Hudson (2018) introduces the concept of epistemic quality and exemplifies that with brief descriptions of contrasting approaches to school mathematics. This paper asks how the concept can, and should, be more explicitly developed: in particular, how should its development be informed by current philosophical debate and empirical evidence around teacher knowledge and its relationship to the quality of learning? The intended mathematics curriculum in England was renewed with effect from September 2014, arguably to align rather better than its predecessor with the epistemological priorities of the parent discipline, and that has offered an opportunity to examine fundamental curriculum-related assumptions and the classroom impact of those. I draw on a set of longitudinal studies of that curriculum and its early enactment to discuss the intended curriculum from 5 to 18 as it relates to epistemic quality: what epistemic values are being communicated in official curriculum documents and in the related curriculum and assessment materials used by teachers, how is the consequent received curriculum impinged on by Gericke et al’s ‘transformation’ of knowledge in the classroom, and what impact do the related epistemic communications appear to have on the epistemic quality to which students in the classroom have access? I further ask how the epistemologies currently privileged in the classroom relate to those in the parent discipline, and argue, consistent with Golding (2018), that close alignment of these is neither desirable nor achievable. I, further, argue for consideration of epistemological, as well as epistemic, ascent (Winch, 2013) in curriculum planning. I show, though, that in this case epistemological coherence of the curriculum system with the intended curriculum appears fragile, and indicate why this fragility should be attended to. Implications for curriculum system policy (Schmidt and Prawat, 2006) are discussed, including in relation to curriculum materials, assessments, and teacher initial and continuing education. The paper adopts both activity and complexity theoretic lenses, and offers approaches for exploring the characterisation of epistemic and epistemological quality, across the school curriculum.

Golding, J. (2018). Mathematics education in the spotlight: its purpose and some implications London Review of Education 16(3), 460-473. Hudson, B. (2018) Powerful Knowledge and Epistemic Quality in School Mathematics, London Review of Education: Special Issue on Knowledge and Subject Specialist Teaching, Vol. 16, Issue 3, UCL IOE Press.https://doi.org/10.18546/LRE.16.3.03 Gericke, N., Hudson, B., Olin-Scheller, C. and Stolare, M. (2018) Powerful Knowledge, Transformations and the Need for Empirical Studies across School Subjects, London Review of Education: Special Issue on Knowledge and Subject Specialist Teaching, Vol. 16, Issue 3, UCL IOE Press.https://doi.org/10.18546/LRE.16.3.06 Schmidt, W. and Prawat, R. (2006) Curriculum coherence and national control of education: Issue or non-issue? Journal of Curriculum Studies 38(6), 641-658 Winch, C. (2013). Curriculum design and epistemic ascent. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 47(1). 128-146.