Developing teachers’ interdisciplinary expertise: Consultation report

Abstract

This report is a part of the project ‘Developing teachers’ interdisciplinary expertise’, funded by the NSW Department of Education Strategic Leveraging grant and led by a research team from the University of Sydney and the University of Queensland. The project aims to extend our collective understanding of interdisciplinary expertise, and how to enhance its development for pre- and in-service teachers and, through that, how to strengthen students’ capabilities for interdisciplinary work. This report presents key insights from the consultation interviews conducted to inform co-design of resources for teacher educators for developing teachers’ interdisciplinary expertise. The consultation interviews involved 23 participants with relevant expertise and experience: teacher educators, leaders and teachers from governmental and non-governmental NSW schools, student teachers, Department Education representatives, and professional learning providers. The consultation interviews have revealed that, in the context of teacher education, interdisciplinarity is primarily understood as a set of teachers’ dispositions to engage in high-quality, purposeful integrative teaching practices. Such practices connect disciplinary teaching across curricula, involve working with multiple people and across contexts, and address challenging contemporary problems. The most critical areas of teachers’ professional practices and needs do not relate to particular topics (e.g., sustainability or STEM) but involve a set of general interdisciplinary curriculum-making, teaching and collective professional learning practices, such as identifying ‘launchpads’ to branch out, developing (inter)disciplinary fluency, and using pedagogical approaches that support breaking down subject boundaries. Further, interdisciplinary teaching is multifaceted. It is not limited to the micro level of teachers’ personal resourcefulness. It spans all levels of educational ecosystems, including collaborative (meso level) and environmental (macro level) aspects. Effective teacher professional education is primarily characterised as ongoing and embedded in collective practices, contexts and visions of learning. It includes individual and collective, formal and informal learning. The main barriers and enablers for developing teachers’ interdisciplinary expertise are personal, related to teachers’ resourcefulness, and environmental, related to other actors, organisational factors, systems, culture and structures. These outcomes suggest that developing interdisciplinary expertise requires holistic ecological approaches. However, addressing all aspects simultaneously is an impossible task. Teacher educators and school leaders primarily need resources and tools that would allow them to understand and navigate the space of interdisciplinary practices, establish possibilities and priorities, and create professional learning opportunities purposefully and systematically.