In my article Epistemic rhythms in lesson assignments: exploring the interplay of diverse content and objectives in teaching materials on historical and contemporary societal issues published in the History Education Research Journal, I examine how lesson assignments on historical and contemporary societal issues are designed in schools, with a focus on the kinds of knowledge students need to answer the questions. The study explores which didactic functions teachers can achieve by linking different forms of knowledge in school tasks. The analysis is based on 124 lesson assignments that in various ways link societal and historical questions.
The premise of the study is that selecting knowledge and shaping questions for school lessons is far from a neutral task. Choosing one aspect of knowledge inevitably means leaving another out. It also involves deliberately linking questions and knowledge together with educational purposes in mind. Decisions like these are therefore always closely connected to broader questions about knowledge in schools and how it is understood in relation to situated conditions.
To analyse how teachers make these choices and combine different aspects of knowledge, I employ a theoretical lens that I term epistemic rhythm. The first part of the concept, epistemic, highlights how different forms of knowledge are used in different parts of, and linked together through, questions in a lesson assignment. This linking also marks the second part of the concept, rhythm, which can contribute to various learning goals through the movement of knowledge. In reviewing the 124 lesson assignments that form the empirical basis of the study, three prominent epistemic rhythms emerge. These describe how different forms of knowledge move between the entry and exit points of an assignment, and how this movement fulfils specific didactic functions.
The first epistemic rhythm in the dataset moves from student-focused knowledge to analysis-focused knowledge. The task starts with students’ own experiences and gradually shifts towards more formal disciplinary analysis. Its purpose is to expand understanding from a personal perspective to a broader societal level. The second epistemic rhythm moves from clearly defined, context-based knowledge to analysis-focused knowledge. The assignment begins with specific facts or concepts, which are then reorganised within a more open analytical framework. Its purpose is to restructure knowledge and create new connections. The third epistemic rhythm moves from analysis-focused, defined knowledge to analysis-focused, elaborative knowledge. Students start by analysing based on given criteria and finish with a more independent evaluative judgement. Its purpose is to develop the ability to assess and evaluate knowledge. These are the prominent epistemic rhythms identified in the dataset. However, other variants of epistemic rhythms are also present in the data, indicating that these should be seen only as a first step in the results.
What conclusions can be drawn from these findings? A striking feature is how teachers interweave multiple aspects of knowledge within a single lesson assignment. Previous research has sometimes interpreted such movement as evidence of epistemological inconsistency. However, when viewed through the framework of the teaching profession developed in this study, these shifts can instead be understood as expressions of a deliberate professional logic, in which teachers combine different knowledge domains to achieve a variety of educational aims. This suggests that the design of teaching should be considered from a broader professional perspective. The selection of knowledge in a lesson assignment needs to be understood in relation to the teacher’s overall mandate and responsibilities, rather than being reduced to isolated epistemological positions or narrowly defined subject-didactic theories.
A further implication concerns the importance of movement within an assignment. Questions should not be seen as static or isolated, but as forming a connected progression – a epistemic rhythm in which each question relates to the others. On this basis, I suggest that teaching and learning in other contexts – such as lessons, thematic units, or longer sequences – may also benefit from being analysed as movement over time. By paying attention to this movement, important dimensions of learning become visible. I therefore argue that the concept of epistemic rhythm opens up analytical perspectives that might otherwise remain unnoticed, particularly in revealing teachers’ professional and theoretical considerations. It may serve as a valuable tool both for researchers studying teachers’ knowledge selections and for teachers themselves when reflecting on alternative ways of structuring lesson assignments.
By publishing this research in the History Education Research Journal, my intention is to contribute to ongoing discussions about how different forms of knowledge may be combined to achieve distinct didactic functions in teaching. Additionally, I hope the article may support teachers’ professional conversations about the planning, implementation and evaluation of classroom practice.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Epistemic rhythms in lesson assignments: exploring the interplay of diverse content and objectives in teaching materials on historical and contemporary societal issues by Mikael Berg (Dalarna University, Sweden) is published in History Education Research Journal, volume 23
https://doi.org/10.14324/HERJ.23.1.05
Mikael Berg has an extensive background as a teacher and senior lecturer in upper secondary education. He currently serves as an Associate Professor in Educational Work at Dalarna University. In academia, he works as an instructor in teacher education and professional development for teachers. His research has focused on practice-based studies with an emphasis on subject-didactic questions. One of his particular interests lies in epistemological questions within social science subjects. In recent years, he has, among other topics, focused especially on the question of knowledge in relation to teaching and learning connected to historical sites.
2026. , p. 2