Transdisciplinarity: The dawn of an emerging approach to acquiring knowledge

Abstract

A number of factors indicate that traditional methods of acquiring knowledge and solving problems are inadequate. This article proposes the use of transdisciplinary training as an additional method in acquiring knowledge. The article further discusses the advantages and barriers to providing transdisciplinary training and suggests ways of incorporating such training.

Developing Creativity to Enhance Human Potential in Sport: A Wicked Transdisciplinary Challenge

“…Historically, the boundaries of human potential (across many domains) have tended to be re-configured by serendipitous situations and creative moments. Moments of creativity have advanced our knowledge, re-shaped our lives, altered our understanding, and challenged the perceived limits of what can, and cannot, be achieved (Songca, 2006; Montuori, 2011; Glǎveanu et al, 2019). Fostering creativity and expert performance in sport and physical activity is often predicated on new training paradigms that provide novel performance insights and develop innovative practices.…”

“…Creative problem solving has been called upon to address the world's wicked problems (Songca, 2006; Bocchi et al, 2014). However, cultivating the cultural contexts and social systems that foster human creativity requires that we confront the challenge of developing creativity, a wicked problem in its own right.…”

“…“If creativity is viewed as nothing but a factor of personality, or nothing but a factor of cognitive or genetic forces, or, for that matter nothing but the product of historical forces, then we are falling victims to a kind of reductionism (whether genetic, psychological, or sociological) that severely restricts and impoverishes our understanding of creativity” (Montuori and Purser, 1997, 14 italics in original). In this paper we aim to cultivate a more holistic understanding of creative development by demonstrating that fostering creativity and human potential, like many of the world's complex and ill-defined challenges, is a wicked problem (Levin et al, 2010) in need of transdisciplinary inquiry (Songca, 2006).…”

“…To better comprehend wicked problems and transcend traditional linear thinking in sport, work organization and education there have been increasing calls for transdisciplinary research (Songca, 2006; Bocchi et al, 2014). At present, transdisciplinary research is flourishing in the field of sustainability science.…”

The Barker hypothesis and obesity: Connections for transdisciplinarity and social justice

“…Weasel (2001, p. 28) writes, 'we can go beyond simply critiquing and take on the task of identifying examples of science that might serve as critical resources for re/constructive feminist [or other critical] projects in the science', but we can also go a step The Barker hypothesis and obesity further and seek integrative crossover that is ultimately mutually transformative of disciplines, an approach that Mackenzie and Murphie (2008;and taken up by Hird, 2009) have referred to as 'engagement'. Such mutual transformation is crucial to transdisciplinarity, which Nicolescu (2008, p. 2; emphasis added) defines as concerning 'that which is at once between the disciplines, across the different disciplines, and beyond all disciplines' to which Songca (2006) adds 'outside' disciplines. For Flinterman et al (2001, p. 258), it is an approach that creates 'integral knowledge', which 'is characterised by its stronger orientation toward public perspectives and its problem-solving capability'.…”