Non-Affirmative Curriculum Leadership in Finnish Lower Secondary Education – Mediating Cross-Curricular Teaching

This study explores how a vice-principal and subject teachers mediate between curricular demands, organisational structures, and external influences when implementing cross-curricular teaching (CCT) in a Finnish lower secondary school. Drawing on non-affirmative theory of education and critical hermeneutics, we analyse how the participants balance and navigate among their pedagogical understanding, the school’s internal structures, and the external demands of sustainability and international assessments when reflecting on the school CCT initiatives. Findings highlight the importance of distributed leadership grounded in a shared pedagogical understanding of CCT among school leaders and teachers, and of flexible yet supportive collaborative structures to develop relevant and sustainable cross-curricular teaching practices.