The Terminology of Interdisciplinarity

Questions of disciplinarity and of interdisciplinarity are increasingly the subject of debate within higher education, research settings, and environments outside of academia, both in relation to theory and practice. Below are some of the working definitions that have been posited by contemporary theorists. These might stand as a beginning point for considering the interdisciplinary and integrative potential of a curriculum. Interestingly, many disciplines have their own vocabulary for talking about inquiry that crosses disciplinary boundaries. The following books may be of interest to those wishing to become familiar with this field of inquiry:

Klein, Julie Thompson. Crossing Boundaries: Knowledge, Disciplinarities, and

Interdisciplinarities. Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press,

1996.

Messer-Davidow, Ellen and David R. Shumway, et. al., eds. Knowledges: Historical

and Critical Studies in Disciplinarity. Charlottesville and London: University

of Virginia Press, 1993.

Newell, William, ed. Interdisciplinarity: Essays from the Literature. New York:

College Entrance Examination Board, 1998.

Discipline:“a discrete subject and its characteristic regimen of investigation and

analysis….In most American colleges and universities, such realms are

structurally accommodated in departments, which administer the teaching

and research in the individual disciplines” (from Missions of the College

Curriculum)

“…boundaries are determined more by method, theory, and conceptual

framework than by subject matter” (Klein , Boundary Crossing)

“More recent discussions focus on the fact that the nature of the

disciplines themselves is ambiguous or evolving; …the discipline… features a center or core of propositions, procedures, and conclusions, or at least a shared historical object of theory and practice and an ‘innovative frontier’ where researchers are incessantly borrowing from adjacent disciplines, causing a ‘blurring of disciplinary boundaries’” (Newell; Klein); these adaptations of disciplinary activity are sometimes described as a “permeation of boundaries” or as “boundary work,” leading in some cases to interdisciplinarity or to a redefinition of the discipline.

Disciplinarity: “the means by which ensembles of diverse parts are brought into

particular types of knowledge relationships with each other” (Messer-Davidow, et.al.)

Interdisciplinary Study”:a process of answering a question, solving a problem, or

addressing a topic too broad or complex to be dealt with adequately by a single

discipline or profession “ (Klein and Newell, Handbook of the Undergraduate

Curriculum); there is extensive literature on the practices associated with

interdisciplinarity, some highly debated, but there is increasing support for this

definition as offering enough flexibility for a wide range of approaches. What

follows are a number of terms describing kinds of interdisciplinary practice as

observed or as projected outcomes of interdisciplinary theory.

“Cross-disciplinarity”: “to view one discipline from the perspective of another,

sometimes subordinating the phenomena of one discipline to the other”; (Davis,

Interdisciplinary Courses and Team Teaching)

“Multi-disciplinarity”: bringing several disciplinary perspectives into an inquiry where

they work side by side in an additive way; some would call this model a pluralistic route to problem-solving

“Transdisciplinarity”: This model seeks an integration so comprehensive and

fundamental that the contributing disciplinary perspectives are transformed by

their interaction. It has also recently been used to describe the European

movement that looks explicitly as interdisciplinary practice in research and

problem-solving in the professions.

“Radical Interdisciplinarity”: Proponents or opponents of radical interdisciplinarity

see the underlying purpose of interdisciplinarity as subverting the disciplinary

structure; radical interdisciplinarity rejects the assumptions of some

interdisciplinarians that interdisciplinarity must be based upon disciplinary

practice.

“Narrow interdisciplinarity”: “an activity that develops between two, often

interrelated disciplines” - “the body of knowledge that emerges from the

productive synthesis of scholarship in two related fields”; the term “narrow”

implies relatedness, even so far as the paradigms and methods of the disciplines

are concerned, not a weaker form of interdisciplinarity; often the result is the

formation of a new discipline.

“Broad Interdisciplinarity”: proposed terminology to reflect the interdisciplinary

activity of traditionally unrelated disciplines which employ disparate paradigms

and methods, emerging from different cultural or institutional contexts; inter-

disciplinary journals and conferences reflect how rare but promising this form

of interdisciplinarity is.

“Partial Interdisciplinarity”: proposed terminology to describe interdisciplinarity in

which the borrowings do not essentially change but enrich the dominant

paradigm; typically, real integration does not occur (see cross-disciplinarity)

“Full Interdisciplinarity”: this terminology often implies a team-teaching or

collaborative research model where differing paradigms interact and are shaped

by the interaction (see transdisciplinarity)

Francine Navakas, North Central College, 2007 ANAC Summer Institute