The Dualism of Interdisciplinarity: A Model for Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Education

Abstract

Interdisciplinary in an increasingly popular term in educational settings. Analysis of the term reveals two meanings, a characteristic of an individual (i.e., interdisciplinary thinking) and a characteristic of a group (i.e., interdisciplinary collaborations). This paper serves to delineate those two meanings while building a conceptual model of the relationship between interdisciplinary thinking and collaboration wherein the two are mutually reinforcing educational experiences. In addition to modeling the two interdisciplinary outcomes, transitionary processes are described. The first transitionary process, transfer of interdisciplinarity, encourages learner transition from interdisciplinary thinking to participating in interdisciplinary collaborations, including a focus on working in teams, appreciation for diversity, understanding the problem or phenomenon, and awareness of individual expertise. The second transitionary process, experiential interdisciplinarity, attends to the individual knowledge constructed from interdisciplinary collaborations and includes learning through reflection, managing cognitive disequilibrium, and operationalizing diverse ideas. The resultant model provides a cyclical process for engaging learners in building interdisciplinary thinking and interdisciplinary collaboration skills. Recommendations are made for the application of the model in research and educational efforts to increase the interdisciplinarity of agriculture, food, and natural resources education.