This workshop seeks to examine which competencies are uniquely developed in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary (ITD) learning approaches and how these approaches sit in relation to each other. We are part of the Working Group ‘Integration Experts and Expertise’ of the Global Alliance for Inter- and Transdisciplinarity (ITD Alliance), gathered on the topic of integrative teaching and learning on integration in ITD higher education. As a result of the joint work in the Working Group, we have identified the need for a competency framework that articulates what capacities are developed in inter- and transdisciplinarity. Therefore, in this workshop, we seek to draw on our research and practice to put interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity into a dialogue to delineate the differences between them and explore how they complement each other. We will use this dialogue to propose a competency framework that articulates what capacities are developed in inter- and transdisciplinarity. Our aim is to develop a competency framework that supports educators and researchers to further strengthen and develop inter- and transdisciplinary practices.
Within the history of education, inter- and transdisciplinary learning approaches are still in their infancy albeit growing in prevalence and popularity (OECD, 2020; European Commission, 2021). For this workshop, we understand interdisciplinarity to be ‘instrumentalist interdisciplinarity.’ Instrumentalist interdisciplinarity is directed towards achieving practical goals or solving particular, complex problems (contrast with critical interdisciplinarity, which asks more fundamental questions, such as about the nature of disciplines and their relation with interdisciplinarity). It is the most common type of interdisciplinarity taught in higher education and is similar to transdisciplinarity, inviting a productive comparison between the two. Both are seen as a means, for example, to develop sustainability competencies in students or transversal skills to work with complex societal challenges or as a means to develop the ability to integrate different perspectives and support justice, diversity and inclusion.
What is common to both inter- and transdisciplinarity, is that they bring together students/researchers and academics to interact in a defined, problem-solving process and learn as a group to develop or enhance competencies to integrate knowledge and bridge the knowledge-action gap thereby contributing to the development of solutions to complex societal challenges (Fam et al., 2018; Gibbs, 2017; Klein, 2018; O'Sullivan, 2023).
There are also significant differences between them, most significantly, that transdisciplinarity includes extra-academic actors. We define extra-academic actors as those actors who are connected to transdisciplinary work on challenges ̶ for example, sectoral experts or individuals directly impacted by a complex problem ̶ but who are external to the academy (O’Sullivan, 2023). However, interdisciplinarity can be practiced individually or as part of a team, whereas transdisciplinarity is almost always a collaborative endeavor. In addition, interdisciplinarity can be practiced in order to discover new problems or to view something in a new, interdisciplinary way; transdisciplinarity is almost always practiced to solve complex problems.
The question for many practitioners and policymakers who work with inter- and transdisciplinary learning approaches is not only has learning taken place but what learning has taken place and what was the role of the practitioner, extra-academic, and student in this learning? Adopting the language of educational science can contribute to creating a shared, community-led evidence base to answer these questions. Increasingly, the holistic concept of a competency, which involves the mobilization of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to meet complex demands (OECD, 2019) has been adopted by both inter- and transdisciplinary researchers and educators to describe what takes place in these practices, and how. In a review of the literature on inter- and transdisciplinary curricula development and teaching (O’Sullivan, 2023), inter- and transdisciplinary learning is most commonly expressed by practitioners in terms of competencies they seek to develop in students. However, which content, pedagogical approach or learning activity explicitly develops these competencies and how these can be assessed (at a student level) and evaluated (at an institutional level) is not always clear and remains somewhat challenging to articulate and identify.
Our discussion aims to expand on these similarities and differences with two aims in mind:
1. To delineate the difference between interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity.
2. To identify the competencies that are common to both, as well as competencies that are unique to one or the other.
The ITD24 conference is a potent opportunity to seek the input from a community of ITD specialists and practitioners on how to meaningfully tackle this issue and provide guidance on next steps for ITD researchers. The goal of the workshop is ultimately to think together to work towards a white paper and possible academic publication (see, for example, Brundiers et al., 2021) issued by the ITD Alliance as guidance for educators and policymakers on what competencies can be developed by inter- and transdisciplinary learning approaches.
