Abstract
This article explores how transformative higher education approaches can be fostered through an integration of the concepts of third space, Students as Partners (SaP), and transdisciplinarity in practical contexts. We describe a collaborative enquiry that engaged staff and students in a reflexive dialogue centred on the concepts of mutual learning, liminality, emergence, and creativity as enacted in the curriculum of a transdisciplinary undergraduate degree, the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation (BCII) at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia. The key insights that emerged through this enquiry were: third spaces in curriculum can be enabled but not constructed, all parties need to embrace uncertainty and a mutual learning mindset, and that “stepping in and out” of such fluid liminal spaces can stimulate creativity. Based on our experience and exploration, we offer some practical recommendations to those seeking to create similar enabling conditions for third spaces in their own undergraduate programs.
Highlights
Students as Partners (SaP) approaches aim to position students as active rather than passive participants in their learning
We explore the ways that scholarly work on third spaces (e.g., Gutiérrez, 2008; Soja & Hooper, 1993; Whitchurch, 2012), in conversation with the SaP literature, could strengthen the argument about the transformative potential held in SaP approaches
We explore how third spaces have emerged through our attempts to engage students as partners in educational practices in the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation (BCII) degree program, a recently introduced transdisciplinary undergraduate degree at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia
Summary
SaP approaches aim to position students as active rather than passive participants in their learning. The development of novel and creative responses to complex challenges is a key goal of the BCII, enabled by our deliberate attention to conditions that support emergence This has been enhanced by the porous boundaries we have attempted to create between disciplines and fields, as well as between the curriculum and the broader environment in which industry partners, students, and staff interact. This permeability and liminality between different knowledges and realities is influenced by transdisciplinary thinking (Max-Neef, 2005), and capitalises on the “degrees of freedom” that third spaces can offer outside established modes of working
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