Engineering Transdisciplinarity in University Academic Affairs: Challenges, Dilemmas, and Progress

Abstract

Since the 1970s the notion of transdisciplinarity and pragmatic approaches to it have challenged the monolithic traditional orientation and procedures of academia. The long tradition of monodisciplinary academic departmentalization in higher education institutions has crippled the development of human knowledge, way of doing, and even world view; ironically, it has hindered understanding of the interconnected and interdependent ecological human and the natural world. Monodisciplinary academic departmentalization has perpetually and inherently limited the discovery of knowledge and its application to complex real-life problems that demand solutions to assure a sustainable and democratic human society. This article presents a discussion of strategic engineering in higher education academic affairs aiming toward transdisciplinary teaching, learning, research, service, and curriculum transformation with an emphasis on challenges, dilemmas, and progress.