As an educator, I see interdisciplinarity as a conduit for a lifelong learning experience which keeps me in tune with the context in which teaching and learning unfold. In this regard, it also provides for career re-invention which everybody needs has to invariably do to find a place in this complex world of the 21st century. Thanks to those in the academic world who have pioneered advocacy and practice of interdisciplinarity from some of us who are battling the intransigence of institutional cultures that are blissfully wedded to disciplinary straight jackets.
Our institutions are designed around specialisation, and this is reinforced by funding models and management structures. Interdisciplinarity is seen as something that groups have, not individuals ... surely someone educated across several domains could engage in research that explores the spaces between, or across, some or all of those artificial categories? A specialist in linking and integrating otherwise domain specific knowledge to resolve otherwise unsolvable or unexplored problems?
As an educator, I see interdisciplinarity as a conduit for a lifelong learning experience which keeps me in tune with the context in which teaching and learning unfold. In this regard, it also provides for career re-invention which everybody needs has to invariably do to find a place in this complex world of the 21st century. Thanks to those in the academic world who have pioneered advocacy and practice of interdisciplinarity from some of us who are battling the intransigence of institutional cultures that are blissfully wedded to disciplinary straight jackets.
Our institutions are designed around specialisation, and this is reinforced by funding models and management structures. Interdisciplinarity is seen as something that groups have, not individuals ... surely someone educated across several domains could engage in research that explores the spaces between, or across, some or all of those artificial categories? A specialist in linking and integrating otherwise domain specific knowledge to resolve otherwise unsolvable or unexplored problems?
Omg. Yes!!