Interdisciplinarity and International Education: Creating Opportunities for Collaboration in Design Research and Practice

Abstract

Globalization has led to an increasing interest in international collaborations in higher education to help students develop a stronger awareness of how their professions are practiced overseas. These study-abroad experiences fit well with the goals of interdisciplinarity, since they both share the same agenda of encouraging students to gain a more expansive and inclusive perspective on their disciplines. This paper discusses the creation and implementation of an educational opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students in design fields that was intended to simultaneously encourage interdisciplinary and international awareness. The participating students, from a major US university, studied design and operation factors related to construction projects in Jordan, with an emphasis on sustainable design and the ecological impacts throughout the buildings’ life cycles. This endeavor helped the students to become more aware of practical and cultural design issues in the international context, while interacting with a diverse interdisciplinary team to learn about varied aspects of the construction process. While visiting their study sites in Jordan, the students were also able to participate in immersive cultural and ecological activities to deepen their appreciation of local contextual factors in design.