PEDAGOGY IN INTERDISCIPLINARY HIGHER EDUCATION: AN INVESTIGATION OF FACULTY AND STUDENT PERSPECTIVES

Academic disciplines use disparate instructional strategies. Disciplinary-specific pedagogy is appealing because it can mimic methods and enforce paradigms to indoctrinate students to the discipline. Today, research and education are becoming increasingly interdisciplinary as scholars seek knowledge and solutions that lie between disciplinary boundaries. Many colleges and universities have begun to institutionalize interdisciplinarity to approach broader societal issues. Interdisciplinary programs such as environmental studies or sustainability often include earth science as a key component. At Arizona State University (ASU) interdisciplinarity is becoming institutionalized at many academic levels. Understanding how pedagogy is influenced by shifting academic culture and how students and instructors perceive these changes is important for reflecting on institutional changes and designing such programs. In the spring 2009, we interviewed 21 ASU professors who self identified their upper level undergraduate classes as interdisciplinary. In semi-structured interviews, we inquired about experiences teaching interdisciplinary classes and pedagogical strategies. We surveyed the students from these classes and selected students for semi-structured focus groups where they talked about their understanding of interdisciplinarity and classroom experiences. Interviews and focus group sessions were audio recorded, transcribed, and are being coded for analysis based upon interview topics and emergent themes including teaching practices, perceived benefits of interdisciplinarity, breadth versus depth of knowledge, collaboration, credibility and expertise, uncertainty, rigor, critical thinking, rejection of disciplines, recognition of disciplines, problem-centered education, and boundary work. Initial analyses suggest that interdisciplinary learning requires disciplinary empathy. Professors spend significant time teaching students to recognize disciplinary ways of knowing and emphasize the process of approaching problems through knowledge integration rather than teaching disciplinary truths.