Reinventing Ourselves: Interdisciplinary Education, Collaborative Learning and Experimentation in Higher Education (review)

Growing out of the 1997 Evergreen Conference on Interdisciplinary Education, Reinventing Ourselves: Interdisciplinary Education, Collaborative Learning and Experimentation in Higher Education grounds current practices in and recommendations for the future of interdisciplinary education in the historical context of experimental programs and institutions. Editors Barbara Leigh Smith, Provost of The Evergreen State College (TESC), and John McCann, Academic Grants Manager in the provost's office at TESC, bring together 26 essays on "experiences and lessons from a variety of institutions which have pioneered new approaches for organizing for more effective teaching and learning" (p. xvii). Taken individually or as a group, the chapters provide a useful overview of interdisciplinary approaches and experimental organizational designs, as well as specific strategies for transforming existing institutional practices for improving teaching and learning.

Section I of Reinventing Ourselves, subtitled "Historical Perspectives and Institutional Examples," provides a broad history for understanding innovations as well as specific examples of successful institutional practices. Chapters in Section I trace the history and context of experimental institutions founded from the Progressive Era (e.g. Antioch, founded in 1919 and Sarah Lawrence in 1928) through the 1960s (e.g. Hampshire in 1965, TESC in 1967, and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay in 1965), including social forces involved in their establishment, development, ongoing practices, or, in some cases, dissolution. The histories of experimental and truly interdisciplinary institutions or programs are often overlooked or given minimal attention in general histories of higher education in the United States; through broad overviews and institutional case studies, this section fills the gap well and provides ample additional resources for continued exploration.

Moving from the socio-historical focus of Section I, Section II, subtitled "Powerful Pedagogies," focuses on present practices in interdisciplinary and collaborative teaching and learning. The section is divided into two subsections: "Part One: Learning Communities" and "Part Two: Rethinking Teaching and Learning." Part One generally takes a broader, organizational level of analysis, while Part Two includes more specific examples of pedagogical practice. Noting that learning communities are "perhaps the most profound and widespread effort at reform in higher education over the past three decades" (p. 112), Smith and McCann selected authors who focus on the co-creation of knowledge among faculty and students, the incorporation of service-learning in learning communities, learning communities as catalysts for change in traditionally organized institutions, and the role of faculty culture in creating and maintaining learning communities. Part Two includes chapters describing specific examples of "Powerful Pedagogies," including organizing interdisciplinary study around inquiry, multiple forms of communication in the classroom, and incorporating feminist perspectives as a framework for interdisciplinary teaching and learning. Part Two also returns to organizational issues with chapters relating to overcoming structural and cultural barriers to interdisciplinarity. Recommendations for reconceptualizing faculty roles, for example, round out this section of the book.

Section III, "Taking Stock and Looking Ahead," completes the arc from a past to present to future orientation in Reinventing Ourselves. The section includes descriptions of approaches to assessing innovative programs ("Taking Stock") and predictions for the future of interdisciplinary teaching and learning ("Looking Ahead"). Taking up the challenge that "innovative programs and institutions often carry a special burden to demonstrate their effectiveness," (p. 341), authors in this section argue that innovative interdisciplinary programs require innovative interdisciplinary approaches to assessment. Authors also present several good examples of how to craft such an assessment and what students have to say about their experiences with interdisciplinary education. The section concludes with four chapters that bring together the past and present of interdisciplinary education in challenges for the future: shifting definitions of "interdisciplinary;" the need for alternative education to turn its attention to the content of education for citizenship, moral character, and the world of work; and the need to articulate a foundational epistemology...