Abstract
This contribution to the special issue on transformative learning is an analytical essay that bridges discourses of boundary crossing and urban sustainability. Part I establishes a baseline for understanding the nature of learning that occurs. It begins with interdisciplinary education, accounting for structures, pedagogies, and competencies. It then turns to transdisciplinary education, accounting for multiple connotations of transdisciplinarity, proposals for reform of the university, and insights from two urban sustainability projects. Part II focuses on prospects for transformation, beginning with a broad-based heuristic tool to guide definition and, prompted by the co-editors’ call to consider the role of new technologies, virtual horizons. The final section presents the concepts of an ecology of spatializing practices, a transdisciplinary orientation, double- and triple-loop learning, and methodological agility. The article ends with seven key take-aways from the foregoing analysis. Broadly speaking, transformative learning is inherently a constructivist process that fosters integrative, holistic, and reflexive capacity. The heterogeneity of structures and strategies that have emerged over time provides all parties with a rich portfolio of options for use in both existing institutions and new enclaves.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Apostel, L., et al. (Eds.). (1972). Interdisciplinarity: Problems of teaching and research in universities. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Argyris, C., & Schön, D. (1996). Organizational learning II: Theory, method and practice. Addison-Wesley.
Baccini, P., & Oswald, F., et al. (2008). Designing the urban: linking physiology and morphology. In G. . H. . Hadorn (Ed.), Handbook of transdisciplinary research (pp. 79–88). Springer.
Berente, N., & Howison, J. (2019). Strategies for success in virtual collaborations: Structures and norms for meetings, workflow, and technological platforms”. In K. L. Hall, A. Vogel, & R. Croyle (Eds.), Strategies for team science success: Handbook of evidence-based principles for cross-disciplinary science and practical lessons learned from health researchers (pp. 563–574). Springer.
Boix-Mansilla, V. (2017). Interdisciplinary learning: A cognitive-epistemological foundation. In R. Frodeman, J. T. Klein, & R. Pacheco (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of interdisciplinarity (pp. 261–275). Oxford University Press.
Brint, S. G., Turk-Bicakci, L., Proctor, K., & Murphy, S. P. (2009). Expanding the social frame of knowledge: Interdisciplinary, degree-granting fields in American colleges and universities, 1975–2000. Review of Higher Education, 32(2), 155–183.
Costa, E. M., & Oliveira, A. D. (2017). Humane smart cities. In R. Frodeman, J. T. Klein, & R. Pacheco (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of interdisciplinarity (pp. 228–240). Oxford University Press.
Costanza, R. (1990). Escaping the overspecialization trap. In M. E. Clark & S. A. Wawrytko (Eds.), Rethinking the curriculum: Toward an integrated interdisciplinary college education (pp. 95–106). Greenwood.
Cummings, J. N., & Kiesler, S. (2005). Collaborative research across disciplinary and organizational boundaries. Social Studies of Science, 35(5), 703–722.
Després, C., Fortin, A., Joerin, F., Vachon, G., Gatti, E., & Moretti, G., et al. (2008). Retrofitting postwar suburbs: A collaborative design process. In G. Hadorn (Ed.), Handbook of transdisciplinary research (pp. 327–341). Springer.
DeZure, D. (2017). Interdisciplinary pedagogies in higher education. In R. Frodeman, J. T. Klein, & R. Pacheco (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of interdisciplinarity (pp. 555–572). Oxford University Press.
Gardner, H. (2006). Changing minds: The art and science of changing our own and other people’s minds. Harvard Business Review Press.
Hirsch Hadorn, G., et al. (Eds.). (2008). Handbook of transdisciplinary research. Springer.
Holley, K. (2017). Administering interdisciplinary programs. In R. Frodeman, J. T. Klein, & R. Pacheco (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of interdisciplinarity (pp. 530–543). Oxford University Press.
Jantsch, E., et al. (1972). Towards interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity in education and innovation. In Apostel (Ed.), Interdisciplinarity: Problems of teaching and research in universities (pp. 97–121). Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Klein, J. T. (1990). Interdisciplinarity: History, theory, and practice. Wayne State University Press.
Klein, J. T. (2017). Transdisciplinarity and sustainability: patterns of definition. In D. Fam, J. Palmer, C. Riedy, & C. Mitchell (Eds.), Transdisciplinary research and practice for sustainability outcomes (pp. 7–21). Routledge.
Klein, J. T. (2018). Learning and transdisciplinary collaboration: A conceptual vocabulary. In D. Fam, L. Neuhauser, & P. Gibbs (Eds.), Transdisciplinary theory, practice and education: The art of collaborative research and collective learning (pp. 11–24). Springer.
Klein, J. T. (2021). Beyond interdisciplinarity: Boundary work, communication, and collaboration. Oxford University Press.
Klein, J. T., & Newell, W. H. (1997). Advancing interdisciplinary studies. In J. G. Gaff & J. L. Ratcliff (Eds.), Handbook of the undergraduate curriculum (pp. 393–415). Jossey-Bass and AACU.
Knorr Cetina, K. (1999). Epistemic culture: How the sciences make knowledge. Harvard University Press.
Lichnerowicz, A., et al. (1972). Mathematic and transdisciplinarity. In Apostel (Ed.), Interdisciplinarity: Problems of teaching and research in universities (pp. 121–127). Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Mezirow, J. (1991). Transformative dimensions of adult learning. Jossey-Bass.
Mezirow, J. (1995). Transformative theory of adult learning. In M. Welton (Ed.), In defense of the lifeworld (pp. 39–70). State University of New York Press.
Mezirow, J. D. (2006). Learning as transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress. Jossey Bass/Wiley.
Misra, S., Stokols, D., & Cheng, L. (2015). The transdisciplinary orientation scale: Factor structure and relation to the integrative quality and scope of scientific publications. Journal of Translational Medicine and Epidemiology, 3(2), 1042.
Mitchell, C., Cordell, D., & Fam, D. (2015). Beginning at the end: The outcome spaces framework to guide purposive transdisciplinary research. Futures, 65, 76–96.
NASEM [National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine]. (2005). Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research. National Academies Press.
Piaget, J., et al. (1972). The epistemology of interdisciplinary relationships. In L. Apostel (Ed.), Interdisciplinarity: Problems of teaching and research in universities (pp. 127–139). Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Schauppenlehner-Kloyber, E., & Penker, M. (2015). Managing group processes in transdisciplinary future studies. Futures, 65, 57–71.
Scholz, R., & Marks, D., et al. (2001). Learning about transdisciplinarity. In J. T. Klein (Ed.), Transdisciplinarity, joint problem solving among science, technology and society (pp. 236–252). Birkhauser.
Stokols, D. (2018). Social ecology in the digital age. Academic Press/Elsevier.
Verma, P., & Raghubanshi, A. S. (2018). Urban sustainability indicators: Challenges and opportunities. Ecological Indicators, 93, 282–291.
Van Breda, J., Goh, A., & Snowden, D. (forthcoming). Methodological agility for sustainability transitions in the context of the anthropocene.
Vienni Baptista, B., Fletcher, I., & Pohl, C. (submitted). Unravelling heterogeneity: Knitting together understandings of interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity.
Funding
Not applicable.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of interest
The author declared no interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Klein, J.T. Building capacity for transformative learning: lessons from crossdisciplinary and cross-sector education and research. Environ Dev Sustain 24, 8625–8638 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01802-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01802-5