Table Of ContentKnowledge, Expertise and
the Professions
It has long been recognised that specialised knowledge is at the core of what
distinguishes professions from other occupations. The privileged status of
professions in most countries, however, together with their claims to autonomy
and access to specialised knowledge, is being increasingly challenged both by
market pressures and by new instruments of accountability and regulation.
Established and emerging professions are increasingly seen as either the solution
or as sources of conservatism and resistance to change in western economies, and
recent developments in professional education draw on a competence model that
emphasises what newly qualified members of a profession ‘can do’ rather than
what ‘they know’.
This book applies the disciplines of the sociology of knowledge and epis-
temology to the question of professional knowledge. What is this knowledge? It
goes beyond traditional debates between ‘knowing how’ and ‘knowing that’, and
‘theory’ and ‘practice’. The chapters cover a wide range of issues, from discussions
of the threats to the knowledge base of established professions including engineers
and architects, to the fraught situations faced by occupations whose fragile
knowledge base and professional status is increasingly challenged by new forms
of control. While recognising that graduates seeking employment as members of
a profession need to show their capabilities, the book argues for reversing the
trend that blurs or collapses the skill/knowledge distinction. If professions are
to have a future then specialised knowledge is going to be more important than
ever before.
Knowledge, Expertise and the Professions will be key reading for students,
researchers and academics in the fields of professional expertise, further education,
higher education, the sociology of education, and the sociology of the professions.
Michael Youngis Emeritus Professor of Education at the Institute of Education,
University of London, UK.
Johan Mulleris Emeritus Professor of Education in the School of Education at
the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
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Knowledge, Expertise
and the Professions
Edited by
Michael Young and
Johan Muller
First published 2014
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2014 M. Young and J. Muller
The right of the editor to be identified as the author of the editorial material,
and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance
with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification
and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Knowledge, expertise and the professions/edited by Michael Young and
Johan Muller.
pages cm
1. Professions. 2. Expertise. 3. Knowledge, Sociology of.
4. Education. 5. Professional employees – Education.
I. Young, Michael F. D. II. Muller, Johan.
HD8038.A1K66 2014
331.7(cid:2)1 – dc23
2013044858
ISBN: 978-0-415-71390-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-71391-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-88308-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Galliard
by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK
Contents
Notes on contributors vii
Acknowledgements x
PART ONE
Introduction and framing the issues: Outline of
the book 1
Michael Young and Johan Muller
1 From the sociology of professions to the sociology of
professional knowledge 3
Michael Young and Johan Muller
2 Professions, sacred and profane: Reflections upon the
changing nature of professionalism 18
Gerald Grace
PART TWO
Knowledge, judgment and expertise: Theoretical
perspectives 31
3 Abstract rationality in education: From Vygotsky to
Brandom 33
Jan Derry
4 Know-how and knowledge in the professional curriculum 47
Christopher Winch
5 Differentiating forms of professional expertise 61
Ben Kotzee
vi Contents
6 Professional knowledge and professional practice as continuous
recontextualisation: A social practice perspective 78
David Guile
7 What binds professional judgment?: The case of teaching 93
Yael Shalem
PART THREE
Education and the professions: Case studies 107
8 The evolution of engineering knowledge 109
Hu Hanrahan
9 On the cultivation of decorum: Development of the pedagogic
discourse of architecture in France, 1671–1968 128
Francis Carter
10 Problematizing curriculum: Contemporary debates in
engineering education 143
Jennifer M. Case
11 Knowledge matters in nursing 157
Martin McNamara and Gerard Fealy
12 Knowledge and teacher professionalism: The case of
mathematics teaching 171
Nick Taylor
Index 185
Contributors
Francis Carteris an architect and Senior Lecturer at the School of Architecture
Planning and Geomatics, University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa. His
post-professional qualification is in higher education studies (MPhil, UCT), in
which he began a review of princ iples for the pedagogic structuring of design
knowledge evident in a variety of curriculum models.
Jennifer M. Case is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at
the University of Cape Town, South Africa, with a special responsibility for academic
development. She teaches in the undergraduate chemical engineering programme
and her research on the student experience of learning has been widely published.
