Abstract
This dissertation explores interdisciplinarity as a dynamic, multifaceted process rather than a fixed ideal. Although widely invoked in academic and professional contexts, interdisciplinarity remains ambiguous regarding its meaning and implications. Through interconnected empirical studies in educational settings, this work examines how interdisciplinarity is envisioned, constructed, and enacted, proposing a pluralistic framework for its theoretical understanding and practical application in knowledge work and learning.
The first two studies focus on interdisciplinary engineering education (IEE), where interdisciplinarity is often seen as key to addressing complex socio-technical challenges. The first study uses Q methodology to reveal varied perspectives on interdisciplinary competencies, shaped by disciplinary backgrounds, professional orientations, and institutional contexts. The second study investigates how key actors assign meanings to interdisciplinarity, identifying nine interrelated dimensions that reflect its plural nature as a fuzzy constellation of capacities, identities, and institutional practices.
The third study shifts to Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) education, using ethnographic methods to examine concrete knowledge practices and educational activities. It explores how interdisciplinarity, as an experience, emerges through the interplay between students’ academic identity formation and interpersonal group work. The study uncovers patterns of individual and collective identity, and highlights tensions between exploration and academic legitimacy. It shows that interdisciplinarity in LAS is not simply a curricular feature but is rather continuously negotiated among students, educators, and institutional and social structures.
The final chapter synthesizes these insights into a theoretical framework, conceptualizing interdisciplinarity as an evolving process shaped by cognitive, institutional, epistemic, and social dynamics. Rather than a predefined structure or single model, interdisciplinarity is approached as a continual process of construction, negotiation, and reconfiguration. It manifests in diverse forms of interaction and engagement, involving both synchronic and diachronic complexities.
Overall, this dissertation challenges essentialist definitions of interdisciplinarity and advances a constructivist, pluralistic approach that embraces its complexity. It offers theoretical insights and practical implications for education and knowledge work, emphasizing the value of adaptable, inclusive, and responsive knowledge environments that support interdisciplinarity’s diverse expressions and evolving nature.
The first two studies focus on interdisciplinary engineering education (IEE), where interdisciplinarity is often seen as key to addressing complex socio-technical challenges. The first study uses Q methodology to reveal varied perspectives on interdisciplinary competencies, shaped by disciplinary backgrounds, professional orientations, and institutional contexts. The second study investigates how key actors assign meanings to interdisciplinarity, identifying nine interrelated dimensions that reflect its plural nature as a fuzzy constellation of capacities, identities, and institutional practices.
The third study shifts to Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) education, using ethnographic methods to examine concrete knowledge practices and educational activities. It explores how interdisciplinarity, as an experience, emerges through the interplay between students’ academic identity formation and interpersonal group work. The study uncovers patterns of individual and collective identity, and highlights tensions between exploration and academic legitimacy. It shows that interdisciplinarity in LAS is not simply a curricular feature but is rather continuously negotiated among students, educators, and institutional and social structures.
The final chapter synthesizes these insights into a theoretical framework, conceptualizing interdisciplinarity as an evolving process shaped by cognitive, institutional, epistemic, and social dynamics. Rather than a predefined structure or single model, interdisciplinarity is approached as a continual process of construction, negotiation, and reconfiguration. It manifests in diverse forms of interaction and engagement, involving both synchronic and diachronic complexities.
Overall, this dissertation challenges essentialist definitions of interdisciplinarity and advances a constructivist, pluralistic approach that embraces its complexity. It offers theoretical insights and practical implications for education and knowledge work, emphasizing the value of adaptable, inclusive, and responsive knowledge environments that support interdisciplinarity’s diverse expressions and evolving nature.
| Original language | English |
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| Qualification | Doctor of Philosophy |
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| Award date | 25 Jun 2025 |
| Place of Publication | Enschede |
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| Print ISBNs | 978-90-365-6679-7 |
| Electronic ISBNs | 978-90-365-6680-3 |
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| Publication status | Published - 25 Jun 2025 |