Challenges in teaching interdisciplinary research

P. Sven Arvidson

Chapter 11 in Handbook of Interdisciplinary Teaching and Administration, 2024, pp 194-208 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Research is the center of gravity of the academic enterprise, and the interdisciplinary research course is the center of gravity of an undergraduate interdisciplinary studies program. This chapter discusses why this course is so important and some main challenges in teaching it. I argue that, if it is at all possible, individual students should be given maximum freedom in determining what to research in the course. The chapter is organized around three questions or concerns. How can I give students maximum freedom in their choice of interdisciplinary research topics when I am not really trained as an interdisciplinarian? How do I structure, monitor, and effectively support so many different interdisciplinary research interests at the same time? How is a well-organized and executed interdisciplinary research course central to developing a program? The final section is a note on textbooks and further reading.

Keywords: Asian Studies; Business and Management; Development Studies; Economics and Finance; Education; Environment; Geography; Innovations and Technology; Politics and Public Policy Sociology and Social Policy; Teaching Methods; Urban and Regional Studies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035309870.00020 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:22214_11

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Darrel McCalla ().