Strategic Forum for Research in Education

Given growing awareness of the interconnectedness of education and other fields, how is interdisciplinary research supported?

Forum II (held on 17th and 18th June 2009 in Reading) considered multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity alongside discussions about different types of research, including the contribution of the disciplines to education research.

Due to the complex nature of many of the questions education research is trying to answer, it is often useful to draw on knowledge and methods from different disciplines – the majority of which are within the social sciences but also the biological sciences and statistics. One example is work on inequalities in higher education participation where economics can offer quantitative analysis of the participation gaps, but research also draws on sociological theories of social class and cultural and social capital to understand different preferences. It is perhaps less clear whether this work needed to be interdisciplinary rather than multidisciplinary. However it is unclear whether that distinction really matters – one group made the point that the distinction is often between someone who works on the interdisciplinary boundaries or a team of researchers each with a different disciplinary background – the final product may actually be the same (Taylor, 2009).

The 2006 ESRC Demographic review of the UK social sciences (Mills et al., 2006) noted the organisational trend within HEIs towards bringing education departments under a larger social science department. This appeared to match broader shifts of focus towards more interdisciplinary working and was ‘having a positive impact on cultures of collaboration and the movement of staff; strengthening cross-disciplinary communication on every level’ (p.44).

The level of trust within the education research community that is required to achieve genuine understanding and collaboration across dissciplines is hard to develop. Such understanding/collaboration is more than awareness of different methodological approaches to questions. Different disciplines have different languages, traditions and epistemological frameworks – it is more than people bringing different skills to bear on a common topic or question. It was clear from policymakers at SFRE II that they wanted the method/approach best suited to answering a specific question and were less concerned what that method was. It was also clear that researchers were best placed to answer this question. This implies some level of understanding across different disciplines and methodological approaches – but also that the researchers are clear what the policymakers want. There is a challenge in enabling and fostering understanding between researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds due to the issues described above. As one SFRE II group chaired by Margaret Brown (2009) noted, ‘meeting and exploring common ground with people from other disciplines takes time’. The competitive context and the geographical spread of education departments also add to the task. Incentives to work together are not obvious and work needs to be done to demonstrate the effectiveness in doing so in terms of enhanced quality. There is therefore a need for all involved in the knowledge development process to have an overview of different disciplinary approaches, frameworks and methodologies.

The current career structures and progression paths for professional researchers are also barriers for interdisciplinarity, as they are traditionally rooted in individual disciplines. Subject associations and networks as well as academic journals focusing on one discipline all contribute to guiding researchers towards a single-disciplinary path. Although this is starting to change there is still an ‘academic risk’ associated with interdisciplinary work, particularly for early career researchers yet to establish themselves in the field. Academics may feel that interdisciplinary work may mean that they have less time to stay up to date with advances in their own discipline – although as noted later, interdisciplinarity can also provide opportunities for revisiting and refreshing their engagement with underlying knowledge base of the discipline as well as contributing to it.

One suggestion was that to incentivise interdisciplinarity, this should be a prerequisite for commissioners and funders of research. However this is currently the case for many funding proposals (e.g. ESRC) and participants noted that this does also create problems. One way forward could be focusing on common questions in terms of search for increased understanding and appreciation across different disciplines. Asking genuinely interdisciplinary questions which require researchers to work together would be a key development in terms of enhancing interdisciplinarity. The Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) phase of the Teaching and Learning Research Programme   is an example of interdisciplinary work. It involves eight projects which run from 2007-2011 which look at the role of digital technologies in learning or supporting learning in both formal and informal settings. TLRP-TEL is jointly managed and funded by the ESRC and the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council). There was a requirement that all applications for funding be interdisciplinary, involving research input from both social and technological disciplines.

Implications for the disciplines

Whilst support and incentives toward interdisciplinarity are welcomed, participants SFRE II argued that it was also important to be aware of the implications for the disciplines and or the field as a whole. Moving away from a discipline-based approach could mean a theoretical deficit – ‘disciplinary must come before interdisciplinary’. As asked by the group chaired by John Furlong at the second Forum: ‘Do the remnants of the past now only live on in the routines of method, not in the analytical strength of disciplines?’. 

Understanding and training in a discipline provide a rigorous foundation for education research so it was felt that it is important to maintain research training rooted in a particular discipline and encourage the two-way flows of researchers  and of research knowledge and innovation between the disciplines and education. 

Further reading

Furlong, J and Lawn, M (eds) (2009) ‘The Disciplines of Education in the UK: Confronting the Crisis’ Oxford Review of Education- Special Issue 35(5).

Mills, D, Jepson, A, Coxon, T, Easterby-Smith, M,  Hawkins, P and Spencer, J (2006) Demographic review of the UK social sciences Swindon: ESRC

Further questions/outstanding issues

• Is education moving away from a discipline-based approach? What are the implications?
• Are there structures and incentives in place for substantive interdisciplinary research?