A Quantitative Exploration of Reported Curriculum Dialogues Between Secondary Teachers in Wales at a Time of Curriculum Reform

“The interdisciplinary structure of AoLEs have clearly given teachers in Wales opportunities to hold such dialogues, but there remain important questions about dialogue with teachers beyond the AoLE, for example between science and RVE or English and Art. If vital transdisciplinary topics such as sustainability or ethical and informed citizens are important, then these cannot be left to teachers in a single subject or a single AoLE, but depend on dialogue across traditional subject boundaries.”

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As the 2022 Curriculum for Wales becomes embedded in schools, this paper shares findings of a self-report survey from over 300 secondary school teachers on the nature, content and frequency of their curriculum conversations with other teachers. This new curriculum framework, grouping subjects together into Areas of Learning and Experience [AoLEs] enables disciplinary, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary learning. Teachers reported on perceived factors affecting the quality of their dialogues and perceived opportunities for deepening interdisciplinary dialogue. Descriptive analysis shows teachers reported more conversations with other teachers in the same subject, more conversations about content taught rather than the purpose of teaching it and fewer conversations about how their subject relates to other subjects. Crucially, surface-level conversations were reported as more common than deeper conversations. The findings reveal processes and possibilities of curriculum policy enactment at the level of teacher professional discourse. Teacher–teacher dialogue, as a way of becoming aware of the purpose of other subjects and becoming more articulate in describing the purpose of one’s own, is highlighted as a necessary phase before teachers engage in collaboration. Deeper dialogue is proposed as a necessary precondition of deep and meaningful interdisciplinary collaboration.

Keywords:

teacher professional discourse; dialogue; interdisciplinarity; curriculum reform; connection; Curriculum for Wales