This study concerns a knowledge-building cycle on the concept of migration. Social studies teachers in primary school work together with researchers aiming at improving teaching and learning about migration, as well as creating new knowledge on this topic. The project consists of a so called “research- and development circle” (Bladh et. al. 2018) inspired by approaches within educational design research (McKenney & Reeves 2012; Plomp & Nieveen 2013) over three semesters including several steps. First teachers read articles about different aspects of migration. The articles are accompanied by a Powerpoint presentation where the researchers mediate the content. The following step is a peer discussion moderated by the researchers. These reading – discussing steps continues over the first semester. Next semester the teachers construct lesson plans, tasks and exercises together with the researchers and test them on teachers and smaller groups of students outside the circle for improvement purposes. Finally, the teachers carry out their lesson plans, the tasks and exercises in class during the last semester. The teachers’ knowledge building process is analyzed within the framework of Legitimation Code Theory (Maton, 2014). In particular the dimension of semantics is focused. How teachers use scientific concepts can reveal the teachers’ appropriation and understanding of the field in question. Particularly research has shown that the ability to unpack and repack concepts is crucial. The movement between the specialized language and the everyday language, seen as strengthening or weakening the semantic density in the discourse, creates a semantic wave (cf. Maton, 2013). Further the relation to the context is considered. Generally specialized language with stronger semantic density (SD+) is less context dependent than everyday language with weaker semantic density (SD-). This context embedded everyday language is in LCT terminology described as having strong semantic gravity (SG+). The gravity weakens (SG-) for example when concepts are discussed as general phenomena in relation with other terms. In our presentation we follow the transformation of the concepts from the research article over the Powerpoint presentation to the discussion about the text and the construction of lesson plans. What concepts do the teachers use in their lesson plans? What is the relation between the concepts used in the lesson plans and the teachers’ appropriation of the concepts in the discussion? And finally, how are these concepts introduced in the material offered?

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