Defining Transdisciplinarity in Teaching and Learning

Transdisciplinary learning and learning focuses on students developing necessary skills and mindsets to respond to complex societal problems.  Learners therefore need to engage in different ways of knowing and doing to respond to these complex issues. 

The complexity of the issues we now face in the world cannot be addressed by individuals, single governments or by single disciplines. Complex issues are characterised by intertwined social, cultural, economic, political and/or environmental dimensions.  This complexity, therefore, makes them resistant to being solved. Furthermore, the complexity of issues and the multiple perspectives needed to understand and address them means they require approaches that foster collaboration, dialogue and co-design.

Transdisciplinarity is suitable for responding to complex issues because it involves inclusive collaborations that bridge academic disciplines and community perspectives to respond to complex societal challenges.

Key features of transdisciplinarity include: 

• iteratively interwoven knowledge systems, skills, and values;
• innovative and inclusive collaborations;
• inclusion of diverse disciplines and extension beyond disciplinary boundaries to develop transformative outcomes and
• responds to complex societal challenges.

This definition and the key features of transdisciplinarity were derived from extensive work undertaken in 2021 by an interfaculty transdisciplinary working group to inform the University’s Curriculum Framework Transformation Project.

The Working Group included representatives from all faculties and from transdisciplinary specialists, teachers and researchers from across the University.