Epistemic rhythms in lesson assignments: exploring the interplay of diverse content and objectives in teaching materials on historical and contemporary societal issues

This article examines the design of lesson assignments addressing historical and contemporary societal issues in schools, with particular emphasis on the knowledge content required to respond to the questions posed in these assignments. The aim is to investigate the didactic functions that can be identified in school lesson assignments that elicit various types of knowledge. Two research questions are posed: (1) What epistemic positions can be identified in school lesson assignments? (2) What epistemic rhythms between different selections of knowledge can be identified in school lesson assignments? The methodology used involves a text analysis of 124 lesson assignments provided by 10 upper secondary teachers. The results identify three primary epistemic rhythms in the lesson assignments, which are the movements between student-oriented, context-oriented and analysis-oriented knowledge. These correspond in different ways to the didactic functions of broadening, reorganisation and evaluation. An overarching conclusion is that teachers’ approaches to designing lesson assignments with varying epistemic rhythms can serve as a means to address diverse educational objectives and reflect teachers’ practice-oriented professional theory. Therefore, this article argues that the concept of epistemic rhythms can serve as a robust framework for reflection when balancing knowledge and objectives in education. It asserts that the concept of epistemic rhythms reveals teachers’ practice-oriented theories regarding the selection of knowledge for teaching and learning.