Disciplinarity in the Pursuit of Knowledge

Interdisciplinary Mathematics Education: A State of the Art

“…Rather than making interdisciplinarity the new scientific dogma or ideal practice to be achieved, a more productive approach may consist in situating inquiries and endeavors according to the complexity of their questions, tools, objects, and outcomes. Thus, on the scale of complexity, interdisciplinarity may actually be thought of as a continuum of relations between disciplines, between mono-disciplinarity, on the one end, and meta-disciplinarity, on the other end, with multi-disciplinarity and transdisciplinarity offering more or less hybridity of the disciplines involved between these extremes (Collen 2002). As a result, neither mono-disciplinarity nor any other 'level' is displaced; indeed the core value of the discipline may provide precisely the value to other disciplines that interdisciplinarity requires.…”

Theoretical Perspectives on Interdisciplinary Mathematics Education

“…Rather than making interdisciplinarity the new scientific dogma or ideal practice to be achieved, a more productive approach may consist in situating inquiries and endeavours according to the complexity of the questions asked. Thus, on the scale of complexity, interdisciplinarity may actually be thought of as a continuum of relations between disciplines, between mono-disciplinarity, on the one end, and transdisciplinarity, on the other end, with multi/inter-disciplinarity and trans-disciplinarity offering more or less hybridity of the disciplines involved (Collen, 2002). As a result, neither mono-disciplinarity nor any other 'level' is ever eradicated or even invalidated; indeed the core value of the discipline may provide precisely the value to other disciplines that interdisciplinarity requires.…”

Trans-Disciplinary Inquiry Through Convergence of Architecture, Design, Art and Human Science

“…While restricting inquiry to one or two knowledge domains may permit mono-, inter-, and cross-disciplinary study, research so confined can not become trans-disciplinary inquiry. 1 I use the phrase human inquiry to mean research oriented to human beings, where the human being is put at its center. In this sense it is humanistic, or as sometimes stated, human science research.…”

“…The rationale presented previously and elsewhere 1,8 for trans-disciplinary research is best communicated by the ideas of confluence and integration. The general challenge is to relate several disciplines and fields of study to define the research focus.…”

“…The purpose of this chapter is to build upon my prior contributions 1,2 and discuss further that architecture, design, art, and human science represent an important convergence illustrative of trans-disciplinarity. They represent a long-standing association expressed in our built environments and give a plentitude of foci for trans-disciplinary research.…”