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1 – 10 of over 1000The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for integrating social responsibility within the accountability context now prevalent across the regular and special education…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for integrating social responsibility within the accountability context now prevalent across the regular and special education contexts of Canadian and American schools while exposing readers to many of the different theories that exist concerning transdisciplinary forms of inclusive education.
Design/methodology/approach
The author uses her experience as superintendent to create a system of inclusive and authentic collaboration amongst educators, parents, and specialists in the hope of creating a more complete plan for special education in her district. She introduces these collaborative teams to numerous various theoretical frameworks hoping to expand their views of what constitutes “acceptable” educational knowledge.
Findings
Results from the full‐scale implementation of the new transdisciplinary model indicate that emergent collaborative sensibilities among team members are beginning to characterize educational work which reflects a transition towards a more socially responsible learning community characterized by qualities of transparency, honesty, inclusivity, interdependence, respectful reciprocity, trust, and caring.
Originality/value
The study furthers our understanding of special education programs and the different ways in which it is possible to improve the current special education system. The study introduces us to one specific study (related to special education and done by the author herself) while continuously relating that study to grounded and established educational and ethic‐related theory.
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Jane Parker, Amanda Young-Hauser, Janet Sayers, Patricia Loga, Selu Paea and Shirley Barnett
Despite the need for such, little scholarly attention has been paid to transdisciplinary enquiry into gender inequities in workplaces. The authors provide a pragmatic evaluation…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the need for such, little scholarly attention has been paid to transdisciplinary enquiry into gender inequities in workplaces. The authors provide a pragmatic evaluation of the transdisciplinary research (TDR) model by Hall et al. (2012) for framing the study of this societal issue, shedding light on the challenges, principles and values that could usefully inform subsequent TDR in organisational settings.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper evaluates the model in relation to TDR on gender inequities in New Zealand's public service by Hall et al. (2012) Content analysis on our reflective narratives from research team meetings, email exchanges, informal discussions and a workshop reveals TDR study insights. Findings show support for the model and its four broad phases and surface principles and values for applied TDR enquiry that addresses societal challenges in the organisational context.
Findings
The adoption of a TDR model to examine a study of equity in the public service revealed practical and conceptual challenges, encouraging ongoing reflection and adaptive behaviour on the researchers' part. The pragmatic evaluation also highlighted environmental constraints on undertaking TDR, with implications for the ambition of future studies.
Research limitations/implications
This evaluative enquiry encourages similar research in other organisational and national settings to validate the use of TDR to gain insightful, contextualised understandings of social challenges centred in the organisational setting.
Practical implications
This pragmatic evaluation of a TDR model's capacity to approximate the approach and phases of our applied enquiry lays the groundwork to refining TDR approaches used in subsequent studies aimed at addressing societal issues in the organisational setting.
Social implications
This paper can potentially promote greater collaboration between research scholars and other stakeholders wanting to develop TDR paradigms and applied enquiry that can meaningfully inform workplace and societal impacts.
Originality/value
This pragmatic evaluation of a TDR approach involves its initial application to the study of equity at work and develops principles and values that could inform TDR paradigms and methodologies of subsequent enquiries in the field.
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Jessica Tunney and Amy Hanreddy
For teachers to fully enact pedagogy rooted in equity and inclusion, they must have access to purposeful systems and tools supporting proactive and collaborative planning built…
Abstract
For teachers to fully enact pedagogy rooted in equity and inclusion, they must have access to purposeful systems and tools supporting proactive and collaborative planning built explicitly to center the needs of those historically denied full access to learning. This chapter takes on the historical injustices that have been perpetuated within public education in the United States since its inception and presents practical tools and systems (rooted in research and refined in the field) that can promote more equitable day-to-day teaching and learning in classrooms.
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Antonietta Di Giulio and Rico Defila
Inter- and transdisciplinarity are core concepts in almost all education for sustainable development (ESD) competence frameworks and curricula. To equip students with inter- and…
Abstract
Purpose
Inter- and transdisciplinarity are core concepts in almost all education for sustainable development (ESD) competence frameworks and curricula. To equip students with inter- and transdisciplinary competencies is highly demanding for educators. Educators must not only know how to teach students such competencies, but need to be experienced in inter- and transdisciplinary research and must have some technical knowledge about inter- and transdisciplinarity. This paper aims to show how university educators can be supported in their teaching.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is a case study based on research and on experiences in interdisciplinary teaching and in supporting educators in their interdisciplinary teaching.
