Tracing the development of literacy practices for integrating interdisciplinary curriculum in higher education

• Published in: Trabalhos em lingüística aplicada Vol. 59; no. 1
• Main Author: Monaliza Maximo Chian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Estadual de Campinas 01.03.2020
• Subjects: Interactional ethnography; Interdisciplinary curriculum development; Literacy practices
• ISSN: 2175-764X

This paper presents a research study exploring the elements of design in an interdisciplinary curriculum in higher education from an ethnographic perspective. The goals of this paper are two-fold. The first goal is to present the kinds of literacy processes and practices that are embedded within an interdisciplinary course identified as the “best course” by a lead professor of pilot instructional development program within a university project initiative. The second goal is to present the sources of influence that contributed to the iterative (re)formulations of the eight courses, which in turn shaped the required literacy processes and practices in each course. Guided by interactional ethnography, two cycles of analyses of ethnographic archived records of a developing research project supplemented by interviews and threads of email conversations were undertaken.  Adopting Lea and Street’s (2006) three overlapping models of literacies, as a framework, the analyses revealed that students engaged in multiple literacy processes and practices to appropriately participate in an interdisciplinary curriculum.  The second cycle of analyses made visible that a common background and knowledge shared by the instructional team was a foundational component in designing interdisciplinary curriculum. An iterative and reflexive analysis of the design process with the focus on students’ performance was another crucial element of curriculum design. An influence of the larger contexts also contributed to the development of the course design.  Insights from this study provide principles of practice to navigate the challenges in designing an interdisciplinary curriculum bounded within a program initiative.