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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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This content will become publicly available on December 1, 2025
Strengthening graduate education and addressing environmental challenges through solutions-oriented partnerships and interdisciplinary training
Abstract Graduate students across disciplines are eager for experiential training that enables them to address real-world environmental challenges. Simultaneously, communities across the world face numerous environmental challenges, including increased frequency of extreme heat in summer and poor air quality, and could benefit from the expertise and engagement of graduate students with the requisite skills and interests to address these challenges. In this paper we bring together lessons learned from three interdisciplinary graduate training programs focused on preparing graduate students to contribute to urban environmental solutions by working in partnerships with non-academic organizations. We discuss the multiple elements required for partnerships to be mutually beneficial, including using a T-shaped approach to training that incorporates bothdepthandbreadthwhile making strong efforts to broaden participation. We share lessons with the goal of enhancing graduate programs to improve training of students to address urban environmental challenges globally. This training aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 17, “Partnership for the Goals,” which aims to achieve sustainable development goals through partnerships among entities.
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- PAR ID:
- 10534975
- Publisher / Repository:
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Sustainable Earth Reviews
- Volume:
- 7
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2520-8748
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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