Back to the Future Educating the Renaissance Scholar

1. Back to the Future Educating the Renaissance Scholar Tamath Rainsford Modern problems pose new demands on our thinking and our actions Water shortages Hunger Energy Climate Change

2. New Demands on Science • Science relies on • reductionism • puzzles • repeatability • consistency

3. New Demands on Science Complexity History dependence Context dependence Multi-objectivity Ambiguity Subjectivity

4. New Demands on Science • Science needs to • become more engaging • able to take positions & adapt • be self-critical • become transdisciplinary Solutions to the problems of today will need to be sustainable in that they will need to involve economics, ecology, science, religion and ethics.

5. Transdisciplinary Interdisciplinary Multidisciplinary Crossdisciplinary Intradisciplinary

6. Disciplinarity • Within one academic discipline • Disciplinary goal setting • No cooperation with other disciplines • Development of new disciplinary knowledge & theory

7. Crossdisciplinarity • Within one academic discipline • Disciplinary goal setting but goal external to discipline • No cooperation with other disciplines • Development of new disciplinary knowledge & theory

8. Multidisciplinarity • Multiple disciplines • Multiple disciplinary goal setting under one thematic umbrella • Loose cooperation of disciplines for exchange of knowledge • Disciplinary theory development

9. Interdisciplinarity • Crosses disciplinary boundaries • Common goal setting • Integration of disciplines • Development of integrated knowledge & theory

10. Transdisciplinarity • Crosses disciplinary and scientific/academic boundaries • Common goal setting • Integration of disciplines and nonacademic participants • Development of integrated knowledge and theory among science and society

11. The Benefits of Transdisciplinary Research Integrative Synergetic Participatory Problem-centric Reflective

12. The Renaissance Scholar & Modern Science Natural Philosophy Empiricism Specializing Generalist Modern-day societal problems have no established disciplinary authority and therefore require generalist approaches.

13. What do we need to educate for? Problem Identification & Structuring ambiguity, human complexity, exploratory, interpretive, participatory Problem Analysis Generic problem solving, reflective practices, philosophy & sociology of science Real-World Engagement Participating & collaborating in teams, active listening & communication

14. What do we need to educate for? Problem-based integration of multiple perspectives Critical theory and practice of critical thinking, use of various knowledge cultures to critique a discipline specific finding Immersive and experiential community-based, real-world problem that involves societal decision processes Ongoing lifelong learning, perspective broadening

15. Barriers to transdisciplinary education & research “theworld has problems but universities have departments”.G. D. Brewer Hegemony of the disciplines Threat to universities’ mono-disciplinarity Confusion about meaning of transdisciplinarity Resource intensity

16. Barriers to transdisciplinary research & education “People who want to change institutions, have all those as their enemies who have done well under the old conditions.” N Machiavelli Disciplinary chauvinism & stovepipes Imbalanced academic reward system

17. Conclusions • Modern societal problems require transdisciplinary approaches. • An educational programme for transdisciplinary science is needed in South Australia • It is probably best structured around the three phases of transdisciplinarity: problem identification and structuring; problem analysis; and, real-world engagement.