How do you find ways to utilize interdisciplinarity in your life? We can all talk to people about how interdisciplinarity applies to our education; but what about everyday life? Can the tools we learn throughout our program of study be applied to our daily lives?
I believe we can not only apply interdisciplinarity to our day by day actions, but we can also advise others to take notice and try it themselves. Consider applying interdisciplinarity to organizing your workspace. Now you may think of it as simply straightening up, but to really organize, you may include elements from some of these disciplines: architecture, organizational psychology, anthropology, and design. Four different disciplines have come together to maximize your workplace organization! Now bearing in mind we all maintain health, psychology, or criminal justice components of our interdisciplinary studies degree; how can we apply aspects of interdisciplinarity of one of these areas into our daily life?
Besides applying interdisciplinarity in academia, what other organizations utilize this tool? On a global scale, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations published a research study in 2001 employing an interdisciplinary approach to field research and case studies. http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/003/X6996E/x6996e00.htm#Contents Also, the state of New Jersey has developed a linguistics program using interdisciplinary studies in the education arena and also the corporate workplace arena: "an interdisciplinary, systems thinking
approach—is needed to provide cohesion and foster the development of workplace readiness
skills." http://www.state.nj.us/education/frameworks/worldlanguages/chap1-4.pdf
Let's consider specific characteristics that are incorporated into an interdisciplinary lifestyle. Are there traits that are essential for the application of interdisciplinary studies? One characteristic I find necessary is curiosity. Although the desire to create something, conduct the research and find ways to apply those findings to any market is useful, it all begins with curiosity. You wouldn’t have the desire to create, the stamina to research, or the proficiency to apply the results if you weren’t curios about what was being queried. Curiosity, in moderation, is a great tool that can be used to advance your career, jumpstart new projects, or even improve livelihoods.
When assessing or applying interdisciplinarity, are there standards to measure against or should everyone be considered individually? What are pros or cons of each?
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I apply interdisciplinarity to my everyday movement, especially in the work place. I work in a hospital giving patient care. I have to take an accumulation of what I learn in school and experience to give my patients the best care. The areas I have taken from and use are state protocols, hospital protocols, psychology, sociology and clinical skills.
ReplyDeleteI believe there are standards that must be applied to everything you do, so the question is how rigid or loose you will go. Everyone customizes their standards to accommodate their needs. The problem with customizing is that human error and personal interest often get in the way and lead to failure.
I believe that Interdisciplinarity should be measured individually. Interdisciplinary Studies has given me the opportunity to expand my horizons rather than concentrating on only one subject matter. My exposure has presented itself in many areas, and I believe this is a pro, not a con. I have uncovered many new ideas because of the classes that I have taken. The only con I can think of when being considered individually is the possibility of not being understood. Individualism is a great and powerful thing, but if someone is not able to communicate and portray their view to others, they run the risk of being misunderstood, and possibly judged incorrectly.
ReplyDeleteI have always believed that knowledge is power, and the more you know, the more valuable you become. I think that I utilize interdisciplinary skills in everyday life especially at work. I work for hospice taking care of patients and their families, not only is it important for me to apply good healthcare giving skills but it's also important for me to understand psychological aspects of the grieving and dying process. Being able to explain the dying process to a family is difficult unless you can get a grasp of how they interpret it themselves and how you can help them grieve. I think all too often nurses are cold and don't take into consideration how the patients and their families feel, this is why I believe it's important to have the psychology background as well.
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