The case for a subsidiarity model of professional learning and development at a time of curriculum reform: perspectives from key Stage 3 (11–14 years) secondary music teachers in Wales

This article examines professional learning and development (PLD) for secondary classroom music teachers in Wales at a time of curriculum reform. Using complexity theory as a theoretical lens, the study explores how teachers navigate the interrelated political, pedagogical, and professional contexts that shape their classroom practice. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with nine secondary classroom music teachers, focusing on their lived experiences and conceptualising the factors that should inform PLD design. Findings reveal that the teachers operate within complex adaptive systems characterised by feedback, self-organisation, and contextual responsiveness. While participants valued the autonomy and professional agency afforded by curriculum reform, they reported frustration with externally imposed, generic PLD that failed to address subject-specific or school-level needs. The paper argues for the curriculum framework’s subsidiarity model to be reflected in a locally determined model of PLD, grounded in teachers’ subject and contextual expertise. Such an approach re-positions teachers as co-constructors of professional knowledge, enabling PLD to evolve organically within the dynamic ecologies of practice that underpin contemporary educational reform.