Demystifying Interdisciplinary Qualitative Research

Abstract

This article seeks to demystify, through deconstruction, the concept of interdisciplinarity in the context of qualitative research to contribute to a new praxis of knowledge production through reflection on the possibilities and impossibilities of interdisciplinarity. A review and discussion of disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity leads the authors to formulate and explore the following questions: What is interdisciplinary knowledge? What is it that researchers observe as interdisciplinarity? Why do researchers pursue it? In demystifying interdisciplinarity, the authors focus on the legitimacy of the sign interdisciplinary and the process of (interdisciplinary) knowledge production. After investigating the former, the authors explore the latter by metaphorically mapping the terrain of knowledge production and conclude by proposing that interdisciplinarity, as a sign, may have the function of enabling knowledge-producing organizations to leverage resources by symbolically alluding to desired characteristics of knowledge-production processes whereas, as an act, it may de facto reproduce and maintain the disciplinary organization of knowledge and knowledge production.

Home brewing and serious leisure: exploring the motivation to engage and the resultant satisfaction derived through participation

“…Qualitative inquiry has been shown to enrich and enhance quantitative results (Gilgun, 2004;Schonfeld & Farrell, 2010). The use of mixed methods extends the concept of interdisciplinary research, along a staple of qualitative methodological thought (Grechhamer, Koro-Ljunberg, Cilesiz, & Hayes, 2008), to its ultimate conclusion. The underlying rationale for conducting mixed method research is the belief that by using all methods of inquiry available the optimum confluence of both corroboration and convergence is achieved and the fullest illumination of the subject under study obtained.…”

Stepping out: collaborative research across disciplines

“…According to Kuhn (1996), as cited by Greckhamer et al (2008), when a researcher leaves their home discipline, their work is often not seen as legitimate in their home territory, making the researcher 'stateless' . We have also come to understand that how faculty members located within a discipline view other disciplines plays a key role in determining the value of a collaborative interdisciplinary research partnership; magnifying, in some cases, the implications straying far from home.…”

“…Greckhamer et al (2008) shed light on the varying permeability of our respective disciplines indicating that discipline territories are dynamic terrains, some with fairly exclusive boundaries, and others with more permeable boundaries that are in flux. Looking at the 'territories' of Adult Education and English, we suggest that Adult Education, as a relatively newer field of scholarship, drawing on several disciplines such as psychology, sociology and philosophy, is the more permeable discipline and in turn English, with its longer history and more defined traditions of scholarship in the academy, has firmer boundaries.…”

“…Greckhamer, Koro-Ljungberg, Cilesiz, and Hayes (2008) stated that a discipline is composed of a group of professionals who 'form a discursive community that takes up residence within the discipline's epistemological boundaries and subscribes to the discipline's particular worldview, tools, methods, procedures, exempla, concepts and theories' (p. 311). Even a cursory look at our respective disciplines of English (Tara), located in the Humanities, and Adult Education (Janet), residing in the Social Sciences, reveal potential areas of confluence and tension between us, particularly in how our knowledge and scholarly missions are described.…”

La institucionalización de la interdisciplina en la universidad latinoamericana: experiencias y lecciones de Uruguay y Argentina

“…Las etapas de trabajo tuvieron la particularidad de ir consolidándose a medida que el EI crecía a nivel institucional. La relevancia de este tipo de análisis -ampliamente comprobada por estudios anteriores (ARDANCHE et al, 2014a(ARDANCHE et al, , 2014bBIANCO;BRUUN et al, 2005;GRECKHAMER, 2008;SUTZ et al, 2003; por mencionar algunos) -residió en la construcción de una base de datos que permitió la identificación de colectivos a partir de la percepción que éstos tienen de sí mismos El Seminario En_Clave Inter, que en el año 2015 consolidó su séptima edición 16 , constituyó un foro de discusión e intercambio sobre las múltiples aristas y especificidades de la interdisciplina, las metodologías y el conocimiento científico; buscando potenciar la comunicación entre los grupos de trabajo. Este seminario es parte fundamental de las 13 El universo de análisis estuvo compuesto por los programas financiados por el EI en el período 2009 -2011: Núcleos nuevos y existentes, Centros Interdisciplinarios y Programas Experimentales.…”