Theoretical Underpinnings and Empirical Findings for Designing Interdisciplinary Boundary Zones for Teacher Education

Abstract

Recent educational trends highlight the need to develop multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary competencies among science teachers to foster innovation in secondary education. However, the debate on which interdisciplinary competences are most relevant—and still lacking—in teacher education remains open, and little is known about how teachers with strong disciplinary backgrounds experience encounters with interdisciplinary forms of knowledge organisation. This study proposes a theoretical approach to interdisciplinarity that informed both the design of pre-service teacher education modules and the analysis of how pre-service teachers positioned themselves in relation to its main challenges. Specifically, Akkerman and Bakker’s (2011) boundary framework was adapted to the context of interdisciplinary teacher education. The framework was implemented in two modules addressing different forms of interdisciplinarity: one on a curricular theme (parabola and parabolic motion) and one on an emergent STEM topic (nanotechnology). Data collected within a European project were analysed through a theoretically oriented thematic analysis grounded in the boundary framework. Across both modules, pre-service teachers displayed a range of reactions—from deep engagement to discomfort that led them to adopt small strategies for restoring epistemic comfort. This discomfort stemmed less from boundaries themselves than from the ambiguity of boundary objects, which challenged their sense of disciplinary security. Multi- and trans-disciplinarity were therefore perceived as more manageable than full interdisciplinarity. Yet these moments of uncertainty also sparked meta-disciplinary reflection on the nature and interrelation of disciplinary knowledge.