On the future design of continuing education programs in transdisciplinary research - insights from tdAcademy.

Celina Bittger, Farina Tolksdorf

In recent years, continuing capacity building offerings in the context of transdisciplinary research have become increasingly important. Within the framework of various formats such as workshops, webinar series, courses, lectures or further, existing challenges of this research mode are addressed, and concrete skills are taught. In addition to the respective content, its quality plays a decisive role. In the following article, we therefore look at the findings from tdAcademy’s first phase and provide an outlook for the future design of continuing education programs for transdisciplinary research.

Systematization concept for further education offers

To systematically record the diverse range of continuing education courses in transdisciplinary research and to identify gaps and needs, tdAcademy's topic line 3 developed a preliminary systematization concept. To this end, existing courses were systematically collected and evaluated during two periods in September 2021 and March 2023. The surveys show that the number of offers of continuing education, especially in the German-speaking area has increased in the comparison of both periods. The offers evaluated came predominantly from European institutions.

Reflection framework for assessing the quality of capacity building offers

In the next step, a framework for reflection was developed, with the help of which the design of continuing education courses for transdisciplinary research can be carried out based on uniform quality criteria.

The following data were included:

• Literature on quality criteria of continuing education courses from other areas, e.g., continuing vocational education and training
• The systematization concept of the tdAcademy
• Empirical work from tdAcademy’s topic line 3 (Seidel, 2023; Tolksdorf et al., 2023).
• Results from various workshops with different tdAcademy target groups.
• Discussion of the results with providers of capacity building for transdisciplinary research, organized by the tdAcademy.

The reflection framework presents practical guiding questions for the development of capacity building offers for transdisciplinary research. It can thus be used to diversify and assure the quality of these, particularly through promoting their context-sensitive and needs-oriented design.

The findings show that continuing capacity building offers are, on the one hand, very diverse, but similar in that they seek to strengthen competencies at three different levels of education or learning.

The individual level is aimed at the individual person, such as researcher or practice partner. For example, concrete research methods are taught, or offers are provided to foster reflective approaches to one's own research or practice.

At the project level, methodological approaches such as conducting formative evaluations or approaches to team development are offered, which are helpful for the process development of transdisciplinary research.

Finally, on a collective level, offers seek to support the transfer of knowledge between projects, institutions and contexts, for example through exchange formats organized by platforms such as tdAcademy.

Furthermore, the reflection framework suggests three areas of reflection each with supporting guiding questions:

Reflection field	Examples of guiding questions
Contents to be taught	Does the offer meet the needs of the respective knowledge community to be addressed? How was the thematic focus of the offer developed and justified? What offers with a similar thematic focus already exist?
Implementation of an offer	Have principles for co-production of knowledge (context-specific, goal-oriented, plural, interactive) according to Norström et al. 2020 been taken into account in the methodology of the continuing education program?  What are the barriers to registering for the continuing education program? (e.g. timing, accessibility, etc.) How can diverse target groups be reached?
Learning effects	Are the learning objectives of the offer communicated transparently before implementation? How is feedback designed in such a way that statements can be made about whether participants have learned the intended competencies and skills? To what extent are the results and learning effects evaluated, e.g. in the form of follow-up surveys?

Questions for the future of capacity building for transdisciplinary research

In an exchange with providers of capacity building in April 2023, these and other questions were discussed, using the reflection framework. The participants considered two issues seem as particularly relevant at present:

Better integration of transdisciplinary offerings in university teaching: This still requires a lot of convincing of stakeholders, for which exchange spaces and the structured exchange of experiences between providers and participants are needed. Systematic collection and provision of best practice examples could serve as support. Furthermore, the use of gamification elements and the continued integration of case studies from practice into teaching seem to be suitable methodological approaches for the promotion of further education in university teaching.

Further development and use of the reflection framework for future capacity building offers in the context of transdisciplinary research: The existing draft can be tested and further developed in order to serve in perspective for quality assurance in continuing education. This applies not only to university teaching but also to other offerings for various target groups. In particular, the question of a stronger integration of participants from countries of the Global South seems to be of relevance. As multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary research has developed within the Western academic system, the participants of the workshop agreed that in the future there should be more reflection on the extent to which imparted knowledge and competencies can be applied in different (cultural) contexts. Continuous reflection on one's own role as a researcher in the co-production of knowledge is also particularly important.

These and other questions will continue to play a role within tdAcademy and will be discussed in exchange with transdisciplinary researchers and practice partners as well as providers of continuing education.

The findings from the analysis of capacity building offers summarized here are intended to be a cornerstone for the upcoming work in the second phase of tdAcademy and can also be carried forward by the newly formed professional Society for Transdisciplinary and Participatory Research.

 

References

Norström, A.V., Cvitanovic, C., Löf, M.F. et al. Principles for knowledge co-production in sustainability research. Nat Sustain 3, 182-190 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0448-2

Seidel, T. (2022). Context dependencies in transdisciplinary sustainability research: Perspectives of practitioners on context and capacity-building for context-sensitive research [Unpublished Master’s thesis]. Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Germany, Arizona State University, USA.

Tolksdorf, F. L., White, M., Jiménez-Aceituno, A., Amoah, N. A. B., Lam, D. P. M., Lang, D., Grauer, C., Baird, J., Ballnat, C., Horcea-Milcu, A.-I., King, B., Laycock Pedersen, R., Máñez, M., Manuel-Navarrete, D., Martin, D. A., McGlynn, B., Mehring, M., Mühltaler, S., Schneider, F., ... Weiser, A. (2023). Why context matters: Disentangling 9 context factors that influence transdisciplinary research.