Interdisciplinary Paths to Cultural Competencies and Global Awareness: The San Antonio Project

In this paper, we describe an approach to interdisciplinarity that was borne out of a statebased legislative call for more liberal studies in teacher education in Texas more than twenty years ago. Our newly revised thematic-focused interdisciplinary studies program is the major for more nearly 2,000 undergraduate students, many of whom will seek teacher certification in elementary, special, bi-lingual or bicultural, middle level or early childhood education. This essay describes the theoretical framework of interdiciplinarity, the rationale for the thematic focus on globalization, and the major tenets of practice, autobiography and inquiry that foster global awareness through an understanding of cultural diversity. We conclude with a discussion of how issues of identity and cultural diversity are integral to the program and the ways that this work bolsters cultural competencies and global citizenry.Defining Interdisciplinarity and Interdisciplinary StudiesOn the table chaotically yet strategically placed were hundreds of scraps of materials, each piece had character, each piece had something to say. Over the next few weeks I watched as the pieces became parts of a story and those pieces part of a bigger story. In the end there was this quilt fabric from one of the grandkids shirts, pants, baby blankets, each uniquely important but together they were brilliant, they intertwined to tell our story, together they were a magnificent piece…interdisciplinary thinking “is paths to discovery” because each has the ability to help you move from examining particulars, so important to the initial detective work to exploring interpretations and interrelationships of variables and concepts (excerpt from a student paper, 2008).The changing nature of disciplinary knowledge, the multiplicity of knowledge in contemporary society, the usefulness of disciplinary knowledge to garner understanding and pose solutions to complex problems and the possibility for creating wholly new disciplinary spaces to shed light on and generate creativity for robust understanding are among the fundamental tenets that guide our approach to interdisciplinary programming (Moran 2, 15-16; Klein, Crossing Boundaries; Klein, Interdisciplinarity). Theorists have stated that any course that combines two or more disciplinary perspectives within and among the traditionally established disciplines and/or the professional fields constitutes an interdisciplinary approach (Davis 4).Klein and Newell define interdisciplinary studies as a process of using diverse disciplinary knowledge to address a topic, answer a question, or resolve a problem that is too extensive or multifarious to be adequately addressed by a single discipline or profession (155). This process draws on the disciplinary perspectives to integrate insights from all available sources in a comprehensive approach. Boix Mansilla, Miller, and Gardner (17-18) concur and view interdisciplinarity as the capacity to integrate or synthesize knowledge and ways of thinking from two or more disciplines or established areas of expertise to construct some cognitive innovation that might explain a phenomenon, solve a problem, or create a product. Such work is only possible through such means and would be unlikely or impossible to achieve through singular disciplinary approaches (Boix Mansilla and Duraising 219).Theories of interdisciplinarity, then, inform our efforts to help students understand processes of teaching, learning and knowing as foundation in teacher education. Certainly, the need to explore the contributions of specific established content areas and the manner in which existing disciplines can unite to inform topics and address issues are important insights for pre-service teachers in their preparation in serving diverse communities of learners.We regard disciplinary knowledge, not as a goal onto itself, but as an important means of knowledge production in support of robust understanding and/or problem resolution.