Findings
The paper presents a competence framework of interdisciplinary competencies to guide university teachers that has been developed, implemented and refined in interdisciplinary study programmes belonging to the field of ESD. It shows how the professional development of educators could be addressed referring to the experiences in these programmes. The measures presented consist for one thing of interdisciplinary processes among the educators and of measures directly supporting educators in their teaching for another thing.
Originality/value
The case study the paper refers to is of special value, first, because the experiences are based on long-standing research and on two decades of experiences. Second, because considerable efforts were made to deliver coherent and consistent interdisciplinary teaching in which interdisciplinarity was not only a teaching subject for the students but showed by the educators as well so that the educators involved did not only talk about competencies for inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations but also set an example in their own doings.
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Geertje Tijsma, Annemarie Horn, Eduardo Urias and Marjolein B.M. Zweekhorst
To properly address complex sustainability issues, higher education institutes (HEIs), such as universities, need to implement innovative educational programmes that adhere to…
Abstract
Purpose
To properly address complex sustainability issues, higher education institutes (HEIs), such as universities, need to implement innovative educational programmes that adhere to transdisciplinary principles. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of how to do so across and beyond a university.
Design/methodology/approach
This study presents a module comprising two courses, the first of which centres on the identification of sustainability issues in student-led multi-actor dialogue sessions and the second on addressing those sustainability issues through interdisciplinary collaboration among master’s students who are at the same time also working on their own thesis. The authors conducted continuous evaluations during the first two pilot years, including community (partners), faculty and student perspectives.
Findings
The authors found that the module was successful in training students for inter- and transdisciplinarity. Moreover, high levels of commitment were observed from a diverse range of students and faculty across one HEI as well as positive responses from the community (partners) involved in the module. Further improvements of the module rely on active buy-in from programme directors and ensuring continuous collaboration throughout the co-creation process by streamlining the translation of the issues into manageable research projects with specific research questions.
Practical implications
This study provides inspiration and lessons on how to implement university-wide inter- and transdisciplinary module into higher education.
Originality/value
The module is innovative in combining university-wide and interdisciplinary learning with and transdisciplinary learning through long-term, co-creational collaboration within and beyond the university.
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Paul J. Jackson, Nicolette Michels, Jonathan Louw, Lucy Turner and Andrea Macrae
This chapter contributes to the scholarship of teaching and learning in extracurricular enterprise and entrepreneurship education. It draws on research from two annual ‘Business…
Abstract
This chapter contributes to the scholarship of teaching and learning in extracurricular enterprise and entrepreneurship education. It draws on research from two annual ‘Business Challenge Weeks’ (BCW) held at Oxford Brookes University in 2021 and 2022, in which teams of postgraduate students from three faculties worked on external client projects, supported by an academic mentor. It presents and discusses findings derived from a survey and interviews conducted after the second of these years. The chapter takes a transdisciplinary perspective, after Budwig and Alexander (2020), Piaget (1972) and Klein et al. (2001) and explores the relationship between this and the enterprise and entrepreneurship development pipeline set out by QAA (2018). It analyses the experiences of the three main participating groups engaged in the challenge weeks – students, external clients and academic mentors – and explores the organising challenges inherent in multiparty pedagogical initiatives. The chapter contributes to knowledge in this area by revealing and reflecting on the motivations and expectations of the three participant groups, the roles they played during the week and the outcomes they reported. It also expands understanding of transdisciplinary enterprise pedagogy.
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Ann Dale, Lenore Newman and Chris Ling
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the potential of online communication technologies to facilitate university‐led transdisciplinary sustainable development research and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the potential of online communication technologies to facilitate university‐led transdisciplinary sustainable development research and lower the ecological footprints of such research projects. A series of case studies is to be explored.
Design/methodology/approach
A one year project is conducted in which a series of research tasks are carried out on an online communications platform. Findings are compared to other examples from the literature.
Findings
Online communication technology can be used to facilitate transdisciplinary research tasks, saving time, money and with less environmental impact than that of face‐to‐face meetings. However, in order for online collaboration to be successful the researchers must be very organized and have strong facilitation skills.
Research limitations/implications
The research takes place in a North American setting. Time zone issues and access to sufficient internet technology can be a barrier in global research collaboration.
Practical implications
Online communication technology can be a practical way to lower the environmental impact of the research process and lower the cost of collaborative meetings.
