Interdisciplinarity in Higher Education: The Challenges of Adaptability

Abstract

It is the craft of shifting from one method to another, being able to stand between two con-versations and listen well enough to pull them together, using methods that might contradict each other and finding ways to use the contradictions. We might think of this shifting as being like learning different languages. (Hill 2016, p. 363)The above quotation is taken from the American Studies scholar Rebecca Hill, and, as it suggests, interdisciplinarity is a difficult idea to pin down. Interdisciplinarity has become a popular concept in the higher education sector (Giulio and Defila 2017; Parker 2010; Lattuca 2001). The concept involves different academic subject disciplines. The overall purpose of interdisciplinarity is to break down subject boundaries and see how different discipline areas can work together. A research study undertaken by Garforth and Kerr suggests that sociology as a social science subject discipline has:embraced interdisciplinarity and benefitted other disciplines by giving them methodologi-cal and theoretical options. Openness and pluralism have added to the intellectual strengths of sociology, and graduates benefit by being able to find employment in a range of cognate areas. (2011, p. 659)