Paths to interdisciplinarity in higher education: Comparative analysis of experiences in Portugal

Abstract

In a context of intense changes and global competitiveness, education is becoming increasingly relevant. In the underpinning societal challenges, higher education institutions are asked to innovate, by adopting a more flexible curriculum and promoting interdisciplinary experiences (OECD, 2019; Falcus, Cameron & Halsall, 2019). Within this scope, the present communication analyses three solutions of interdisciplinarity: (a) Open study plans, without outset disciplinary specialization, which incorporate in their realization a significant margin of freedom on the part of the students in the elaboration of their educational curriculum; (b) Courses which although registered in an area of disciplinary specialization, in their syllabus incorporate an interdisciplinary and "multi-vocational" orientation in their training-profession relations, offering wide-ranging opportunities for interdisciplinary training choices; (c) Education-training contexts built on the principle that higher education experiences, as constituent pillars of choices with a future for their students, should necessarily incorporate activities inside and outside the classroom, in a fruitful relationship with different aspects of academic, civic, economic and cultural life. The question that guides us focuses on different solutions indicated, presenting them as possible paths, complementary and/or alternative, in the materialization of the contemporary demand for interdisciplinarity. For this purpose, the study analyses a graduate study program of the type: (a) offered by the largest Portuguese public university; two types (b) graduation and post-graduation programs at another university and, in this same university, characterizes the context of interdisciplinarity type (c). The analysis of the data collected allows an understanding of the difficulties inherent in multidisciplinary dialogue, but, at the same time, it points the way to solutions that reconcile the need for specialist expertise with interdisciplinary openness.