Discussion Area for INLT Post-IGC Workshop paper on Interdisciplinarity
read paper - Contributing to and resolving issues in teaching interdisciplinary courses
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Comments / Threads So Far
- Comment on Interdisciplinarity paper (from Karl Donert)
- Comment on Interdisciplinarity paper (from Janice Monk)
- Comment on Interdisciplinarity paper (from Audrey Mohan)
- Comment on Interdisciplinarity paper (from Eric Pawson)
- Comment on Interdisciplinarity paper (from Brian Chalkley)
Subject: Comment on Interdisciplinarity paper
From: Karl Donert ,Liverpool Hope University, UK
Date: 11th June 2006
Posting:
This is a great subject and you make an interesting start. Interdisciplinarity needs close definition especuially when considering teaching and course development. Do we mean an interdisciplinary subject area or an issue tacked in an interdisciplinary way, or do we mean the way that different disciplines might tackle an issue. This is complex and might be worthy of some discussion. There is very little literature so it is an area ripe for discussion.
The challenge of interdisciplinarity is not in Geography as a subject, but in bringing together different experts together tackle real-world probelms from different perspectives. If we were to teach in the same way, rather than in being teriitorial, then maybe we could make a difference. This might make Geography more visible, or might to its disappearance. In Italy for example, there are today no Geography Departments in universities at all. Geographers are working in many different subject areas - with a resultant isolation and frustration. So it is ironic that the 'Home of Geography' has been established in Rome, where the current President of the IGU is based. Visit http://www.homeofgeography.org/ The subject has also disappeared from schools. What future? We have to be concerned about our image. Perhaps we are too flexible as a discupline. We need to ensure we focus on 'spatial skills' this makes us unique and increasingly in demand. But how many Geography graduates call themselves Geographers? Hmmmm!
In Europe the Framwork research programme has funded lots of interdisciplinary teams to deal with scientific issues under the 6th framework. The evaluation of this has shown little success and that such teams find it difficult to work together. Do we therefore need to consider the wat we work and teach in order to build such teams - maybe Geography (and Geographers) has many of the answers ........
Subject: Comment on Interdisciplinarity paper
From: Janice Monk ,University of Arizona, USA
Date: 12th June 2006
Posting:
In reading this paper, a few themes strike me most:
1) How much institutional structures and politics matter to the ways in which geography is a) placed/advantaged/disadvantaged.
I am associated with a US university in which both lip service and structures incorporate interdisciplinary programs and/or departments (and perhaps especially at the MA and PhD level. As it happens, geographers play significant roles in an array of them, while there remains a core department. Some aspects of the situation have also to do with questions of magnitude (how many geographers are on campus and what is the balance between those in the core and those in the interdisciplinary programs).
Indeed, the Associate Vice President for Research and Director of Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs is a geographer. Other geographers have full appointments or appointments shared with geography (e.g. 2/3 - 1/3) in Area Studies Programs ( 3 in Latin American Studies, 1 in Near Eastern Studies (which he also heads), 3 in Arid Lands Studies, 2 in Institute for the Study of Planet Earth, 1 in Tree Ring Research Lab; 2 in Office of Economic Development; 2 in Planning Department (now a sub-unit of Geog.). Additionally, there are some trained in other fields who have part-time appointments in Geog. Dept., and others who have äffiliated" status with the Dept. The core faculty in the Dept. with no other appointment is about 10 at any one time.
About three years ago, I sent a message to chairs of US geog. depts to inquire about geographers on their campus employed in other units. OF about 30 responses, at least half a dozen reported substantial nos. of geographers with joint appointments or other interdisciplinary units as their main home. Some reported none.
Thus, I see the pattern in the US case as likely to be very locally variant.
US degree programs (cf. some others) also place more emphasis on breadth at the U/G level than do those in some other countries, and in geography it is not uncommon to have a "minor" field in the graduate program, with the student´s committee members including faculty from those fields. Perhaps this is "multi-disciplinarity." But it does mean that one has both a core and the prospect of significant participation in another field without there necessarily being an identity or status problem.
2) I spent over two decades as director of an interdisciplinary research center (Southwest Institute for Research on Women). I found this gave me the opportunity to give visibility to geographic perspectives where the field might otherwise have been invisible. I also felt that the pluralistic nature of geography gave me some advantages in the job - I did not feel uncomfortable dealing with colleagues from the humanities, social sciences, or sciences, or some applied fields such as public health.
