What do interdisciplinary studies scholars focus on

This issue examines underemphasized dimensions of diversity, new research about the links between The Completion Agenda. This issue presents several perspectives on the ongoing national efforts to increase college Drawing from a national symposium convened by the Bringing Theory to Practice project, this special A fresh look at several broad trends affecting the status and future of the professoriate, Integrative Learning at Home and Abroad.

An in-depth look at integrative learning, including its relation to interdisciplinary studies, its This issue presents highlights of the annual meeting. Also included are articles on the hidden Liberal Education and Military Leadership. The Humanities. This issue features the changing role of the humanities in today's academy. It includes articles A Symposium on Effective Practice. This issue represents the theme of the annual meeting, "Ready or Not: Global Challenges, Special Issue: Liberal Education and the Disciplines.

Drawing from a recent initiative of the Teagle Foundation, this issue presents a series of reports Liberal Education and Effective Practice. Globalization and U. Higher Education. This issue explores the potential impact of the Bologna Process on higher education in the United Science Education, Liberal Education. This issue explores undergraduate science education, including a look at curricular and pedagogical The Future of Interdisciplinary Studies.

This issue considers the role of interdisciplinary studies within the academy, in general, and Faculty Leadership and Institutional Change.

This issue offers recommendations for strengthening faculty governance, examines campus practices Liberal Education and the "Big Questions". Bringing Theory to Practice. This issue provides an overview of the Bringing Theory to Practice project, an effort to advance Faculty Work. This issue foregrounds the need for a comprehensive and transformative approach to the Academic Freedom.

Leadership in the New Academy. The theme of this issue of Liberal Education, "leadership in the new academy," explores issues Educating for Personal and Social Responsibility. The Future of Diversity. With an eye to the future, this issue explores the present state of diversity on campus.

It also Beyond Computer Literacy. This issue explores how computer technology broadens the range of experiences and resources Cultural Studies and General Education. The summer issue of Liberal Education explores the field of cultural studies and its impact on the Realigning Faculty Roles. Seen in the larger context of globalization, economic trends, and the changing academy, the nature Cognition and Student Learning. Features articles on how college students learn how to advance their intellectual and ethical A sampling of talks from the Annual Meeting illuminating what's happening in higher education Liberal education initiatives are proliferating around the world, along with other globalizing Civic Engagement.

Outside of class, Ryb works with his project team, Engineers Without Borders, does editorial work for Guac magazine and also translates pieces of Middle Eastern theatre into English.

Ryb hopes to study abroad next spring. Because of her experience working with refugees and asylees at the International Rescue Committee, Watson hoped to find a globally-focused discipline that can give her the necessary skills to promote justice. The answer to resolving conflict may lie in women's empowerment, judicial procedures, clean water, electricty, education, etc. The College Scholar Program allows me to pursue an interdisciplinary tract of research that requires me to bring different sorts of questions and facts into dialogue with one another.

You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer. In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. The knowledge economy requires an adept workforce and cadre of leaders to help address the many challenges and needs facing companies, governments and societies worldwide.

Many of the challenges we face today are new and there will undoubtedly be others arise in the future that will require innovative approaches and solutions to overcome them. No longer are higher education institutions able to train graduates to address all of the current and emerging challenges from a singular disciplinary source.

As the first in a series of forthcoming articles on ID research, this article examines ID trends in higher education research, instruction and degree offerings. It highlights how central ID solutions are in helping to address some of the most complex needs and challenges in higher education today, including how best to prepare higher education graduates for future employment and leadership positions.

This article is the first contribution in a series on interdisciplinary ID research that will be showcased on a regular basis within Palgrave Communications , an open access journal with a commitment to quality and publishing articles representing all theoretical and methodological perspectives.

The Interdisciplinary Research Series will include article contributions on country case studies; trends in scholarly output and degree offerings by discipline; and other areas that influence ID research including pedagogy, technology and the contexts in which higher education research is conducted. Higher education disciplinary approaches often tend to focus only on a set of trees within a great forest.

While disciplinary experts are essential for understanding particular ways of knowing within specific fields of study, their perspectives in addressing larger and more complex issues is often limited.

ID approaches take a much broader view of the entire landscape, first by surveying the forest and afterwards drawing upon various tree experts depending on the needs, contexts and circumstances. Societal, environmental, economic, and philosophical issues and challenges are often so complex that it is impossible to fully understand them from a single perspective or knowledge framework.

Multiple viewpoints can help draw from and leverage synergistic team efforts within higher education circles to address these broad and complex issues and challenges.

Integrated efforts of researchers from multiple backgrounds and areas of expertise show the advantage of an ID approach to problem solving, innovation, training next generation leaders, and advancing research and development. The terms ID and interdisciplinarity are often used interchangeably in the literature. Footnote 1 The former is an adjective and the latter a noun. There are many types of ID practices within the higher education literature, including critical interdisciplinarity 2 Klein, , , distal interdisciplinarity Footnote 2 Chavarro et al.

There have been consistent calls for an increase in ID activities in higher education, yet the traditional nature of the institutions have many barriers that in many ways discourage or prevent such activities from materializing. Higher education organizational cultures and structures often prevent researchers from collaborating. Funding streams and promotion and tenure criteria often perpetuate traditional cultural and structural norms within disciplinary departments and schools.

