Re-imagining transdisciplinary education work through liminality: creative third space in liminal times

Abstract

AbstractThis study draws on the tradition of transdisciplinarity to extend the boundaries of interdisciplinary educational work. In this paper, we apply the concepts of liminality and third space to examine a case of a professional immersive experience (PIEx), designed in response to the catastrophic disruption of work-integrated learning opportunities by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study uses a participatory reflexive methodology to interrogate the range of ways liminality was manifest in PIEx. First, we examine liminal learning in the virtual environment, which facilitated the unfolding of connections between different spaces, locations and people. Second, we seek to understand the PIEx experience through the concept of third space, highlighting the fluidity of roles, where educators, students and industry partners generate new knowledge and practices together. Lastly, we examine the experience through the boundary-crossing lens of transdisciplinarity. We conclude by gesturing towards a new understanding of work integrated learning, as it could take place in the future, well beyond the walls of the university.