Jan Derryis a Reader in Philosophy of Education at the Centre for Philosophy,
Institute of Education, University of London, UK. Her research interests focus
on philosophical psychology, theories of knowledge and learning, and the nature
of professional expertise and judgment.
Gerard Fealy is Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Research and
Innovation at the UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems, UCD
College of Health Sciences, Dublin, Ireland, Director of the National Centre
for the Protection of Older People and a founding member of the European
Association for the History of Nursing.
Gerald Grace has taught Education Studies at King’s College London, the University
of Cambridge and Durham University, UK, and Victoria University of Wellington,
New Zealand. His early studies were concerned with the Sociology of the Teaching
Profession. He is at present Director of the Centre for Research and Development in
Catholic Education, at the University of London, Institute of Education, and is the
Editor of the journal, International Studies in Catholic Education.
David Guile is Professor of Education and Work at the Institute of Education,
University of London, UK, where he is also Head of the Department of Lifelong
and Comparative Education, and a member of the ESRC-funded Research Centre
Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies. David’s main
viii Contributors
research interests are using interdisciplinary perspectives to study professional,
vocational and workplace learning. His most recent books are The learning
challenge of the knowledge economy and The knowledge economy and lifelong
learning: Critical perspectives, the latter edited with David Livingstone.
Hu Hanrahanis Professor Emeritus at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits),
Johannesburg, South Africa. A graduate of Wits University, he has served in the
Siemens Chair of Communications Engineering, as Head of the Department of
Electrical Engineering and as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering. He has
contributed to policies, standards and processes for professional registration and
accreditation of engineering education programmes, and is Chairman of the
Washington Accord.
Ben Kotzee is Lecturer in the Jubilee Centre for Character and Values at the
University of Birmingham, UK. He specialises in applying insights from con-
temporary epistemology to questions in the philosophy of education. He holds
a PhD in Philosophy from King’s College London and was previously Lecturer
at Birkbeck College, University of London.
Martin McNamara is Dean of Nursing, and Head of the UCD School of Nursing,
Midwifery and Health Systems, UCD College of Health Sciences, Dublin, Ireland.
Johan Mulleris Professor Emeritus in the School of Education at the University
of Cape Town and Senior Research Fellow at Higher Education South Africa.
His research interests lie in the sociology of knowledge and of the curriculum.
He has published in the sub-fields of schooling and higher education. His book
Reclaiming knowledge was published by Routledge in 2000.
Yael Shalemis an Associate Professor of Education at the School of Education,
University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Her research interests
include professional knowledge, curriculum, teacher education and teacher work.
She directed a teacher development project (Data Informed Practice Improve-
ment Project, DIPIP) and is co-leading a professional knowledge project, based
at the REAL (Researching Education and Labour) Centre at the University of
Witwatersrand. She is the first of two Editors of Retrieving teaching: Critical issues
in curriculum pedagogy and learning.
Nick Taylorholds a Masters degree in Geology and a PhD in Maths Education.
He has been a teacher of maths and science, subject advisor for schools, policy
researcher and Executive Director of the non-profit organisation JET Education
Services. In 2012 he was appointed CEO of the National Education Evaluation
Development Unit, South Africa’s school inspectorate. Most recently he co-Edited
Creating effective schools,published in September 2013 by Pearson.
Christopher Winch is Professor of Educational Philosophy and Policy in the
Department of Education and Professional Studies at King’s College, London.
Contributors ix
He is the author of The philosophy of human learning (Routledge, 1998) and
Dimensions of expertise (Continuum, 2010) among numerous other books and
articles. He has worked in primary, further and higher education.
Michael Young is Emeritus Professor of Education at the Institute of Education,
University of London, UK, and a Visiting Professor at a number of universities
in the UK and overseas. His main research interests are in the sociology of the
curriculum, professional knowledge and qualifications. His book Bringing
knowledge back inwas published by Routledge in 2008 and with Stephanie Allais
he edited Implementing national qualification frameworks, published by
Routledge in 2013. His book edited with David Lambert Knowledge and the future
school will be published by Bloomsbury in 2014.
