Exploring the Conceptual Frameworks Guiding Developmental Research and Practice in Higher Education: Some Challenges for Transdisciplinary Work

Budwig Nancy; Alexander Achu Johnson

摘要

This article examines questions initially raised at a meeting that took place 50 years ago on the topic of the development of knowledge in higher education where Jean Piaget coined the term "transdisciplinarity" and distinguished it from interdisciplinarity. We consider the question of why transdisciplinary scholarship has been so challenging for the field of developmental science. We argue that shifts in the guiding metatheoretical framework of theory and research, away from split-mechanistic paradigms and towards process-relational ones, do not always align with the conceptual frameworks used in educational practice. Using the example considered by Piaget and others at the original conference on higher education and the development of knowledge and also examining the domain of identity development, we find support for ways developmental scholarship has embraced the shift to a relational-developmental metatheory. In contrast, we argue that the relational-developmental paradigm has not been fully adopted by practitioners, with evidence of some using the Cartesian-split-mechanistic paradigm and others using some aspects of the relational-developmental paradigm. We highlight the importance of examining the conceptual frameworks guiding developmental scholarship and practice, suggesting that alignment of conceptual frameworks is an essential ingredient for progress in transdisciplinary scholarship and practice to take place. Conceptualizations at the metatheoretical level condition each and every aspect of theory, research, and practice, giving meaning to both theoretical and empirical activities and guiding practice-based work. Debates often occur at the metatheoretical level, and thus are not open to empirical adjudication. We conclude that metatheoretical alignment between scholars and practitioners is critically important to transdisciplinary efforts in developmental science and therefore more attention to the metatheoretical assumptions of the process-relational paradigm is critical for work with practitioners to succeed.

机译：本文审查了50年前举行的会议上最初提出的问题，就高等教育发展的知识主题，让Jean Piaget创造了“跨学科”一词并将其与跨学科的区别区分开来。我们认为为什么跨学科奖学金对发展科学领域的挑战这一问题。我们争辩说，在引导的理论和研究框架中转变，远离分裂机制范式和对过程关系的框架，并不总是与教育实践中使用的概念框架对齐。利用彼得具和其他人在高等教育大会上考虑的榜样和知识的发展以及审查了身份发展领域，我们找到了发展奖学金的支持，使得转变为关系发展的联系。相比之下，我们认为，从业者尚未完全采用的关系 - 发展范式，有一些使用笛卡尔 - 分裂机制范式和其他人使用关系 - 发展范式的某些方面的证据。我们突出了审查引导发展奖学金和实践的概念框架的重要性，这表明概念框架的一致性是跨学科奖学金和实践发生的重要成分。在传言级别条件下的概念化，每个方面的理论，研究和实践，赋予理论和实证活动的意义和基于实践的工作。辩论经常发生在传言级别，因此没有对经验裁决开放。我们得出结论，学者与从业者之间的关系对齐对发展科学的跨学科努力至关重要，因此更加关注流程关系范式的传言假设对于与从业者进行成功的工作至关重要。

Exploring the Conceptual Frameworks Guiding Developmental Research and Practice in Higher Education: Some Challenges for Transdisciplinary Work

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