Disciplines and Subjects

The chapter provides an overview of the relationship between disciplines, subjects, and the curriculum drawing on Bernsteinian work on recontextualisation and the sociology of knowledge. Recontextualisation is seen as a central component within Bernstein's pedagogic device and vertical and horizontal knowledge structures, and can be understood as a link between a ‘theory of knowledge’, a ‘theory of content’, and a ‘theory of instruction’. Importantly, Bernstein's work can help us explicate differences between subjects, including those that are amalgams of different disciplines, and those that are more vocational in orientation. Recontextualisation can offer a nuanced insight into the role of disciplinary practices in the relations between disciplines and subjects, if the implications of Bernstein's knowledge structures are further explored using aspects of the philosophy of expertise. Some brief examples from studies of discipline-subject relations are included.