Teachers’ and principals’ views on interdisciplinary teaching and learning in the humanities

Scholarship on interdisciplinary teaching and learning, especially in the humanities, is scarce, and it rarely takes teachers’ and principals’ views into account. To address these gaps, we present findings from interviews conducted with teachers and principals who were engaged in developing and enacting interdisciplinary curricula in the humanities. These respondents described interdisciplinarity as an innovation that can affect discourse within the classroom, teacher professional identity, and school management. Their views transcended the theoretical distinctions between cognitive, sociocultural, and critical learning theories that typically feature in educational research on interdisciplinary teaching and learning in the humanities. Understanding the gaps between the current state of the academic literature on interdisciplinary teaching and learning and teachers’ and principals’ views on this issue can inform pre-service and in-service teacher training initiatives.