Bridges and Barriers to Developing and Conducting Interdisciplinary Graduate-Student Team Research

Authors

Max Nielsen-Pincus, Portland State UniversityFollow
Wayde Cameron Morse, University of Idaho
Jo Ellen Force, University of Idaho
J. D. Wulfhorst, University of Idaho

Sponsor

This work was supported in part by NSF-IGERT grant No. 0114304.

Published In

Ecology & Society

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2007

Subjects

Activity programs in education, Conservation of natural resources, Environmental protection, Sustainable development, Graduate students

Abstract

Understanding complex socio-environmental problems requires specialists from multiple disciplines to integrate research efforts. Programs such as the National Science Foundation’s Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship facilitate integrated research efforts and change the way academic institutions train future leaders and scientists. The University of Idaho and the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center in Costa Rica collaborate on a joint research program focusing on biodiversity conservation and sustainable production in fragmented landscapes. We first present a spectrum of integration ranging from disciplinary to transdisciplinary across seven aspects of the research process. We then describe our experiences and lessons learned conducting interdisciplinary graduate student team research. Using our program as a case study, we examine the individual, disciplinary, and programmatic bridges and barriers to conducting interdisciplinary research that emerged during our student team research projects. We conclude with a set of recommendations for exploiting the bridges and overcoming the barriers to conducting interdisciplinary research, especially as part of graduate education programs.

Rights

Copyright © 2007 by the author(s). Published here under license by The Resilience Alliance.

Description

This is the publisher's final PDF. The original source of the publication is Ecology & Society.

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/11600

Citation Details

Morse, W., Nielsen-Pincus, M., Force, J., & Wulfhorst, J. D. (2007). Bridges and barriers to developing and conducting Interdisciplinary graduate-student team research. Ecology & Society, 12(2), 1-14.