Is transdisciplinary teacher education possible? Peter McDowell School of Education

1. Is transdisciplinary teacher education possible? • Peter McDowell • School of Education • Charles Darwin University • peter.mcdowell@cdu.edu.au

2. Our research questions • Is transdisciplinary (TD) teacher education possible? • What would a sequence of TD pedagogy units look like? • How does TD pedagogy affect our views of education and teacher education?

3. What is TD teacher education? • More than a theoretical possibility • Aspects have been trialled on a moderate scale • Involves creating a complex narrative for multi-layered learning • Punctuated with dialectical elements • Offers an interpretive framework for education unfolding in context

4. How can a TD approach help? • In noticing the ever-present danger of using educational ‘solutions’ designed for another era • In countering representationalism — persistent content-oriented categories in our educational institutions, curriculum, teaching, and learning • In achieving the educational transformation needed for the 21st Century Mason, J. (2002). Researching your own practice: The discipline of noticing. London, UK: Routledge.

5. What transformation? • Edgar Morin’s Seven Complex Lessons in Education for the Future • Calling for paradigmatic reform in education • Argued on multiple grounds: knowledge, ontology, values, ethics, ... • Sensitive to cultural and political realities • Designed to stimulate debate Morin, E. (1999). Seven complex lessons in education for the future. Paris, France: UNESCO.

6. Morin’s complex lessons • Seven particularly problematic areas, demanding substantial reconceptualisation • Areas of emphasis (reactive): exposing error and illusion, negative effects of disciplinarity,* and fragmentation of human identities • Areas of emphasis (proactive): embracing uncertainty, promoting mutual understanding, world citizenship, and planetary futures * Disciplinarity also has positive effects needing retention.

7. What is at stake? • Education plays a fundamental role in fuelling the problem areas • Education (if reconfigured) can play a vital part in advancing the positive, proactive areas • Reconfiguring education demands that we rethink our approaches to teacher education • Reconfiguring education is complex and uncertain Davis, B., Sumara, D., & Luce-Kapler, R. (2008). Engaging minds: Changing teaching in complex times (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

8. The TD narrative (fabula) situations in time order Hase, S., & Kenyon, C. (2000). From andragogy to heutagogy. ultiBASE, 00(December). Retrieved from http://ultibase.rmit.edu.au/Articles/dec00/hase2.htm

9. The TD narrative (sjužet) situations in order of presentation Prince, G. (2003). A dictionary of narratology (rev. ed.). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.

10. The TD narrative (dialectic) Question: do the left-hand and right-hand columns cluster naturally?

11. Does it work? • Necessary in the presenter’s teaching context • Large cohorts of generalists and semi-specialists • Students study curriculum and pedagogy as a single cohort in two common units • All learning areas and subjects are accommodated • Uses cross-curricular areas to develop teacher awareness in preferred disciplines and contexts

12. ‘Humanities’ (small scale) An example of two curriculum method units designed to meet local regulatory requirements and curriculum. Students enter with some prior disciplinary studies.

13. What are the impediments? • It can be difficult to embrace the TD narrative • Identity work can get in the way (disciplinary affiliations of learners, teachers, teacher educators) • Pedagogy complicates matters (as opposed to? ... ) • Existing curriculum is usually heavily disciplinary • Administrative matters (existing policies, procedures, current investment, staff profiles, ... ) Suggested activity: try using the TD narrative (fabula, sjužet, and dialectic) to interpret these impediments

14. Our research questions • Is transdisciplinary (TD) teacher education possible? • What would a sequence of TD pedagogy units look like? • How does TD pedagogy affect our views of education and teacher education? The answer must be a cautious‘yes’, both in principle and in practice

15. Our research questions • Is transdisciplinary (TD) teacher education possible? • What would a sequence of TD pedagogy units look like? • How does TD pedagogy affect our views of education and teacher education? Various ways of retelling the multilayered narrative according to context

16. Our research questions • Is transdisciplinary (TD) teacher education possible? • What would a sequence of TD pedagogy units look like? • How does TD pedagogy affect our views of education and teacher education? Familiarity with the TD narrative helps us better understand the current situation and conceive of educational futures consistent with the “planetary era”.

17. Conclusion • Transdisciplinary teacher education is possible! • Even where there isn’t much regulatory support • Can be implemented in full programmes, parts of programmes, or even single units • It’s also exciting to teach and transformative for many of the learners (which is another story ... ) Please see the full paper in the Proceedings for further details.

18. Coda Strategy, like learning, is navigation on a sea of uncertainties dotted with islets of certainties.—Edgar Morin (Morin, 1999, p. 48)

19. Questions and comments?Thank you • peter.mcdowell@cdu.edu.au McDowell, P. (2012, June). Is transdisciplinary teacher education possible? Proceedings of the International Conference on Responding to the 21st Century Demands for Educational Leadership and Management in Higher Education, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.