1st Edition
Interdisciplinary Practices in Higher Education Teaching, Learning and Collaborating Across Borders
Drawing on eight crowdsourced cases, Interdisciplinary Practices in Higher Education demonstrates the range and diversity in approaches to teaching, learning and collaborating across disciplinary and institutional borders. The cases explore everyday challenges within interdisciplinary higher education experiences such as designing study programmes, planning curricula, ensuring sufficient assessment and feedback for diverse groups of students and coordinating and aligning expectations with external stakeholders. Each case is analysed by three leading experts, providing solutions and practical guidance to support practice.
Chapters explore the challenges of:
- Breadth versus depth in interdisciplinary teaching and learning activities
- Disciplinary identities in interdisciplinary collaborations
- The governance and administration of interdisciplinary courses and study programmes
- Career trajectories for interdisciplinary researchers
- Aligning expectations with stakeholders in transdisciplinary endeavours
A highly practical, solution-based book, this is an essential read for lecturers, students, researchers and others who might wish to embark on an interdisciplinary path or develop future border-crossing practices within their higher education institutions.
Foreword; 1. Interdisciplinary Practices in Higher Education: An Introduction; 2. Setting the Scene for Practices of Interdisciplinary Teaching, Learning and Collaboration; 3. Breadth versus Depth; 4. Disciplinary Identities; 5. Roles, Responsibilities and Expected Outcomes; 6. Aligning Process and Outcome with External Stakeholders; 7. Constructive Alignment; 8. Governance and Administration; 9. Career Trajectories; 10. Sustainable transdisciplinary collaborations; 11. Standing on the shoulders of experience
Biography
Bianca Vienni-Baptista is group leader and lecturer at the Transdisciplinarity Lab, ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
Merel van Goch researches how and what students and scholars learn at Utrecht University and Radboud University, the Netherlands.
Rianne van Lambalgen is assistant professor and programme leader of liberal arts and sciences, Utrecht University, the Netherlands.
Katrine Ellemose Lindvig is assistant professor of higher education research at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
'Collecting diverse experiences, reactions and integrations starts to lay foundations for advancing interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate education. Different chapters will be useful for different readers. I especially applaud the authors who provided candid personal reflections in their cases and commentaries.'
Gabriele Bammer, Professor, The Australian National University, Australia.
'Cross-disciplinary practice is notoriously complex and complicated, with each new project bringing its own set of challenges. While there are many publications written to support cross-disciplinary practitioners, few are as helpful as this volume. Focused on a set of crowdsourced problems that matter to those of us working in this space, the volume provides valuable practical advice while staying attuned to the latest theoretical developments. It is structured around a set of eight cases that are real and draw the reader in. After receiving detailed and insightful commentary from three leading, international experts on crossdisciplinarity, consideration of each case closes with a summative and integrative discussion of its central issues. This is a stimulating and illuminating book that should become required reading for those who wish to embark on a cross-disciplinary path in research and practice.'
Michael O`Rourke, Professor of Philosophy and faculty member in AgBioResearch and Environmental Science and Policy, Michigan State University, USA.
'Interdisciplinary Practice in Higher Education is set to be an invaluable resource for faculty and higher education administrators who are focused on the application of inter- and trans- disciplinary teaching and research. The contributors masterfully create a bridge between theory, research, and practice. Marcus N. Tanner is an interdisciplinary author and practitioner.'
Marcus N. Tanner, PhD, HealingChoice Family Therapy
