Revisiting the Discipline in an Interdisciplinary World

Revisiting the Discipline in
an Interdisciplinary World
Dr. Elizabeth Cleaver
Director of Learning Enhancement and Academic Practice
University of Hull, UK

Dr Elizabeth Cleaver: Malmo University, September 2014: 2
[A sociological perspective affords us] ‘…the capacity to shift
from one perspective to another… the capacity to range from
the most impersonal and remote transformations to the most
intimate features of the human self – and to see the relations
between the two of them.’
C. W. Mills (1959) The Sociological Imagination pp.13-14
‘It can be said that the first wisdom of sociology is this -
things are not what they seem… the sociologist does not look
at phenomena that nobody else is aware of. But he looks at
the same phenomena in a different way.’
Peter Berger (1963) Invitation to Sociology pp.34, 40

Curriculum 2016
PgCert Academic Practice

3 Key Reasons for Disciplinary Focus
1. Interdisciplinarity rests on strong disciplinarity;
2. Disciplines lie at the heart of teaching and
research (and connect the two);
3. Disciplines are fundamental to many academics’
professional identities
Disciplinarity does not have to equate to silo-working!

Transdisciplinarity
Interdisciplinarity
Multidisciplinarity
Flow of ideas: cross disciplinary citations
Hierarchy of Interdisciplinarities (Jacob, 2013)

Discovery Themes

Disciplines are ‘nodes in a remarkably vibrant
web of scholarship’ (Jacobs, 2013 p 224)

Combining excellence in education, research and
impact: inspiration from Stanford and Berkeley
and implications for Swedish universities
Swedish universities have shifted their emphasis strongly towards
research … in addition … we see an increasing disconnect
between teaching and research with adverse consequences for
both activities
Bienenstock et al. 2014 p.73

Excerpt from Russell Group Website
‘…connections between research and teaching occur in
universities as students interact with leading thinkers
and academics at the forefront of their disciplines. They
have access to first class libraries and facilities and a
curriculum informed by world class research.
Undergraduates have opportunities to engage in
research themselves and undertake independent
projects.’

STUDENT FOCUSED: STUDENTS AS PARTICIPANTS
Research-tutored
Curriculum emphasises
learning focused on
students writing and
discussing essays and
papers
Research-based
students undertaking
inquiry-based learning
Research-led
Curriculum is structured
around teaching current
subject content
Research-oriented
teaching processes of
knowledge construction in
the subject
TEACHER-FOCUSED: STUDENTS AS AUDIENCE
EMPHASIS
ON
RESEARCH
CONTENT
EMPHASIS
ON
RESEARCH
PROCESS
Curriculum design and the research-teaching nexus
(adapted from Healey, 2005).

The Hull Vision for Learning
At Hull we believe that research, teaching and learning activities
are fundamentally interconnected through academic disciplines.
Our understanding of this interconnectivity goes beyond simple
research-teaching linkages … [to acknowledge] the shared
epistemic origins of research, teaching and learning practices in
University settings. Just as our research practices are based on
fundamental understandings of the nature of knowledge in a
discipline, how such knowledge is created and how it is best
communicated to facilitate understanding and application, so too
our teaching and learning activities reflect these understandings.
This approach helps us to recognise why teaching and learning
takes different forms and has distinctive characteristics across the
institution and allows us actively to foster this difference.

Developing Disciplinary Pedagogies
What we
research
What we
teach and
students learn
Research
methodology
Pedagogy
Epistemic
beliefs/
cultures
and norms
of the
discipline
or field of
study

Programme teams are currently being asked
to reflect on the following questions:
• What are the key ‘ways of thinking and practising’ that students
should have opportunities to develop during their programme of
study?
• What modes of teaching are best suited to developing the ‘ways
of thinking and practising’ that characterise our subject area?
• What modes of learning should we be supporting our students to
become skilled in and how do these, in turn, affect our teaching?
• How will we engage students in understanding our disciplinary
pedagogies?

Why Disciplinary Approaches to Educational
Enquiry?
The vocabulary and grammar of the PCAP course is largely
interpretivist and constructivist… and was, initially, as
incomprehensible to me as any unknown foreign language.
However, these are theories and methods that with time and
exposure I am slowly coming to understand, appreciate and
learn, even though I still find many of the concepts difficult to
accept because of my positivist nature.
Dr. Stephen Maher, Current PCAP Student and Senior Lecturer in
Biomedical Science, University of Hull.

Postgraduate Certificate in Academic
Practice (PCAP) Module 3: Researching
Learning and Teaching in the Disciplines
• Encouraged to use familiar research methods to undertake
enquiry and generate evidence for the improvement and
development of curriculum and pedagogy.
• The assessment – an article in the style of a journal of their choice
• Supported and encouraged to submit for publication (although
this doesn’t count towards their marks).

Does it work?
‘Undertaking the [research] study definitely opened my eyes
… in fact, I am now using the qualitative skills I developed in
the postgraduate certificate in a study of tacit knowledge in
cardiac theatres.’
‘Methods such as thematic analysis are quite easy to learn
and the more you do the better you become at it. At the
beginning, you realise that you are asking a lot of leading
questions; and then you listen to the transcripts and when
you hear it back you try to improve.’
Dr. Tom Barker, Trainee Cardiac Surgeon
(ex-Clinical Lecturer, University of Birmingham)

Disciplines are ‘nodes in a remarkably vibrant
web of scholarship’ (Jacobs, 2013 p 224)

Thank you.
Any questions?

References:
• Becher, T. and Trowler, P. (2001) Academic Tribes and Territories. Buckingham:
SRHE/OUP.
• Bienenstock, A., Schwaag Serger, S., Benner, M. and Lidgard, A (2014) Combining
Excellence in Education, Research and Impact: Inspiration from Stanford and
Berkeley and implications for Swedish Universities. SNS Forlag. [online]
http://www.sns.se/sites/default/files/utbildning_forskning_samverkan_english.p
df
• Enhancing Teaching-Learning Environments in Undergraduate Courses website
and resources: http://www.etl.tla.ed.ac.uk/index.html
• Griffiths, R. (2004) Knowledge production and the research-teaching nexus: the
case of the built environment disciplines Studies in Higher Education 29(6), 709-
26.
• Healey, M. (2005) Linking research and teaching: disciplinary spaces, in:
R.Barnett (Ed.) Reshaping the university: new relationships between
research,scholarship and teaching. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill/OUP: 30-42

References:
• Jacobs, J (2013) In Defence of Disciplines: Interdisciplinarity and Specialism in
the Research University Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Klein, J. (1990) Interdisciplinarity: History , Theory and Practice. Detroit: Wayne
University Press.
• Savin-Baden, M (2008) ‘Liquid learning and troublesome spaces: journeys from
the threshold? In R. Land, J. Meyer and J. Smith (Eds) Threshold Concepts within
Disciplines. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
• Shulman, L. (2005) ‘Signature pedagogies in the professions’. Daudalus 134 (3),
52-59.
• Shulman, L (1993) Teaching as community property: putting an end to
pedagogical solitude. Change 25 (Nov/Dec), 6.

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