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ERIC Number: EJ1447954
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0307-5079
EISSN: EISSN-1470-174X
A Phenomenographic Exploration of Course Leaders' Understandings of Interdisciplinarity
Dwayne Ripley; Lina Markauskaite; Peter Goodyear
Studies in Higher Education, v49 n11 p2208-2221 2024
The number of interdisciplinary courses being developed in higher education across different countries is increasing. The people responsible for developing and enacting interdisciplinary courses can have significant design and teaching autonomy, but little is known about how they understand interdisciplinarity. This study uses phenomenographic interviews to address the question: how do interdisciplinary course leaders understand interdisciplinarity? This includes exploration of the relationships between different understandings of interdisciplinarity. Findings from interviews with 23 interdisciplinary course leaders reveal understandings of interdisciplinarity expressed in relation to (A) definitions, (B) knowledge spaces, and (C) situated knowledge work practices. Understandings were multiple and heterogeneous; they varied between participants and more importantly participants each expressed understandings belonging to multiple categories. Findings show that academics' views about what interdisciplinarity means are rarely exclusively aligned with normative definitions, but instead are marked by individuals' construction of meaning through processes of acquisition, sense-making and situational judgment. The study's findings could be used in future educational design and planning work to elicit and discuss different stakeholder understandings of interdisciplinarity.
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A