Issues in interdisciplinary teaching and learning
John Canning
Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies
University of Southampton
Area Studies
• “Area Studies is a generic term applied to the study of the society or societies of a given geographical space” QAA
• e.g American Studies, European Studies, African Studies
• Multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary
Disciplines of Area Studies
• Social Sciences e.g. economics, geography, politics, sociology
• Arts and humanities e.g. history, modern languages, Literature
• Area Studies Project SCs. LLAS, Economics, English, GEES, HCA, C-SAP
Encouraging interdisciplinary
• Subject Centres (many cover 2+ subjects).
• Subject Centre collaboration
• CETLs
• Interdisciplinary/ Joint/ Combined/ Major- Minor degree schemes
Discipline
• Tribes with identities and cultural attributes. Becher (1989)
• Guild/ religious community, vocation, lifelong commitment (Parker 2002).
• Cf: Subject= knowledge acquisition
Rationales for interdisciplinary teaching
De Zure (online)
• Life is interdisciplinary (social problems AIDS, crime, poverty).
• Overcomes artificial fragmentation of knowledge.
Rationales for interdisciplinary teaching (continued)
• Interdisciplinary needs of the workplace.
• Share knowledge and resources between departments.
• Technological change has changed ways knowledge organised.
Barriers to interdisciplinarity
• Learning styles (Kolb)
• Student socialisation
• Institutional structures
• Assessment
Learning styles (Kolb)
Student socialisation into disciplines
• Academic ‘stars’.
• Key research journals
• Disciplinary histories and ‘heroic myths’.
Institutional structures
• Multiple departments- issues of student (and staff) identities.
• Programmes vulnerable to staff changes in contributing departments
• Pastoral and academic support must be well worked out.
Curriculum and Assessment
• Area Studies Benchmarking statement supposes contributing disciplines decide appropriate assessment.
• Teaching staff teach and assess from own discipline.
Curriculum and Assessment (cont)
• Lack of differentiation learning outcomes.
• Lower attainment of non-specialists (?)• Resistance to teaching non-
specialists. Concerns about ‘watering down’/ ‘dumbing down’.
Opportunities for interdisciplinary teaching
• New schools/ faculties lead to opportunities for interdisciplinary programmes in one department.
• Traditional interdisciplinary courses such as PPE suggest quality not compromised.
Opportunities for interdisciplinary teaching (cont)
• Interdisciplinary CETLs.
• Possibilities for students without traditional ‘A’ levels.
• Employability