Doing interdisciplinarity in teacher education. Resources for learning through writing in two educational programmes

Abstract

With a focus on resources for learning through writing, this paper compares the interdisciplinary framings of two teacher education programmes. What are the implications of these framings and resources for students’ possibilities when they write independent projects/bachelor theses? The paper presents a case study with data (interviews, texts, observations) from two different teacher education programmes. The conceptual framework stems from the Academic Literacies approach. The analysis shows that one of the programmes shapes interdisciplinarity by a “block approach” that allows students to work independently, while the other is shaped as a “bridging approach” with tight collaboration between students and tutors. The two educational programmes apply the same national regulating documents in different ways, thus creating different possibilities for students to learn and write as “independent” or “collaborative” students, respectively. The results contribute to a discussion of higher education structure and the role of writing within it.

Keywords

• academic writing
• academic literacies
• teacher education
• organisation of highereducation
• interdisciplinarity
• independent projects