The integrated curriculum, university teacher identity and teaching culture: the effects of an interdisciplinary activity

Abstract

The results of an investigative process are reported that centre on the impact that modular curricular organization and its interdisciplinary activity are having on the teaching culture in the Degree in Social Education at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). This understanding of the curriculum is a seminal change for teaching staff and affects their professional identity by encouraging co-responsibility throughout the process. Communicative methodology is employed, which assists in the integration of the people in the investigation, so that they form part of the process of study under equal terms. The production of data was done through in-depth interviews, discussion groups, and documental analysis. The Interdisciplinary Activity Module (IAM) was developed in small groups, of 12-15 individuals, through active methodologies, and the university teachers needed to incorporate it into their discourse and relations with other colleagues and with their students. The results show that an integrated curriculum provides a worthwhile training opportunity to achieve learning of greater significance and depth, and that it happens through changes in their ways of relating and acting as teachers.