3) We have a tendency, I think, perhaps especially when feeling politically beleagured, to consider these questions in "either/or" rather than "both/and" terms. During my time in an interdisicplinary unit, I always aimed to sustain my disciplinary ties, through reading and participation in national and international geography conferences and organizations. On official "retirement" from the interdisciplinary unit, I was able to have a courtest office in the Geog. Dept., and to do a little graduate teaching within it. Somehow, keeping a foot in the camp while collecting a paycheck elsewhere was valuable for sustaining identity and I think also useful for the visibility of the discipline.
I realize these comments are personal and perhaps idiosyncratic, but my larger points relate to politics, options, and perhaps whether we are thinking about undergraduate or graduate teaching or faculty/staff )and research) issues.
Subject: Comment on Interdisciplinarity paper
From: Audrey Mohan ,Texas State University, USA
Date: 16th June 2006
Posting:
The word “Interdisciplinary” inherently lends itself to the field of geography, namely because geographers integrate work from many other fields when study the world spatially. However, I feel that there is a fine line between interdisciplinary work that when crossed leads to a dissolution and fragmentation of geography. As a new PhD student to the field, I have seen clearly that geography is fragmented (ie cultural v. physical, etc), and without some clearly defined unity among the field, geography tends to dissolve into other fields of work (i.e. geology, history, biology). Physical geographers ignore human landscapes while cultural geographers ignore the physical landscapes. Thus the subfields of geography are ignoring one of the most important paradigms in geography: human-environment interaction. In order for geography to successfully work in an interdisciplinary setting, a solid unity among the field needs to be achieved.
On a different note, I work in geographic education, which is a field that could not exist without interdisciplinary work between geography and education. Geography education is often misunderstood as just “teaching geography”, or in other words, anyone who teaches geography does geographic education. This is, of course, only a very small part of geography education. Although I work within a geography department, much of what I do requires the use of the College of Education- learning theories, curriculum frameworks, pedagogy- these are all borrowed from education. Geography educators must use the educational theories and transform them to fit geography. I enjoy working in a geography department, where the content of the field is being taught to students everyday. However, little support is given to geography education from the department. In a sense, we are ignored by “geographers” and also ignored by “educators”. This is an exaggeration of the actual situation, but I find it is more difficult to establish a niche for an interdisciplinary program because of the question: “Where do we belong?”
When last comment: What gets in the way of interdisciplinary teaching? I would like to comment on the student market. In today’s job world employers are looking for specific college graduates- business majors, computer specialists, biologists, etc. Although it is often said that employers want “well-rounded” employees, with knowledge and skills from a broad background, this is not the reality. As a young person (age 26), I have seen that college graduates face a difficult task in finding jobs, and this task is more difficult is they have a general education background rather than a very specific major. Students fill more comfortable choosing a concrete degree program like becoming an education major, or a finance major. I have seen that students are hesitant towards interdisciplinary classes because these classes are not part of a “traditional” major. This is not to say that students don’t enjoy interdisciplinary classes, but rather that as a career option, they are in less demand.
Subject: Comment on Interdisciplinarity paper
From: Eric Pawson, University of Canterbury, NZ
Date: 23rd June 2006
Posting:
Fascinating topic. It is unfortunate that university line management structures often seem to undermine interdisciplinarity at the same time as espousing its value/pertinence. It would be very interesting to find out at the workshop if anyone works on a campus where organisational structures are more sympathetic. We could do this in one of the reporting/discussion sessions.
At the same time, we in New Zealand face the everyday irony of being pushed (by line managed institutions) or drawn together (by mutual interest) into interdisciplinary research groups. A lot of work can get done this way in a small country. Only today I received a call from Physics wanting to open a discussion on a joint research bid with cultural geographers! This could be an interesting exercise as my experience over 15 years of working closely with historians is that we simply do not share the same language or conceptual apparatus.
It will be good to see the paper develop with the examples of 'effective interdisciplinary courses' within the context of a well argued case for 'bridging the arts and sciences' as never more important (page 1).
Subject: Comment on Interdisciplinarity paper
From: Brian Chalkley, University of Plymouth, UK
Date: 29th June 2006
Posting:
particularly like the idea of short case studies from a range of different countries. This approach seems to capitalise on the particular strengths and opportunities provided by the INLT.
Here in the UK the Higher Education Academy (whose headquarters are based at the University of York) has a working party on interdisciplinarity in HE. It might be worth contacting them and finding out more about their work and activities. Heather Witham has been particularly active on behalf of the Academy in this area of Interdisciplinarity. Her email address is h.witham@bristol.ac.uk