Can history textbooks be a source of ‘powerful knowledge’?

The study explores the recontextualisation of Jerzy Popiełuszko's biography in Polish secondary school history textbooks published between 1991 and 2022. By analysing Popiełuszko's portrayal as a case study, the chapter highlights how the ‘heroification’ of educational narratives contributes to the construction of national identity and influences the transmission of historical knowledge. It also raises critical questions about the role of textbooks in shaping collective memory and about the tension between ideological representation and the development of disciplinary engagement in history education. Using Bernstein's theory of vertical and horizontal discourse and the powerful knowledge framework developed by Young, the chapter investigates how Popiełuszko's biography is discursively constructed within national heroism. Through critical discourse analysis and close reading, discursive shifts in his portrayal have been identified. Early textbooks rely primarily on martyrological framing, emphasising suffering and sacrifice within a horizontal discourse. Over time, a more nuanced approach emerges, with more recent textbooks attempting to balance moral (religious) and political dimensions by situating Popiełuszko in broader historical/social contexts. However, ideological filters continue to shape the dominant discursive strategies of textbooks, restricting students' access to disciplinary historical inquiry.