Transdisciplinary Learning for Sustainable Development Sharing Experience in Course and Curriculum Design
Since SD – or any other sociopolitical paradigm, for that matter – is a normative concept, it cannot be defined globally or once and for all. Normative concepts involve judgment of, and negotiations between, a multitude of societal stakeholders. Such concepts must be permanently adjusted through processes of social or societal learning that involve actors from within and outside academia. Taking into account the normative character of SD, td research distinguishes between three types of knowledge: • Systems knowledge: Scientific contributions to understanding how environment, society, and economy function; • Target knowledge: Scientific contributions to a vision of development; and • Transformation knowledge: Scientific contributions to implementation of the vision. While creating systems knowledge is the core business of many scientific disciplines, target and transformation knowledge are normative, value-laden categories. A participative strategy is thus required to capture as many different actor perspectives as possible, to make effective use of all available knowledge, and to develop solutions jointly. But what is the best way to exchange scientific and practitioners’ knowledge and experience, in a way that is comprehensible to all? In option one, the classical route, scientists produce and publish their knowledge first. As the material often contains technical jargon, however, it is not always understandable to others, even other scientists. Disseminating this knowledge might therefore involve “boundary organizations” – intermediaries between science and policy/practice – such as agricultural extension services, which transfer knowledge from agricultural research to farmers. In option two, typical for a td procedure, one-way communication is replaced by knowledge co-production. Td research refers to this direct communication platform as “agora”, the term used in ancient Greece to describe a public open space for assemblies and markets (see Figure 4). Communication between scientific disciplines on the one hand, and science and society on the other, is key to social or collective learning. In this option, borders between research, learning, and implementation become fuzzy. And “agora” denotes much more than the exchange of knowledge: it is also synonymous with the building of social and emotional skills as well as a constructive attitude, which are important preconditions for inter- and transdisciplinary work. From researchers it requires: • a reflective and critical attitude toward one’s own discipline, knowing its potentials but also its limitations, and the ability to question one’s own standpoint; • an open, tolerant, and respectful attitude towards other scientific disciplines, and the ability to manage conflicts of interest; and • an open and trustworthy attitude towards non-scientific stakeholders.
Figure 4: Transdisciplinary research is knowledge co-production Td research describes the direct communication platform on which this occurs as “agora”, which refers to the marketplaces of ancient Greece and symbolizes the direct exchange of academic and other societal knowledge (Design: K. Herweg)
In conclusion, to achieve SD, we are in the challenging position of simultaneously seeking to understand and transform social-ecological systems which are constantly changing. Because they are characterized by complex interrelationships between society and the environment, understanding them requires a systems approach, which is inherently interdisciplinary, and transforming them is best tackled through a transdisciplinary research approach, which has been proven to make significant contributions to SD. The td approach
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