Advancing transdisciplinarity: Learning, teaching, and institutionalizing

Abstract

In defining values and skills for grappling with complex societal challenges, this article builds on Daniel Stokols’ generic model of the 4 Ts of training for transdisciplinary, team-oriented, translational, and transcultural research. Whether explicit or implicit, the 4 Ts thread throughout this exploration of learning and teaching in transdisciplinary contexts. Stokols’ focus was educating social ecologists, but his call to close the gap between rhetoric of endorsement and limited responsiveness of academic institutions is widespread. Learning for sustainability is a case in point. Although increasingly prioritized as an imperative, it is often confined to special programs rather than assimilated across the academy and its relations with other sectors of society. This contribution builds further on remarks in a panel at the 2021 International Transdisciplinarity Conference: by synthesizing insights into inter- and trans-disciplinarity and subthemes of teaching and learning while embellishing Stokols’ other three Ts of team-based approaches, translation of knowledge across sectors, and a shift from uni- to transcultural outlooks. In the course of discussion the contribution also clarifies differences between inter- and trans-disciplinarity, though treats them as emphases, not sharp boundaries.