Transition from content expert to interdisciplinary educator: narrative accounts from health and law

ABSTRACT

Interdisciplinary education is gaining prominence in higher education, but little is known about the experiences and professional development needs of interdisciplinary educators. Through the lenses of self-reflection, peer review, and the educational literature, this paper uses a narrative enquiry approach to explore the lived experiences of two academics as they transition from a focus on their disciplines into roles as interdisciplinary educators. By exploring sequential events, we identify five key phases: making the move, starting out, the teaching experience, learning more, and looking forward. We faced many challenges, including working with an interdisciplinary teaching team, feeling ‘undisciplined’, and the need for an adaptive curriculum. Based on our experiences, there is a real opportunity for academic developers to design and implement initiatives to support academics embarking on interdisciplinary teaching.

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© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

KEYWORDS:

• Academic development
• higher education
• interdisciplinary
• narrative enquiry
• transition

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Melanie J. Hayes

Melanie Hayes is a Senior Lecturer in Work Integrated Learning, in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at The University of Sydney. She has previously been involved in teaching Industry and Community Project Units, which provide senior students from all Faculties the opportunity to work together on real-world problems for industry partners.

Leela Cejnar

Leela Cejnar is a Lecturer within the Education, Enterprise and Engagement Unit at The University of Sydney. Her role includes collaborating with industry, community, and government organizations to design and deliver experiential learning projects for students from different disciplines.