25 Overcoming Attitudinal Barriers to Interdisciplinarity
Rhonda D. Davis
Try these approaches to overcome attitudinal barriers in interdisciplinary research:
Cultivate an open mindset: Actively work on developing curiosity and openness to new ideas and perspectives from other disciplines, applied fields, and professions.
Here are some concrete examples of how you can cultivate an open mindset by actively developing curiosity and openness to new ideas and perspectives. Imagine a biology student named Alex who is working on a research project about ecosystem restoration. To cultivate an open mindset, Alex decides to:
- Attend a guest lecture series: Alex attends talks from various departments, including environmental engineering, sociology, and economics. During an economics lecture, Alex learns about the concept of “natural capital,” which provides a new perspective on valuing ecosystem services.
- Read broadly: Alex starts reading journals outside of biology, such as “Landscape and Urban Planning” and “Environmental Psychology.” This exposes Alex to different research methodologies and theoretical frameworks.
- Practice active listening: During group discussions, Alex makes a conscious effort to listen carefully to ideas from students in other fields, asking clarifying questions and considering how their perspectives might apply to biological research.
- Challenge personal assumptions: When encountering a new idea that seems to contradict biological principles, instead of dismissing it, Alex researches it further to understand the reasoning behind it.
Practice active listening: Make a conscious effort to truly understand viewpoints from other fields without immediately judging or dismissing them.
Here is a concrete example of how you can practice active listening to understand viewpoints from other fields without immediately judging or dismissing them:
Cross-Disciplinary Workshop
Scenario: Lisa, a literature student, attends a workshop on digital humanities that brings together students from computer science, history, and art.Active Listening Practice:
- Lisa arrives with a notebook divided into sections for each discipline represented, ready to capture diverse viewpoints.
- During breakout sessions, she practices reflective listening, summarizing what others have said before adding her own thoughts.
- When a computer science student proposes using natural language processing for literary analysis, Lisa’s initial reaction is resistance. However, she consciously sets this aside and asks, “Can you explain how that might work in practice?”
- Lisa participates in a role-playing exercise where she must present an idea from the perspective of a different discipline, forcing her to deeply engage with and articulate unfamiliar viewpoints.
- At the end of each session, she writes down one new idea or concept from each discipline that she found intriguing or challenging.