As the conditions for students’ prospects of acquiring knowledge in school often are thought of as something that must be improved in the political rhetoric, it is also urgent, as Michael F. D. Young has argued, to ask what kind of knowledge should be the basis of the curriculum and to recognize the question of knowledge as central to the curricular debate. This article examines the grounds for a relational and communicative understanding of education. Drawing on John Dewey’s reconstruction of the concept of experience and Donald Davidson’s meaning theory in terms of three varieties of knowledge, the emphasis is on an intersubjective conceptualization of meaning and knowledge and its implications. Central themesin the analysis are communication as a condition for the acquisition of knowledge; a shared, but not identical, world as a point of reference; and an approach to specialized knowledge as judgement formation. As a conclusion it is argued that one condition for acquisition of knowledge, in terms of meaning, is to participate in and be influenced by conversations with a shared purpose, within and between different groups.