2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

For decades, scientific and academic organizations have discussed the need for engineering graduates who are capable of addressing the 21st century’s complex and seemingly intractable problems in an interdisciplinary manner (Association for Interdisciplinary Studies AIS, 2014; Committee on Integrating Higher Education et al., 2018; National Academies, 2005; NSF, 2011, 2018). Several educational researchers across the globe (Lattuca, 2003; Klein, 1990; Borrego & Newswander, 2010) have sought to distinguish terms such as multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and more recently, their convergence. However, in practice, distinctions between these terms are often fuzzy. Across academic disciplines, institutions, and geographies, terms like multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary can be understood and used interchangeably.

Even though multi- and interdisciplinary education is increasingly practiced, and there is extensive research examining the benefits of multi- and interdisciplinary education, little is known about how students perceive multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary education. Additionally, while it is known that the definitions of these are dependent on disciplinary cultures and academic institutions (Borrego & Creamer, 2007; Lattuca & Knight, 2010), there is little evidence of how graduate students’ perceptions of these terms might differ across national contexts.

Lack of coherent conceptual definitions can hinder educators’ and researchers’ abilities to design globally relevant strategies for the cultivation of the diverse, adaptable, and interdisciplinary workforce capable of addressing complex challenges and fostering innovation. Thus, this study explores engineering graduate students’ conceptualizations of multi- and interdisciplinarity as well as their expectations of these forms of work across two institutions and graduate programs – one located in Finland and one located in the United States, as previous comparative research on students’ conceptualizations has primarily focused on disciplinary and institutional comparisons as opposed to more global ones, as well as because of known cultural and pedagogical differences between these two countries’ approaches to engineering education.

The dataset includes semi-structured interviews with graduate students, focusing on their conceptualizations and expectations of multi- and interdisciplinary learning. The interviews were conducted separately at two institutions with eight engineering design graduate students from Finland and 14 engineering graduate students from the U.S. The analysis will be conducted through a comparative thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2022), focusing on the perspectives of Finnish versus U.S. graduate interdisciplinary engineering design students.

Findings of this study will shed light on similarities and differences among students’ conceptualizations of multi- versus interdisciplinary education and work, as well as identify potential gaps in their understanding. By gaining insights into students’ conceptualizations, learning expectations, and possible differences among the two national contexts, this study can help inform international engineering educators to provide support for students and address potential learning challenges in interdisciplinary contexts. Furthermore, a broadened understanding of students’ perspectives of these educational approaches can support the need for a conceptual and terminological alignment in engineering education research field as a whole.