Interdisciplinarity as Self and Subject: Metaphor and Transformation

Abstract

This paper is based on our experience of team teaching an interdisciplinary course on multicultural families. We propose a theoretical model to demonstrate collaborative teaching that trasverses multiple disciplines. The model, presented as a heuristic metaphor and using geological imagery to capture the dynamic nature of interdisciplinary experience, emphasizes the liberatory and transformative interaction between self and subject. Components of the model are exposing the fault lines, mining the motherlode, sorting epistemological treasures, and forging new gifts. We demonstrate each stage of the model and show how students and teachers made new discoveries about interdisciplinarity at each stage.