Comparative Education Bulletin - Faculty of Education - The ...

eport on Interdisciplinarity (CERI, 1972) identifies both endogenous
and exogenous reasons 9 for the emergence of the interdisciplines,
where exogenous interdisciplinarity is catalysed by real world
problems and endogenous interdisciplinarity by the production of new
knowledge in order to realize the unity of science. I map these various
catalysts and reasons for disciplinary change in Figure 1, grouping the
epistemological reasons at one end of the y-axis and the multi-level
sociological reasons (institutional, socio-political) at the other end. Both
epistemological and sociological factors mutually influence each other
and are thus connected with two-sided arrows. On the x-axis I plot
on a continuum the two directions of disciplinary change: knowledge
fragmentation and knowledge integration. Thus we can imagine the
dynamics of disciplinary change since the 1970s as moving along the
x-axis of interdisciplinarity partly as a result of the dialectic of the
sociological and the epistemological forces prevalent at that time.
Figure 1. A Preliminary Mapping of Disciplinary Change
S ociological
• G e o -p o litic a l d e m a n d s
• N a tio n a l p rio ritie s
• S o c ia l d e m a n d (tra in in g , e m p lo ym e n t)
• In s titu tio n a l / u n iv e rs ity p o litic s
• In d iv id u a l a c a d e m ic s ’ in te re s ts
• S tu d e n ts ’ d e m a n d s
K now ledge Fragm entation K now ledge Integration
• K n o w le d g e c o n te n t, g ro w th
• In flu e n c e o f p h ilo s o p h ic a l,
s o c io lo g ic a l th e o rie s
E pistem ological
The interaction between epistemological and sociological factors
in influencing disciplinary change can be examined at a deeper level
with the aid of those theoretical frameworks which attempt to explain
why different types of knowledge emerge, and what reasons, apart
from the epistemological, account for the delineation of knowledge
boundaries. These theories offer relevant explanatory frameworks
for understanding the reasons for social change in general, and for
change and diversity in the institutionalization of knowledge, in
particular. They give a tentative analysis of the complex and dynamic
processes by which social factors – structure, agency and discourse –
9 Exogenous and endogenous are used in reference to the university, i.e., exogenous/
endogenous to the university sphere of influence and control.
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