Practicing How and Facing Why: Interdisciplinary Challenges in Higher Education
Summary
For Sarah, interdisciplinarity is about “different disciplines coming together” to share perspectives while also challenging and questioning the “why” behind their arguments. She believes that although it is “really difficult” to define interdisciplinarity, as it is often used interchangeably with multidisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity, the concept exemplifies well in Education Studies. This is because it is not possible to consider an educational topic within a single dimension; one must go beyond that and combine multiple perspectives to build a clear picture and understanding.
Sarah has always been “very passionate” about ensuring she has a diverse cohort, which is “really important” to her so students can interlink topics and facilitate a crossover of ideas. In this case study, she focuses on sharing her learnings and experiences from a career in teaching and educational research, identifying what practices worked for her in fostering interdisciplinarity within the classroom and what barriers exist at the different levels of the university.
Dr Sarah Dahl
Head of Academic Department
Education Studies
Dr. Sarah Dahl is an Associate Professor in the Department of Education Studies, where she also serves as the Director of Postgraduate Taught Studies. Although she was initially trained as a primary school teacher, her current role at the university involves teaching and leading a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and modules. Throughout her teaching career, Dr. Dahl has focused on improving the learning experience of students while researching how they learn best and what support and environment facilitate this. Her research focuses on early childhood education and care, particularly infant sociability, ICT, creativity, and multi-agency working.
See Sarah’s full bio here.
Highlights
According to Sarah, questioning the “why” behind ideas is what develops arguments and critical thinking, which is “the basis for interdisciplinarity”.
She believes that we draw on different disciplines “to challenge what we think from one particular perspective”.
“Any modules that I teach, I wouldn't expect to teach from just one discipline”.
Further Resources
Curious to learn more?
Please find information on Sarah’s modules, further insights and recommendations below:
You can also contact Sarah:Sarah.Dahl@warwick.ac.uk