Faculty and Institutional Structure: The Conflict of Interdisciplinarity

Interdisciplinary activities are frequently heralded as innovative and groundbreaking, a necessity for confronting the numerous social,cultural and economic challenges facing higher education. This article considers the inherent conflict between the professoriate and the university structure related to interdisciplinary. It concentrates on strategies that cultivate the sort of change necessary for interdisciplinary advancement. The article addresses the engagement of faculty with interdisciplinary efforts and the institutional support of such work as requiring a cultural change in institutional behavior. Cultivating interdisciplinary change requires attention to the multiple cultural layers the university comprises. One emphasis must be placed on the basic structure of academic work, the departments and colleges, where faculty members spend a majority of their time and intellectual resources. Another emphasis occurs at the institutional level, when the campus fosters a culture where interdisciplinary work is valued, encouraged, and supported. This article focuses on these facets of change and offer guidelines for engaging faculty in interdisciplinary endeavors.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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