Workshop Format
This workshop will begin with a plenary presentation on inter- and transdisciplinary definitions with an overview of the competencies present in the literature.
For example, a selection of competencies present in the literature on transdisciplinary learning (O’Sullivan, 2023) are as follows:
Intrapersonal: academic humility, self-reflection, competency for deliberation, empathy, open-mindedness, sensitivity, flexibility, adaptability, attitude, assertiveness
Interpersonal: learning from each other, development of meaningful social relations with group members, social skills, facilitation, the ability to build trust, perform in a flat structure, communication, collaboration, team knowledge (e.g., task understanding, role knowledge); and team attitudes (e.g., team orientation, trust, cohesion)
Cognitive: problem solving, knowledge brokerage, shared mental models
Participants will be divided into two groups. In the first group, interdisciplinarity, Simon Scott will lead a critical thinking exercise to surface which competencies in the literature can be considered as foundational. In the second group, Gemma O’Sullivan will examine transdisciplinarity and lead a critical thinking exercise to identify which competencies are needed to develop both integrative and actionable knowledge capacity in students and practitioners.
As a plenary, participants will be invited to contrast the competencies listed in the two groups. The resulting comparison will form the basis of a draft framework identifying which competencies are developed uniquely in each approach (inter- and transdisciplinarity) and which may only be specific to one. The key output of the workshop is a draft framework on inter- and transdisciplinary competencies. This framework will be iteratively reviewed at a series of follow-up virtual meetings through which an ITD Alliance position paper on inter- and transdisciplinary learning approaches and competency development will be co-created. This will support educators globally who wish to collaborate on multiple case studies and build a community of practice. It provides a common language through which educators and institutions can benchmark education initiatives. It also supports educational scientists seeking to build an evidence base to support the development of inter- and transdisciplinary learning, its evaluation and concomitant assessment methods, for example, competency-based assessment. Finally, it will provide an empirical basis for reflecting on the value and purpose of interdisciplinarity, and the ability to identify clear pedagogical goals associated with this kind of interdisciplinarity in contradistinction to the growing popularity of transdisciplinarity.
References
Brundiers, K., Barth, M., Cebrián, G. et al. Key competencies in sustainability in higher education—toward an agreed-upon reference framework. Sustainability Science 16, 13–29 (2021). https://doi-org.proxy.library.uu.nl/10.1007/s11625-020-00838-2
European Commission. (2021). European Universities Initiative. Available from: https://education.ec.europa.eu/document/european-universities-initiative-factsheet
Fam, D., Neuhauser, L. & Gibbs, P. (Eds.), (2018). Transdisciplinary theory, practice and education. Dordrecht: Springer.
Gibbs, P. (Ed.). (2017). Transdisciplinary higher education: A theoretical basis revealed in practice. London: Springer.
Klein, J. T. (2018). Learning in transdisciplinary collaborations: A conceptual vocabulary. In D. Fam, L. Neuhauser & P. Gibbs, P. (Eds.), Transdisciplinary theory, practice and education (pp. 11-23). Dordrecht: Springer.
OECD. (2019). OECD Future of Education and Skills 2030 concept note. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/education/2030-project/teaching-andlearning/learning/skills/Skills_for_2030_concept_note.pdf
OECD. (2020). Addressing societal challenges using transdisciplinary research.
O’Sullivan, G. (2023). Shaping transdisciplinary, challenge-based education using knowledge creating teams from five European universities: A realist evaluation. University of Dublin Trinity College. Dublin, Ireland.
Repko, A. F., & Szostak, R. (2020). Interdisciplinary research: Process and theory. Sage Publications.
Schmidt, J. C. (2021). Philosophy of Interdisciplinarity: Studies in Science, Society and Sustainability. Routledge.
