Towards a conceptual framework for interdisciplinary teaching and learning dialogues in higher education

Abstract
This paper explores the development and early validation of a conceptual framework for learning-centred teaching by six Teaching Advancement at Universities (TAU) Fellows and their mentor, each representing a different higher education institution and a different discipline. A grounded theory approach was used to construct the framework and its potential utility value was explored though the use of six teaching innovation projects conducted in undergraduate South African university programmes in law, medicine, education, and the arts. The project revealed that interdisciplinary dialogic spaces can be initiated and nurtured through opportunities offered by communities of practice such as the TAU Fellowship when academics suspend their exclusive disciplinary preoccupations to open up possibilities for a generative, emancipatory scholarship. We argue that the conceptual framework is useful to facilitate and promote dialogues across and between the multiple discipline specific ontologies, epistemologies and methodologies offered in higher education.
Description
Burch, V. C., et al. 2016. Towards a conceptual framework for interdisciplinary teaching and learning dialogues in higher education. Alternation, 23(1):233-264
The original publication is available at http://alternation.ukzn.ac.za/Homepage.aspx
Keywords
Education -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Conceptual framework, Education -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- South Africa, Interdisciplinary approach in education -- South Africa
Citation
Burch, V. C., et al. 2016. Towards a conceptual framework for interdisciplinary teaching and learning dialogues in higher education. Alternation, 23(1):233-264