In this paper I describe and discuss a pragmatic perspective on teaching and learning. I will focus on questions about educational content and what a well-educated participant can be supposed to know in different practices. When learning science for example, the students do not only learn scientific concepts, laws and ways of investigating nature, but also values and norms about science and the use of scientific knowledge in different contexts (C.f. Östman & Almqvist, 2010), The paper is built on a pragmatic perspective on learning which focus on meaning making in people’s action in educational settings (c.f. Lundqvist et al 2012). Examples from three case studies of teaching and learning in classroom practice are used to illustrate and discuss the approach. In a pragmatic perspective, learning is defined as the process in which human beings appropriate and contribute to ways of acting that enable them to participate in different practices. From this point of departure, the possible influence of teaching, and the possible influence of students’ action, on educational practices, is seen as two aspects of the same practice. In the paper I call for further research about the relation between different teaching traditions and learning.