Student experiences of multidisciplinarity in the undergraduate geography curriculum

Abstract

This paper explores the student experience of multidisciplinarity within the undergraduate Geography curriculum. It considers the drivers that have underpinned this development before considering the findings of research into student experiences in two universities in the south of England. The results suggest that most students view this development positively and recognize a number of advantages that it brings, citing expanded opportunities for learning, working with people from other disciplines, expansion of perspectives and perceived benefits to employability. However, for a minority this development is more problematic. The research points here to issues with specialist knowledge and disciplinary pedagogies, social issues within the classroom and class organization and some reservations regarding groupwork. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations.

Keywords:

• Multidisciplinarity
• undergraduate
• curriculum
• student experience
• disciplinary pedagogies

Notes

1. The term multidisciplinary is used throughout this paper. Multidisciplinary is used here to refer to (1) university departments composed of staff, students and degree programmes that span multiple disciplinary boundaries, (2) individual modules which include students from more than one discipline (such as a module open to geography and sociology students, for example) and (3) curricula which include at least some modules that are open to students from different disciplines. These might be modules from a degree programme which are simply opened up to students from other degrees or modules that are specifically designed from the outset to be appropriate for students from a number of different degree programmes. It is not the intention of this paper, to intervene in the many debates about the nature, meanings and potentials of inter-, multi-, trans-, supra- and post-disciplinarity. There is an abundant extant literature through which these debates can be accessed (Chettiparamb, 2007; Frodeman, Klein, & Mitcham, 2010; Lattuca, 2001)

2. Post-1992 here refers to institutions, typically former polytechnics and colleges of higher education, who were granted university status in or after 1992. They tend to be primarily teaching focused institutions, although considerable research is produced within these institutions.