Implementing Transdisciplinarity: Resource Documents

Facilitators and Barriers to Transdisciplinary Learning in Tertiary Education 

Prepared by the Transdisciplinary Leadership Team, University of Auckland, 3 October 2023
(Unpublished document for internal reference only.)

Purpose:

This brief synthesises current evidence on what makes a transdisciplinary learning initiative in a tertiary education context successful and transformative and the factors that make it a challenge or act as barriers. The brief aims to serve as a guide to the transdisciplinary component of the University of Auckland’s Curriculum Framework Transformation initiative.

Background:

In general, mobilising a shift towards transdisciplinarity within an organisation requires a good and connected team, effective team leaders, commitment, incentives, institutional support, sufficient time and funding, a commonly shared vision and goals, clearly negotiated roles and role rotations, effective communication, and measures to evaluate success, while barriers to this shift are reflected in contexts that lack these enablers (Choi & Pak, 2007). Additionally, this transition requires understanding the significance of real-world problem-solving for students’ learning and the necessity for universities to establish partnerships that transcend the campus community (Budwig & Alexander, 2020).

For this evidence brief, we prioritised materials focused on facilitators and challenges in undergraduate-level transdisciplinary initiatives. However, we also included a select few highly informative articles focused on interdisciplinary education (considering its longer history) and one on a taught graduate course that offered relevant insights. Considering the limited number of published papers on this topic, we also included anecdotal information from faculty members of two Australian universities who have shared their experiences with us. The lessons learned from the experiences of preceding initiatives in this brief include those that attempted a university-wide implementation, such as the University of Tasmania and the Australian National University.

Key findings:

Our findings are thematically detailed in Tables 1 and 2 in the pdf document below. Having these best practices and lessons-leaned evidence base gives us an advantage to leverage on facilitators and pre-emptively implement measures to minimise hurdles. As experienced by other universities, the facilitating factors show that we are on the right track in some areas of progress (e.g., using a shared leadership approach and co-creating pilot courses). We have seen how our collaborative planning, decision-making and horizontal leadership result in a sense of shared ownership, commitment, and enthusiasm towards this transdisciplinary initiative. Through frequent and open communication, the pilot group members are developing a shared understanding of the need for transdisciplinary education and a shared vision around student learning outcomes and have collaboratively decided on course titles that uniquely reflect Aotearoa’s bicultural stance. Sustaining this sense of collegiality will be critical for the longer-term success of this initiative. We plan to establish ways to formally recognise efforts (a key facilitator identified in the literature).

While time limitation is a barrier, released time signals formal recognition and enables relationship development and collaborations for co-creating curriculum and team teaching (other identified facilitators). Maintaining the present momentum would require institutional support. For instance, an enabling budget structure, sustainable staffing, logistical support, and sustained support for the ongoing development, evaluation, and administration of transdisciplinary offerings over the longer term.