The quality and influence of teachers’ curriculum making ego-networks: Scotland and Wales

•Curriculum making ego-networks were examined with a critical realist perspective.•Teachers’ perceptions of trust offer nuanced insights about the quality of relationships.•Teachers’ conceptions of curriculum and agency influence the quality and influence of the networks.•The networks are less influential in teachers’ practice, compared to their sense-making or decision-making activities. Drawing from critical realism and qualitative ego-network approach, this research concerns eight secondary school teachers’ curriculum making networks in Scotland and Wales, and examines them in relation to quality (looking at strength, trust, frequency of communication and emotional closeness) and the perceived level of influence (in sense-making, decision making and practice). This research offers empirical evidence on how subjective meanings and sentiments attached to the networks had a strong mediatory role in the teachers’ practices. Furthermore, certain relationships were perceived as more influential or trustworthy based on whether the ideas generated by the networks aligned with or diverged from teachers' practices and their understanding of the curriculum. I conclude this paper with future-oriented questions for research in this field.