Theoretical and Practical Approaches in the Fields of Education, Linguistics, Literature, History, Economy and International Relations: Prospects and Challenges of Interdisciplinarity in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

"The strongest argument for interdisciplinarity is the very fact that life is not divided into disciplines." (J. Moffett).

"The society in which we live and in which our children will live needs to prepare people to think interdisciplinarily to pass easily from one area to another and to successfully fulfill the social roles for which they are prepared." (M. Kish). The contribution to general culture of each subject is expressed "not by what is specific, but by what is common, generalized, transferable from one area to another." (L. Croft).

Global problems of the contemporary world can not be solved only through an interdisciplinary approach centered on human values. Interdisciplinarity involves organizing content, with implications for the whole strategy of curriculum design to achieve a consistent picture of the phenomena and processes studied in various disciplines, leading to an easy contextualisation and application of knowledge in different everyday situations.

Interdisciplinary connections are not univocal in the sense that the flow of information has one direction to a certain activity, communication takes place in both directions, from one activity to another and vice versa. Interdisciplinary approach assumes that any educational discipline is not a closed area, but may establish links between disciplines. Basically, interdisciplinarity seems necessary to overcome the creative boundaries of knowledge, which has artificial boundaries between different areas of it. The argument that calls for interdisciplinarity is that it provides an integrated picture of what is considered separately.

Note: Downloadable document is in Romanian.

Keywords: Interdisciplinarity, education

JEL Classification: Z00