Literary Studies, Knowledge and Social Justice in Education: A Capabilitarian Conception of Powerful Knowledge in School Subject English

Talbot, Daniel and McArthur, Jan (2025) Literary Studies, Knowledge and Social Justice in Education: A Capabilitarian Conception of Powerful Knowledge in School Subject English. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

This thesis is a contribution to the literature in three areas of educational theory: the Capabilities Approach, the concept of powerful knowledge and the purposes of literary study in schools. At its heart lies the question, why should students study literature in secondary school classrooms? What does it offer students that makes it a valuable and enduring part of their education? One recent and influential answer to these kinds of questions has been provided by the concept of powerful knowledge. School subjects should serve the purpose of inducting students into disciplinary bodies of knowledge derived, in general, from their university equivalents. To some this may seem like common-sense, perhaps even trivially true. Yet, within the community of educational researchers and scholars focused on English as a school subject, the idea is controversial. There is a concern that a focus on knowledge obscures something deeply important at the heart of the study of literary texts. My approach to this dispute is ultimately irenic in nature. Taking a philosophical approach to key concepts involved in these discussions, I offer an account of powerful knowledge that recognises the insights of educational researchers from the wider English educational community. At the same time, I use the social realist foundations of powerful knowledge to reframe some of the core assumptions that have dogged attempts to capture what is distinctive about arts subjects. In doing this, I situate both literary studies and powerful knowledge within the Capabilities Approach. This helps reconcile what initially seem divergent intuitions about the nature and practice of school education. I argue that a capabilitarian account of the study of literature allows us to understand the important role of cultural understanding in students’ education. At the same time, it takes seriously the importance of disciplinary knowledge, recognises the centrality of experience and imagination and gives an account of the wider importance of the study of literature for social justice.