Abstract:

There is little doubt that the nature of higher education, academic life, and work is changing, both for faculty and students. It seems to us that this is a complex array of global phenomena, with many aspects. Giroux places pedagogy as a central element of these changes (Giroux, 2011). We think that these changes are also inextricably linked to Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL), both its pedagogies and its research, because many of them are animated and facilitated by the same forms of digitization that support TEL. We think that there is a need both to theorise and organize in the face of these complex and emerging realities. One of the tasks with which we are challenged is to ‘reimagine’ the nature of our work, and with it the nature of TEL. It is our hope that this paper may be a further contribution to that process. In earlier work (Sclater & Lally, 2017) we commenced the task by looking explicitly at interdisciplinarity in relation to TEL. For example, we reported on the central role of Art and Design Education in bringing creative practices into informal TEL learning communities, and talked with researchers who were members of an interdisciplinary TEL team in Scotland, UK.

In this paper, we expand this focus, in part, by looking at the wider features of Interdisciplinarity because we are concerned about its academic ‘invisibility’ in TEL discourse. One of the challenges of reimagining our working and learning futures is to understand the conditions of our work as TEL researchers and educators. We think that interdisciplinarity is a key to developing this understanding, identifying some of the problems, and developing solutions. It is this project with which we are currently engaged. In a fascinating account of an experiment to bring together social and environmental scientists in an interdisciplinary collaboration, Evans and Randalls recollected their experiences of the difficulties of definition, implementation and sustainability of their interdisciplinary working. This was in part because of the ‘disciplinary hierarchy’, the feelings of ‘loss of analytical grip’ of some experts in the group, and the need to accept some loss of control in a more polyvocal research setting. These are some of the issues we try to illuminate.

The reimagined ‘value’ and significance of disciplinary areas can be expressed through interdisciplinary collaborations. For example, one of the main challenges currently faced by Art and Design Education, as a discipline, has been the need to assert and develop its significant potential for creative contributions to a wide range of pedagogical and research activities across the Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, as well as in STEM subjects. It is through the development of these interdisciplinary linkages that Art and Design Education will flourish and grow, bringing the novel work of these collaborations back to host institutions, for further engagement, critical evaluation, and the enrichment of curricula and research within the creative disciplines.  These interdisciplinary linkages and the collaborations that they support, have enabled the discipline to engage in key research and teaching domains that employ visual and creative practices. For example, interdisciplinary TEL work, grounded in the domain of Art and Design, has addressed multiple under-researched aspects, including informal learning, vocational education, social justice education and sustainability education.

Keywords:

Interdisciplinarity, Creativity, Art and Design Education.