A New Philosophy for 21st Century Postgraduate Education

To confront the major challenges of the 21st century, doctoral students need to be able to think and work across disciplinary boundaries. I have been inspired by the "Interdisciplinary Research: Process and Theory" (2017) textbook, by Allen Repko and Rick Szostak, to reform an interdiscipl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIssues in integrative studies Vol. 40; no. 1; pp. 41 - 54
Main Author Rashid, Rafi
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Association for Interdisciplinary Studies 2022
Subjects
Alignment (Education)
Curriculum Development
Doctoral Students
Educational Change
Educational Philosophy
Ethical Instruction
Foreign Countries
Graduate Study
Interdisciplinary Approach
MOOCs
STEM Education
Sustainability
Singapore
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Summary:To confront the major challenges of the 21st century, doctoral students need to be able to think and work across disciplinary boundaries. I have been inspired by the "Interdisciplinary Research: Process and Theory" (2017) textbook, by Allen Repko and Rick Szostak, to reform an interdisciplinary doctoral curriculum in Singapore. For example, in coursework for the degree, I have combined the "Broad Model" of interdisciplinary research, a framework designed to encourage students to articulate and integrate disciplinary insights, with "blended learning" to promote collaboration amongst students from different STEM disciplines. In an interdisciplinary Journal Club, the Broad Model has helped me to demonstrate how an interdisciplinary approach has generated testable hypotheses that transcend disciplinary boundaries. Both in coursework and beyond I have shown how students need to integrate both scientific and philosophical insights to address complex moral dilemmas in STEM research and choose the right course of action. As integration of disciplinary insights is a hallmark of the Broad Model, I have argued that the Model can be used to support ethical decision-making in doctoral courses on research ethics and scientific integrity where such diverse insights need to be integrated. Drawing on these examples and experiences, I recently contributed to major curricular reforms at my institution to align our doctoral program with evolving national educational and research policies. In this article, I will elaborate on how the use of "Interdisciplinary Research" has guided interdisciplinary education and curricular reform at my institution and inspired a new philosophy for postgraduate education in the 21st century.
ISSN:1081-4760