Collaborating across disciplinary lines: generating a framework for out-of-field teachers in the Sciences, English, Mathematics, Design Technologies and the Humanities

This chapter highlights the value of doing interdisciplinary research in relation to teaching out-of-field, a phenomenon which itself requires teachers to assimilate different disciplines into coherent practice. As a team of experts in a range of diverse disciplines and subject areas, we set out to develop a framework for thinking about what a teacher needs to know, do and be, when crossing subject boundaries. This chapter focuses on the interdisciplinary collaborative inquiry process we undertook to develop this framework. We explain our focus, research process and the role of signature pedagogies in providing a conceptual frame for working together across disciplines. We recount our methodological steps, illustrate the complexity of our interdisciplinary dialogue, and suggest how our collaboration has led to new understandings of teaching out-of-field, to inform teacher professional development. We emerge from this study with a heightened empathy for out-of-field teachers who face the realities of working across disciplines.