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By integrating the insights of academic researchers and stakeholders from outside the academy, transdisciplinary research promises to help address complex challenges that threaten the safety and well-being of people the world over. This promise has led to the development of systematic efforts to train graduate students to conduct transdisciplinary research, and there is increasing interest in transdisciplinary education in the graduate training literature. This article discusses the promotion of integrative ability in transdisciplinary graduate students, focusing specifically on an educational approach that fostered transdisciplinary skills in a complex, transdisciplinary, international and multi-year project dealing with invasive alien woody plant species in eastern Africa, the “Woody Weeds” Project. Graduate students in the project were expected to collaborate with each other, with senior scientists, and with stakeholders in several work packages to conduct research addressing the project’s goals. Research success required integrating perspectives across many differences, including different disciplines, institutions, languages, nations, and cultures. The Woody Weeds graduate student training program was designed to help students meet integration challenges across these categories of difference. Using the Woody Weeds training program as a framework, we offer a set of ideas for others interested in designing programs that can produce graduate students capable of conducting international, transdisciplinary research by fostering the integrative consciousness of individual students and the integrative capacity of student teams. We critically assess the extent to which the training program enhanced integrative ability using interviews with participants, outputs of the project, and the author team’s experiences.
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Transdisciplinary approaches to graduate student training for food–energy–water challenges
Abstract Systems‐level approaches are required for addressing the world's major challenges at the food–energy–water nexus. Taking on complex issues, such as rising food insecurity, malnutrition, and food waste, concomitant with unprecedented levels of stress on environmental systems, will necessitate that future scholars and decision makers be prepared through transdisciplinary student training. However, in higher education, students tend to be siloed within their discipline. In this study, we present a case for the development of transdisciplinary graduate student training based on an inter‐institutional and fully remote group of graduate students who assembled during the COVID‐19 pandemic to address the issue of food waste. We use our wide‐ranging disciplinary backgrounds, high‐performance transdisciplinary team training, and stakeholder feedback to develop and conduct a weeklong social media campaign to share educational resources for reducing household food waste. This work offers valuable lessons learned through the student's lens to those seeking to create or improve future transdisciplinary training methods for tackling food waste and other global grand challenges. Key insights from this process include the importance of accountability and open communication when conducting collaborative teamwork, the utility of various mobile and online tools for effectively facilitating remote group work, and the vital role of transdisciplinarity in devising creative solutions.
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- PAR ID:
- 10424576
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Natural Sciences Education
- Volume:
- 52
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2168-8273
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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