The silo syndrome that permeates so many HEIs worldwide at the very least discourages ID practices and at the most eliminates them from happening all together.

A paradigm shift is needed to help provide an ID enabling environment to encourage and facilitate ID research, pedagogy and degree offerings.

While there are generalists, or interdisciplinarian scholars who may have expertise from multiple disciplines, the vast majority of ID activities are grounded by faculty members with expertise in a specific field of study. Combining two or more faculty members from at least two fields of study constitutes an ID team for research or instructional purposes.

There are often tensions that exist when combining experts from multiple fields, and it always helps to consider chemistry and fit in ID team building. Based largely on the work of Nancarrow et al. The lack of 1 or more of these 10 characteristics is what causes many higher education ID ventures to fail. While these organizations have specific structures in place to advance ID within higher education, the increase in ID research, instruction and degree programmes will undoubtedly lead to future support of ID higher education activities among other leading academic associations in virtually every discipline.

Being able to address the existing and emerging gaps in the literature is increasingly difficult when relying on a single theoretical perspective and research design and analytical approach. While single-authored and first-author publications are still relevant in many fields, especially when it comes to promotion and tenure, there is a trend towards co-authoring and collaborating in higher education research and publications.

Reis rightly noted nearly two decades ago how administrators from some disciplines are encouraging emerging scholars to collaborate, and recognize that ID research ability is an important criteria to be considered in the tenure and promotion process.

The number of co-authored and multi-discipline authored articles increased during this time period in every discipline according to statistics provided through the Thomson Reuters Web of Science database Voosen, Bringing together scholars on a research project enables research teams to conduct a potentially higher order of research that is all inclusive and can offer diverse points of view van Eeden, In recent years, ID research has increased in Turkey across most disciplines according to Basal and Keskin , who provide a cartography of ID trends in research competency by discipline in Turkey from to The fields of chemistry, engineering and medicine are identified by Basal and Keskin as particular research strengths for Turkey.

Some research topics can only be addressed through a collaborative ID response. Such is the case with many social, economic and political issues.

One of the most notable issues that has transitioned from what was predominantly viewed as a health-only issue to one that is now considered mainstreamed and multisectoral is the global battle against the AIDS epidemic Kher, Because of its global impact, the United Nations even established a joint agency UNAIDS in to help coordinate the international response to the pandemic.

Governments the world over have followed suit by establishing national AIDS councils to help coordinate multisectoral prevention, care, treatment, mitigation and research efforts nationwide Osewe, ID research in many areas enables stakeholders at all levels to draw on common synergies to provide optimal research and learning opportunities:.

Increasing recognition that the future of learning is multidisciplinary or cross disciplinary; campus cultures are trying to break down silos, crosspollinate as many efforts as possible not only academic, but also physical planning , and encourage students [and other relevant stakeholders] to collaborate and work together across disciplines.

There is also a trend in the increased amount of ID research among graduate students in many fields of study Fox et al. Solutions to current and emerging challenges are often best answered through a talented and diverse team with strengths from multiple backgrounds Morse et al. Schmidt et al. I prefer the term eclectic interdisciplinarity in that it enables researchers to examine questions based on specific needs and contexts. It also emphasizes the need for researchers to be flexible and to draw from the most appropriate research design and analytical methods to best respond to the respective research questions.

Because eclectic interdisciplinarity requires researchers to be flexible, it often requires differing sets of expertise and knowledge that can only be achieved through collaboration of individuals from multiple backgrounds.

Prominent funding agencies continue to advocate for and fund ID research initiatives. Funding is a significant lifeline of innovative academic research and will continue to propel this higher education trend well into the future. Among the most notable areas of interdisciplinarity on higher education campuses occurs within traditional and online classrooms.

Teaching in teams and to students from various departments is commonplace at the undergraduate level. But increasingly there are needs to bring faculty members from various backgrounds to provide instruction and training within fields of study that were previously taught by their own faculty. New and emerging technologies and business management skills are among the most sought after supplemental courses that are part of standard curricula in many disciplines today Lorenzen-Huber et al.

Check out this list! Melissa Brinks graduated from the University of Washington in with a Bachelor's in English with a creative writing emphasis. She has spent several years tutoring K students in many subjects, including in SAT prep, to help them prepare for their college education. Our new student and parent forum, at ExpertHub. See how other students and parents are navigating high school, college, and the college admissions process.

Ask questions; get answers. How to Get a Perfect , by a Perfect Scorer. Score on SAT Math. Score on SAT Reading. Score on SAT Writing. What ACT target score should you be aiming for? How to Get a Perfect 4. How to Write an Amazing College Essay. A Comprehensive Guide.

Choose Your Test. Interdisciplinary Studies: What Is It? Should You Get a Degree? What Is Interdisciplinary Studies? Why Choose an Interdisciplinary Studies Major? Disciplined Motivation and hard work will get you far, but a sense of discipline will get you even further.

People who are good at setting goals, hitting deadlines, and planning will have an easier time Pros and Cons of Interdisciplinary Studies There are a lot of considerations to be made in deciding on an interdisciplinary studies program.

Though the major is an unusual approach, many great schools offer interdisciplinary studies as an option for their students. University of Florida University of Florida has some interdisciplinary programs already in place, including biological illustration, sustainability studies, and Middle Eastern languages and culture.