The education system is fundamental for empowering people to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. In promoting corresponding literacies (e.g., health/digital/sustainability literacy), a common approach is to implement them as cross-cutting themes (UNESCO, 2012) or cross-curricular tasks (Bieber et al., 2017). As such, they can be written into curricula and hold potential for driving innovation of available subjects. Yet, when (too) many subjects are called to contribute, diffusion of responsibility may occur (Hellmann-Tuitert, 1999). Another barrier is perception as additional burden on teachers (Baena-Morales et al., 2022). Especially where the principial of subject-matter education applies, cross-cutting themes become a matter of both professional development and curriculum innovation.

In this context, this paper reports on the cLEVER-3-study, which explores subject cultural patterns of teachers concerning consumer education as a cross-cutting theme. We refer to consumer education as a process of developing knowledge, understanding, reflection, and action in manifold consumption areas and enhancing the ability to read the world in terms of consumership (consumer literacy) (cf. Sumner, 2013; Steffens, 2012; Heseker et al., 2005). For this, the reflective basis is subject culture research (Lüders, 2007; Poweleit, 2020). Building on theories of disciplinary and school cultures, subject culture research expands the notion that in contexts of subjects, too, cultural structures emerge through habitual practices and shape the rules by which social actors play their social game (Bourdieu, 1984). Although subject culture research is still in its infancy in consumer education, two lines of work exist to build upon:
 
1. Consumer education in relation to better-established subjects
Many countries integrate consumer education not as a singular subject but a cross-cutting theme (Ueno et al., 2009). This corresponds to the United Nations’ guideline that “[c]onsumer education should, where appropriate, become an integral part of the basic curriculum of the educational system, preferably as a component of existing subjects” (UN, 2016, art. 43). Germany and Austria, e.g., have installed consumer education as a cross-curricular task or principle (KMK, 2013; BMBWF, 2015). Internationally, home economics offer an anchor, e.g., as Family and Consumer Sciences in the USA (https://www.aafcs.org/partnership/about-aafcs) or as Nutrition and Consumer Education in German-speaking countries (http://habifo.de/dach.html). Other disciplines appear rather silent, which is not the case for other multidisciplinary tasks (e.g., Baena-Morales et al., 2022, Vrabec et al., 2013). Not least because of the precarious situation of home economics in schools and the multidimensionality of consumer issues, curriculum integration as a cross-cutting theme seems a rather viable option. Still, whether and how it reaches subject practice on the classroom level remains an issue (Ueno et al., 2009), especially when assuming an enculturation of teachers.
 
2. Teachers’ views of consumer education and professional development
Several studies have explored this issue. For instance, Wittau (2021) found that teachers from various subjects within the social sciences often base consumer education on the values of their own milieu, which contradicts aspirations for professional learning. Håkansson (2016) found that qualified home economics teachers in Sweden have a lower degree in their intention to transport moralized consumer education than their formally unqualified colleagues. For Australia, Sawatzki and Sullivan (2017) report that most participating teachers at primary schools regard themselves as financially literate while only half is confident in teaching financial literacy. However, there remains a paucity of research on the views of teachers from other subjects than economics and home economics.

Thus, the research questions of this paper are:

1. Is teacher professional learning and development regarding consumer education informed by diverse subject cultural patterns?
2. Do subject cultural patterns exist in the way that teachers offer consumer education in the context of their subject teaching and learning? What are the similarities and differences?

The methodology manifests in an exploratory approach with comparative elements. Data was collected from teachers (n=370) at secondary schools in Baden-Wurttemberg state, Germany. In 2019, there were 41.352 teachers working at these schools. We reached the teachers by contacting 1.468 schools of the population of 2.101 secondary schools. In Baden-Wurttemberg consumer education has attained the status of one of the seven cross-cutting themes with the introduction of a new general education curriculum in 2016 (KMBW, 2016). Thus, teachers in all school subjects must integrate consumer education in their teaching and learning. Studies from earlier phases of the curriculum implementation confirmed the need for supporting teachers in professional learning and development for consumer education; particularly in subjects that identify only little with consumer education or not at all (Bartsch & Goerke, 2020). Consequently, the cLEVER-3-study focuses on teachers with subjects that either have low or high attributed subject affinity to this cross-cutting theme. Subject cultural patterns concerning consumer education are at the focus of this study. The instrument is a partially standardized online survey. Data consists of both text-based and numerical data. For the analysis, we use statistical methods and content analysis.   1 cLEVER refers both to the cross-cutting theme of consumer education and a research project on transferring the so-called ‘guiding perspective’ (LEitperspektive VERbraucherbildung) into subject teaching and learning at general education schools in Baden-Wurttemberg state. The project is funded by the Ministry of Food, Rural Affairs and Consumer Protection Baden-Wurttemberg.

From the stance of education policy and of consumer policy, consumer education should be, remain, and become a cross-cutting theme of established subjects. In educational science and subject-matter didactics, however, this raises questions such as whether and how to handle cross-cutting themes, or what this stance implies for professional learning and development. In this, consumer education serves as an example. The study on teachers in Baden-Wurttemberg state is expected to show, on the one hand, what similarities and differences exist between the different subjects. For this, we present the results on what kind of previous education teachers name regarding consumer education, whether they self-report the use of qualification options for this cross-cutting theme and which these are, where teachers get ideas for streaming consumer education across the curriculum, and what media and methods teachers use for consumer education. These results can serve to derive impulses both for professional learning in practice and research on professional development as well as curriculum innovation. On the other hand, the cLEVER-3 study looks at consumer education from a subject culture perspective. To our knowledge, this is a new approach in the field of consumer education. Consequently, the paper reflects on the strengths and weaknesses of this approach.

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