Transdisciplinary Higher Education—A Challenge for Public Health Science

Abstract

This paper highlights and discusses issues associated with transdisciplinary teaching and suggests ways to overcome the challenges posed by different epistemologies, methods, and ethical positions. Our own transdisciplinary teaching experience in public health helped us identify some important questions including (i) what is transdisciplinary research in practice, and does methods triangulation yield more valid results?, (ii) from a teaching perspective, how do biopsychosocial and medical research differ?, (iii) what is the difference between deductive and inductive research, and does each discipline represent a different ethical position?, and (iv) does pure inductive research lack theories, and does it require a hypothesis—a “rule of thumb”—on how to proceed? We also suggest ways to facilitate and enhance transdisciplinary teaching, focusing on what unites us and not on what sets us apart, openly underlining and highlighting our differences. Using diverse methodologies, a newly educated transdisciplinary workforce will likely extend current knowledge and facilitate solutions for complex public health issues.