Performed Disciplines/Collaborative Disciplines: Becoming Interdisciplinary in Higher Education.

摘要

This doctoral study concerns itself with the challenges and potentials of engaging in interdisciplinary collaborations in higher education. As a participant/researcher in the study, I was a member of a cohort of three graduate student teaching associates that engaged in mindful examinations of our disciplinary subjectivities and the processes of becoming interdisciplinary. Further, the cohort explored the tensions of being disciplinary subjects and, through narrative and visual arts-based practices, made attempts to alleviate some of those tensions. I suggest that one might engage in strong interdisciplinary work by allowing oneself to depart somewhat from codes of disciplinary identity. I use the word "departure" meaning "a different approach," not to suggest an exodus from disciplinary identity or practice, but acknowledge the advantages of the codes of a discipline that serve to ground one's identity and practice. The theorizing of such a departure is significantly informed by both Feminist theory and the work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari.;In order to understand the process of becoming interdisciplinary, the methodology of the study includes three group interviews, the sharing of individual disciplinary approaches to curriculum, and participant reflections on the proceedings of the study. These methods were employed to help answer the primary research question, which is: What are the potentials of changed disciplinary performance and identity resultant from mindful interdisciplinary collaboration? Using a content analysis approach, I identified emergent questions through which the findings of the study were also analyzed. Those emergent questions are: 1. What are the tensions associated with disciplinary performance in regard to student expectations of the discipline? 2. How might interdisciplinary collaboration alleviate tensions or limitations embedded in a disciplinary identity? 3. How does an interdisciplinary body perform?;I consider the affective investments the participants have in their disciplinary identities, the usefulness of the discipline, and the potentials for renegotiated disciplinary identity in regard to pedagogy. I also call for future research in the areas of interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and post-disciplinary practices that might create more vibrant learning communities.