4
having problems) or being a ‘model learner,’ taking notes and demonstrating to students
“how to learn” in a classroom.
21
Finally, there are practical issues that have to be dealt with. There has to be
administrative and departmental support for interdisciplinary course work; it has to be
valued as part of an instructor’s career. Developing and teaching an interdisciplinary
course often requires considerably more work than for a traditional course, but because
two or more faculty members are involved, they usually will not get credit for teaching a
full course. Administrators and departments can compensate for this with course
development funds, release time, or partial relief from other university demands.
Ultimately, it is best if there are structures in place that support interdisciplinary and team
teaching efforts by encouraging collaboration. Universities are structured around
disciplines, teaching loads are structured around individuals with their own courses.
Deviating from this structure requires institutional support.
Each of the courses described below was taught with significant institutional and
departmental support, though the ideas emerged from faculty members themselves.
Organizing principles were rather straight forward for each. Modern Times was built
around the theme of modernism, and the historical era of 1910 – 1933, with World War I
as the pivotal point. Children and Political Violence was built around the topic of
understanding the impact of war on children. The difficult task for me was integrating
political science into the course in a manner that could connect with the other disciplines
involved.
The Courses
Both of the interdisciplinary team taught courses emerged from informal
conversations, though one had its genesis in a university experiment in 2000 to create
learning communities. Steve Pane’s Introduction to Music and my Comparative Politics
courses were part of a learning community. We were asked to try to somehow integrate
the learning community’s activities, and we choose to spend some time (two weeks)
comparing music and politics in Germany between the wars. We were so intrigued by
the conversations and insights that this experience provided, that we later worked with
Sarah Maline to develop Modern Times.
22
For Children and Political Violence, Mellisa Clawson and I had long talked about
the possibility of creating such a course. As talk heated up over a possible war with Iraq,
we were speculating on whether or not decision makers think about the impact of war on
children, or if they are seen as “expendable.” I realized that though political science
deals with war and foreign policy, I’ve not seen much done from the angle of thinking of
the long term impact of war due to the impact on children. Within twenty minutes we
were excitedly developing ideas for a course.
In each case we faced a number of tasks. First was to determine what the course
content would be, built around an organizing principle or theme. Second would be to
develop a syllabus, a set of assignments, mutual expectations, a plan for teaching the
21
Wentworth and Davis, “Enhancing Interdisciplinarity through Team Teaching,” p. 27.
22
Perhaps the point where this became really tempting was a connection between a major note in the opera
Wozzeck, shown to the class, and the same note, with a very different meaning and use, used in the Nazi
propaganda film Triumph of Will.
Convention