Originality/value
The outcomes of this research suggest online collaboration can play a much larger role in student and faculty research, including but not limited to online research analysis, data collection and field exploration.
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The science of Foresight differs from the commonplace notion of what a science is because it is a metadiscipline – a logical type of science higher than the logical type of…
Abstract
Purpose
The science of Foresight differs from the commonplace notion of what a science is because it is a metadiscipline – a logical type of science higher than the logical type of disciplinary sciences. It is practical, uses transdisciplinary processes that combine scientific disciplines and often examines counterfactuals in a scientific manner. This study aims to demonstrate that Foresight is a science, by presenting a number of best practices and potential innovations in higher education that could facilitate obtaining skills for Foresight science.
Design/methodology/approach
The methods of scientific education that have served us well in the past are inadequate for metadisciplinary sciences such as Foresight. The paper discusses what metadisciplinarity is, using a variety of examples, and distinguishes it from disciplines and ways of crossing disciplinary boundaries. Understanding the essential characteristics of Foresight as a metadisciplinary science leads to identifying current best practices and possible educational innovations in undergraduate education that will facilitate obtaining Foresight skills. Throughout the paper, examples are drawn from the education and professional experience of the author in the USA and Europe.
Findings
This paper demonstrates that Foresight is a science and presents a number of best practices and potential innovations in higher education that could facilitate obtaining skills for Foresight science. It identifies barriers to those innovations and approaches to overcome them.
Originality/value
This viewpoint paper clarifies the meaning of the terms interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity and metadisciplinarity to identify the essential characteristics of Foresight as a science. Then, it identifies and advocates needed changes in North American higher education to provide earlier and more efficient opportunities for Foresight researchers and users to obtain the skills they need.
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Shogo Kudo, Kanako Omi, Kevin Florentin and Doreen Ingosan Allasiw
This paper aims to describe how a sustainability-focused program in higher education can provide training and key experiences for implementing transdisciplinary approaches. The…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe how a sustainability-focused program in higher education can provide training and key experiences for implementing transdisciplinary approaches. The case is a fieldwork-based training course called the Global Field Exercise (GFE) at the Graduate Program in Sustainability Science, The University of Tokyo. The GFE is a methodological training course that emphasizes generating locally relevant research questions on sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
This research is a case study regarding how a sustainability science program can offer a fieldwork-based training course that focuses on a transdisciplinary approach. Five students from diverse academic disciplines and cultural backgrounds participated in the GFE in QwaQwa where they conducted semi-structured interviews with six local entrepreneurs to identify the challenges and opportunities of entrepreneurship. The authors investigated the learning process and outcomes of the students through participatory observation in preparatory meetings, daily reflection sessions during fieldwork and a content analysis of feedback reports.
Findings
Four learning outcomes of the students were suggested: the reexamination of assumptions, managing misunderstanding and miscommunication, mutual learning and being empathic toward the local people.
Research limitations/implications
This paper suggests three key opportunistic experiences for the transdisciplinary approach: discuss the normative dimension of sustainability; build intersubjectivity among team members and adopt methodological pluralism; and become empathetic to diverse stakeholder groups to facilitate the cogeneration of knowledge.
Originality/value
How to design training on a transdisciplinary approach in educational programs remains an area for further exploration. This study addresses this knowledge gap by establishing a link between sustainability education and sustainability in practice.
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This paper aims to explore a transdisciplinary approach to the careers and employability education of transnational education (TNE) students of higher education. It proposes that…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore a transdisciplinary approach to the careers and employability education of transnational education (TNE) students of higher education. It proposes that an approach which adopts three lenses of academic study, lived experience and career stage can provide maximum benefits to the TNE students' careers education, particularly in response to the modern workplace. The study aims illustrate the potential benefits of such an approach to multiple stakeholders within higher education.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts a viewpoint approach drawing on higher education career service practitioner-based experience of using a specific approach to employability with TNE students studying with a large university based in the UK. Student evaluation data from this practice are referred to in the paper.
Findings
This paper provides insights into how this approach to employability was received by higher education TNE students who participated in a pilot project led by a higher education careers service, which adopted the three lenses approach.
Originality/value
This paper illustrates how a transdisciplinary approach to the careers and employability education of TNE students can be of significant value to the higher education students themselves, the institutions within which they study and the graduate recruiters looking to attract future employees for the workplaces of the future. It is hoped that by sharing this approach more stakeholders within the TNE and careers and employability communities within higher education will adopt a similar approach.
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