Journal of Academic Development and Education JADE Issue 8 | Page 46
ARTICLE #4 | 46
ARTICLE #4
Title
Academic Tribalism and
Subject Specialists as a
Challenge to Teaching and
Learning in Dual Honours
Systems; a Qualitative
Perspective From the School
of Geography, Geology and
the Environment, Keele
University, UK
Authors
Dr. Steven L. Rogers and
Dr. Alix G. Cage
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.21252/
KEELE-0000020
Contact
[email protected]
School
School of Geography, Geology and the
Environment
Faculty
Faculty of Natural Sciences
Abstract
Here we give an account of our
experiences teaching within a tight
cognate group (Earth Sciences) and
our perception of academic tribalism
within a dual honours teaching and
learning environment. We pose the
question whether academic tribalism
represents a positive or negative effect
to the teaching and learning process
and if it has an impact on our students
becoming discipline specialists.
Keywords
Academic Tribalism, Discipline
Specialist, Dual Honours, Teaching and
Learning
Introduction
“Do you often come across
people for whom, all their
lives, a ‘subject’ remains
a
‘subject’,
divided
by
watertight bulkheads from all
other ‘subjects’, so that they
experience very great difficulty
in making an immediate mental
connection between, let us say,
algebra and detective fiction,
sewage disposal and the price
of salmon or more generally,
between such spheres of
knowledge as philosophy and
economics, or chemistry and
art?”
(Sayers, 1948 in Burleigh 1973,
p. 235)
Funding
bodies
(e.g.
Natural
Environmental
Research
Council,
NERC)
are increasingly promoting
and funding interdisciplinary
scientific research as society
strives to solve ‘real-life’
complex
questions
and
problems which need different
disciplines to meet and
cross-over (e.g. Donovan et
al., 2011), i.e. research and
education become ‘problem-
orientated’ (e.g. Rhoten &
Pfirman, 2007). As Popper
said “We are not students
of some subject matter, but
students of problems. And
problems may cut right across
the borders of any subject
matter or discipline” (Popper,
1963, p. 88).
Increasingly,
there is a changing emphasis
towards multidisciplinary and
interdisciplinary departments
across the University sector
(Thomas, 2008). Despite this,
the standard and common
approach to the teaching and
learning environments is one
of segregation; a distinctive
feature of Keele University is
its dual honour system. Arising
at the lowest levels of teaching
and enduring with enhanced
acceptation is the idea of
a subject or discipline (e.g.
Becher & Trowler, 2001 and
Kreber, 2009). Subject areas,
whilst often broad in scope,
focus on attributes, values
and educational goals often
deemed as unique to that
particular discipline, learners
are provided with a particular
framework through which
they assimilate, categorise
and understand knowledge.
In higher education settings,
teaching and learning can
be viewed as a means of
creating subject specialists.
This article investigates the
connectivity between what
we interpret as disciplines
and how subject specialism,
particularly in a combined
curriculum (Keele Universities
dual honours is used as an
example, with experiences
drawn from teaching within
Earth Sciences), may influence
effective teaching and learning.
The division of knowledge into
disciplines (as seen by society)
has often been regarded to
generate “academic tribes and
territories”, with each discipline
having unique identity and
cultural attributes (Beecher
& Trowler, 2001, Amaral 2008
and Kreber, 2009) We hope
to catalyse the discussion
about academic tribalism, and
the associated positives and
negatives, in a broader context
(including the views from
other cognate disciplinary
groups,
e.g.
neuroscience
ARTICLE #4 | 47
ACADEMIC TRIBALISM AND SUBJECT SPECIALISTS AS A CHALLENGE
TO TEACHING AND LEARNING IN DUAL HONOURS SYSTEMS
and psychology, marketing and media, business management and
finance, etc.)
The dual honours system at Keele University was spear-headed by
Lord Lindsay, a philosopher with experience of 4-year-long degrees
at Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities, which encompassed
broad knowledge bases. Lindsay’s vision was for a new type of
university; a university which aimed to break down specialisation
and encourage cross-disciplinary teaching and research. Here we
share our experiences of the dual honours system (specifically
Earth Science teaching in a dual honours system) and the inherent
academic tribalism associated with staff and students. The authors
of this contribution are both from the School of Geography, Geology
and the Environment (GGE); one a geologist, the other a physical
geographer and both are members of several course teaching teams
in GGE, including some shared courses such as Geoscience and
Environmental Science.
Academic Tribalism and Discipline Specialism:
the Geography/Geology love/hate relationship
Teaching and learning relies heavily on the concept of discipline,
particularly in higher education. Teaching within subjects is often
(and expectedly) undertaken by subject specialists, these specialists
most often being past students of the particular subject themselves.
The result is a cohort of students and teachers committed to their
idea of what their subject is i.e. subject specialists. Disciplines have
no “set in stone” divisions and are mostly traditional groupings of
interest (Abbott, 2001, Becher & Trowler, 2001 and Kreber, 2009) the
values and attributes of each discipline has been observed to change,
both historically and geographically (Becher & Trowler, 2001). Both
academics and students often identify with their department/
discipline rather than their university (e.g. Fanghanel, 2012) and
Amaral (2008) stated that “University education could, therefore,
be regarded as an introduction into a disciplinary community and
as socialisation into its norms, values and ways of constructing the
world...”. Within our subjects and disciplines we acknowledge the
importance of the accumulated knowledge, values and attitudes
that are coherent to our idea of what our discipline is but can
often fail to acknowledge the same of other disciplines, even those
closely related. Amaral (2008) views higher education (specifically
university level) as an introduction, and subsequent socialisation
of an individual into a disciplinary community’s norms and values.
Abbott (2001) has suggested that within disciplines we are guilty of
the same attitudes, with teachers and learners from sub-disciplines
being dismissive of each other. The strong sense of discipline identity