{"id":2586,"date":"2025-01-16T06:51:05","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T06:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.canterbury.ac.uk\/national-institute-for-christian-education-research\/?p=2586"},"modified":"2026-03-23T09:49:42","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T09:49:42","slug":"whats-this-survey-all-about-teacher-teacher-dialogue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.canterbury.ac.uk\/national-institute-for-christian-education-research\/whats-this-survey-all-about-teacher-teacher-dialogue\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s this survey all about? Teacher-teacher dialogue?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Dr Mary Woolley, Principal Investigator, Cultivating Deeper Interdisciplinary Dialogue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 2025 we launch a survey of secondary teachers across Wales as the first part of our TWCF-funded project, Cultivating Deeper Interdisciplinary Dialogue. <\/em>As you can read in previous blogs, Wales is going through an intensive process of curriculum reform. We\u2019re interested in the conversations about curriculum that this process promotes between secondary teachers, both within subjects and across traditional subject boundaries.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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As we begin recruiting participants to complete the survey, I thought I\u2019d take this opportunity to share some of the principles that underly our approach to survey design and construction.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, why are we interested in teacher-teacher dialogue?<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I trained to teach history in England in 1998. I now work in teacher education. In fact, everyone on our research team at Cardiff Metropolitan University and Canterbury Christ Church University works in teacher education. We know how much secondary teachers value their subject communities and how excited teachers get when they have the opportunity to gather with other teachers in familiar areas and talk about what they\u2019re teaching. Secondary teachers are passionate about the subjects they teach. As experienced teacher educators, however, we wondered what opportunities teachers were being given to talk about the topics they teach. This dialogue between teachers becomes even more important at times of curriculum reform. Curriculum for Wales emphasises interdisciplinary as well as disciplinary approaches to teaching. So, what does that mean for the conversations you have with teachers in other subjects? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, what do we want to find out?<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research question underpinning the survey is simply, what experience do teachers in Wales have of substantive disciplinary and interdisciplinary teacher-teacher dialogue?<\/em> We use the word substantive, as we\u2019re particularly interested in the conversations you have with other teachers about the topics you teach, rather than the conversations you have about behaviour or particular students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, why would we choose to employ a survey to explore teacher-teacher dialogue? <\/em>Yes, we agree. Qualitative analysis is the best way to get into the intricacies of what teachers are saying to one another, how they\u2019re saying it and what helps engage deeper levels of dialogue. We\u2019ll be doing plenty of that later on in the project. First, though, we wanted to get a big picture of teachers\u2019 experiences of curriculum conversations across the country. We were inspired by the work of Admiraal and Lockhorst (2012) to use a survey and their work on a \u2018sense of community in school\u2019 scale inspires some of the items on our instrument. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s in the survey?<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n

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The survey (there are Welsh and English versions) has 4 sections. The first asks for some demographic information, what you teach, where you teach and how long you\u2019ve been teaching for, that sort of thing. The second section asks how often you have conversations about various aspects of curriculum with your colleagues, both those in your subject, your department and more broadly in your school. The third section asks some questions to explore your sense of the quality of the dialogue you engage in with other teachers and how supportive your school is of such conversations. The fourth section asks what support you would like to help encourage deeper interdisciplinary dialogue with your colleagues. A final section asks a few brief questions about your teaching of sustainability and climate change and the conversations you have with colleagues about that topic. The whole survey should take you less than 15 minutes to complete. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do I do next?<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re a secondary teacher in Wales, please take the time to complete the survey. We would really appreciate it and we look forward to being able to share our findings with you, your school leaders and policymakers in Welsh Government once we\u2019ve collected enough data. Once you\u2019ve completed the survey, forward the link to a few teaching colleagues and ask them to complete it too. Thank you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re not a secondary teacher in Wales, but you know people who are, please forward this on to them. Personal connections are always the best way to disseminate a survey. If you ask someone by name to complete the survey, hopefully they will do so! Look out for our postings on social media, comment on them and repost to all your teaching friends and colleagues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The survey links are here: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welsh Survey<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/cardiffmet.eu.qualtrics.com\/jfe\/form\/SV_efKqY7HFixHJfp4<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

English Survey<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/cardiffmet.eu.qualtrics.com\/jfe\/form\/SV_7ar0VuH51heB8Fg<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What will you do in return?<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have \u00a3500 set aside to donate to a Wales-related charity of your choice. At the end of the survey you\u2019ll get the chance to choose between these three: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

sizeofwales.org.uk<\/a>\u202fwork with Indigenous People and local communities in Latin America, Africa and South East Asia to secure and sustain an area of tropical forest at least the size of Wales, and grow millions of trees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n