Transdisciplinarity: Re-Visioning How Sciences and Arts Together Can Enact Democratizing Creative Educational Experiences

Abstract

The movement from STEM to STEAM, with its emphasis on real-world applications, promises to meet the changing needs of a globally connected world. However, the potential of transdisciplinarity to inspire and deepen our understanding of who we are and how we make sense of a world in turmoil remains undertheorized. This article makes a case for repositioning STEAM education as democratized enactments of transdisciplinary education, where arts and sciences are not separate or even separable endeavors. Drawing upon posthumanist theorizing, three projects will exemplify transdisciplinarity across music, mathematics, and science education. Transgressing and transcending disciplinary boundaries, and attending to both human and nonhuman perspectives, we invite a rethink of the work of schools, going beyond democratizing creativity to fully enact posthumanist transdisciplinarity.

Toward Transdisciplinarity: Constructing Meaning Where Disciplines Intersect, Combine, and Shift

“…They do not blend or change, they work collaboratively with the other colors creating a unique design that is never the same. Burnard et al (2022) expand this idea by indicating that this creativity of pedagogy is “not democratized when opposing agendas in education dictate the implementation of fixed, dis-embodied, fractured practices” (p. 168).…”

“…In the context of this study, we have a strong commitment to content knowledge and the importance of existing curricula, whereas other ways of dealing with transdisciplinarity start from more holistic approaches based on individual student experiences (Osborne, 2015). Educating and empowering youth to be active, engaged, positive, and globally connected citizens require that we reposition education as a creative and diverse endeavor where epistemological differences are valued (Burnard et al, 2022). We used a multiple theoretical perspective approach (Labbo & Reinking, 1999) that connects perspectives from content area literacies, disciplinary literacies, meta-disciplinarity, and transdisciplinarity in education.…”

“…There are many perspectives on transdisciplinarity (Burnard et al, 2022;Klein, 2013); however, as education researchers interested in incorporating transdisciplinarity into our classroom practices, we gravitate toward the definitions that specifically incorporate how transdisciplinarity views disciplines (i.e., school subjects) and their role in society. Thus, we consider the following features of transdisciplinarity:…”

“…It is often used interchangeably with content area literacy , but they are quite different. Content area literacy suggests that educators across the content areas should work together to support students’ general reading comprehension strategies (Lent & Voigt, 2018), whereas disciplinary literacy considers the ways experts within a discipline uniquely read, write, think, reason, and process information (Dobbs et al, 2020). The challenge is that supporting students as they read, write, speak, listen, view, and think like experts in and across disciplines can be a complex pedagogical exercise (Collins et al, 1988).…”

“…There are many perspectives on transdisciplinarity (Burnard et al, 2022; Klein, 2013); however, as education researchers interested in incorporating transdisciplinarity into our classroom practices, we gravitate toward the definitions that specifically incorporate how transdisciplinarity views disciplines (i.e., school subjects) and their role in society. Thus, we consider the following features of transdisciplinarity: Traversing: crossing disciplinary boundaries (Wiseman & Lunney-Borden, 2018) Transcending: moving beyond disciplinary paradigms (Pohl, 2010) Transforming: focus on the socially relevant issues and the common good (Klein, 2013; Pohl, 2010).…”