A Critical Review of Harvard's Project Zero

Abstract

Project Zero, a research center at HarvardÕs Graduate School of Education, is impressive and far-reaching in its scope. It is a multifaceted research project that is commonly referred to as being interdisciplinary or as doing interdisciplinary work, and among other things performs research on the nature of interdisciplinary teaching and research. This paper critically reviews a segment of the ProjectÕs work and considers it in light of a definition of ÒinterdisciplinarityÓ (Klein & Newell, 1997) around which a consensus is developing. The review provides a brief history of Project Zero, then focuses on the GoodWork¨ Project with further emphasis on the GoodWork¨ Interdisciplinary Studies Project. Both teaching and research reports are reviewed, noting those that are traditionally published and/or offer literature reviews. The role of in-house and popular press publication versus peer-reviewed publication is considered. This review concludes that Project Zero does interdisciplinary-related work, rather than interdisciplinary work. It is suggested that Project Zero could draw more heavily on the wider literature in its research reports as well as pursue an explicitly integrative process in its research.