Transdisciplinary Professional Learning and Practice

Transdisciplinary Professional Learning and Practice

Editor Transdisciplinary Professional Learning and Practice 2123

Editor Middlesex University London United Kingdom ISBN 978-3-319-11589-4 ISBN 978-3-319-11590-0 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-11590-0 Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London Library of Congress Control Number: 2014952585 Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)

Foreword Knowledge creation, recognition and use is widely held to be a key concern, not just of universities but of all work organizations in the age of the knowledge economy. The quest to understand the nature of knowledge preoccupied the ancients and in the West the shadow of Aristotle and the all-pervasive narrative of the Enlightenment still looms large over how we construct and evaluate claims to knowledge. Individual knowledge forms the basis for communication of information to others who will then make sense of it in the light of their own personal knowledge. For individual knowledge to be effective at work it must be shared and accepted by others. This may be problematic as individual knowledge is often unrecognized, not only by the organization but often by the individual holding the knowledge; in such cases the knowledge is tacit and its use within the organisation is limited. In a complex global world we are desperately in need of a different paradigm to make sense of real life problems that do not neatly fit into our traditional concepts of singlesubject disciplines or multidisciplinary approaches. In contrast to the structured certainty of subject disciplinary knowledge, transdisciplinary knowledge is rooted in the messy problems of real life and is thus primarily emergent, complex and embodied. Transdisciplinarity offers us new ways to understand the modern world. Although transdisciplinarity can be traced back to the early 1970s it has often been at the margins, is highly contested as a approach to knowledge creation within academia and has yet to make a major impact outside the confines of the university. This book brings an international perspective to bear on thinking about and through transdisciplinarity on professional development and education. The scope of the book ranges from the idea of transdisciplinarity and its applications in professional practice to considerations of pedagogy and transdisciplinary research. A distinctive feature of the book is consideration of key issues and concepts in the context of the lived experience of transdisciplinarity. The book effectively demonstrates how a transdisciplinary lens on the world can open our eyes to multiple realities and thus suggests how we might better understand the complexities and contradictions of our world. This is a challenging intellectual journey, but one which is very necessary and immensely worthwhile. Director, Institute for Work Based Learning Middlesex University Professor Jonathan Garnett v

Contents Introduction... 1 Part I Section One Transdisciplinary Knowledge Creation... 9 Sue L. T. McGregor Changing and Sustaining Transdisciplinary Practice Through Research Partnerships... 25 Tamara Cumming and SandieWong Transdisciplinary Problems: The Teams Addressing them and their Support Through Team Coaching... 41 Ron Collins and Annette Fillery-Travis Transdisciplinarity and Nursing Education: Expanding Nursing s Professional Identity and Potential... 53 Sarah Wall Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice in Health and Social Care: The Need for Transdisciplinary Mindsets, Instruments and Mechanisms... 69 Andre Vyt Transdisciplinary Learning in Professional Practice... 89 Raymond Yeung Part II Section Two Integrating Transdisciplinarity and Translational Concepts and Methods into Graduate Education... 99 Linda Neuhauser and Christian Pohl vii

viii Contents Educational Knowledge in Professional Practice: A transdisciplinary approach... 121 Carol Costley What s Actually New About Transdisciplinarity? How Scholars From Applied Studies Can Benefit From Cross-disciplinary Learning Processes on Transdisciplinarity... 135 Marianne Penker and Andreas Muhar Part III Section Three Transdisciplinarity as Epistemology, Ontology or Principles of Practical Judgement... 151 Transdisciplinarity as Translation... 165 Kate Maguire The Emergence of the Collective Mind... 179 Valerie A. Brown and John A. Harris Coda... 197 Index... 205

Contributors Valerie A. Brown Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia Ron Collins IBM Global Business Services, London, UK Carol Costley Middlesex University, London, UK Tamara Cumming Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education, Charles Sturt University, New South Wales, Australia Annette Fillery-Travis Middlesex University, London, UK Middlesex University, London, UK John A. Harris Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia Kate Maguire Middlesex University, London, UK Sue L. T. McGregor Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, NS, Canada Andreas Muhar University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria Linda Neuhauser University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA Marianne Penker University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria Christian Pohl Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences, Bern, Switzerland Andre Vyt Artevelde University College and the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium Sarah Wall University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada Sandie Wong Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education, Charles Sturt University, New South Wales, Australia Raymond Yeung Hong Kong, China ix