outline of the theoretical framework to curriculum research and teacher education is provided. Furthermore, the guiding research questions and overall approach are presented including a focus on the development of teachers’ powerful professional knowledge. It addresses the questions of why describe this approach as critical and what is meant by a knowledge-led approach. The approach to data collection, analysis and interpretation is outlined and the implications for curriculum planning and professional development are considered. A summary of discussions related to the focus of this special issue at the conference that gave rise to it follows. Finally, an overview of contributions to this special issue is provided. In conclusion these are reflected on in relation to the guiding research questions and the vital importance of Subject-Specific Educational Content Knowledge (SSECK) for teacher education is highlighted.