INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES IN THE HUMANITIES (IRANIAN JOURNAL OF CULTURAL RESEARCH)
Year:2009 | Volume:4 | Issue:1|Papers Count:12

The present paper follows two aims: first it will look into the process, and not the history of the evolution of interdisciplinary approaches, and second it will present exaptational evolution as the complementary phase based on foresight management. Hence it will be demonstrated that the interdisciplinary process has already surpassed the mode 1 methodology and is currently completing and the mode 2 methodology. It will also be suggested that the evolution so far has been an adaptational one, will become exaptational within a framework that the author terms engaging engineering. Thus the paper will review the distinctions made within the broader interdisciplinary field, investigate its motivation and explain Raison d’étre of the approach, discuss the challenges in its way, offer the required features and last but not least explore the author’s proposal to enhance efficiency in its consolidation and expansion.

It is just human being who can understand Transformation, and accept it to maintain the status quo. Communication is the main device for transformation. Man accepts communication and transformation in order to use them in maintaining his/her integrity. Formulating and modeling sciences through invention of new fields, interdisciplines, and disciplines, communication and information technologies help prepetuation of human life, especially according to the environmental matters. Communication is itself transformed simultaneously in relation and in proportion to these transformations.

According to organizational development in interdisciplinary education in the last three decades, in addition to the expansion of interdisciplinarity in scientific and intellectual activities, now it might be said that interdisciplinarity has acquired a high status in academic structures. Reviewing literature shows that there are different types of interdisciplinary experiments; among them some are familiar to scholars, while others are somehow non-familiar. However, it does not mean that these non-familiars are useless or inappropriate. Considering that each kind of interdisciplinarity has its own approach that leads to knowing and understanding special subjects in the multifaceted interdisciplinarities, the present study attempts to explain the most important types of interdisciplinarity, and their special implications.

During recent years, policy-makers of higher education in Iran have paid special attention to interdisciplinarity and as a result, many different interdisciplinary programs have been established. Assessing these programs could guide one to understand the challenges, preventives, and the points of strength and weakness which might help to make improvements in future programming. M.A. program in Mathematics Education is one of the cited programs which is the result of combining Natural Sciences with Education. The present study is focused on this program and attempts to qualify it through observing different graduated people in the field from universities of Beheshti, Bahonar (Kerman), Radjai, Islamic Azad University (Science and Research Branch, and the Kerman Branch) who had graduated before oct. 2008. The research has been conducted through questionnaire, observation, making notes, and interview which have been analyzed by data coding and classification. Results clear the challenges M.A. program in Mathematics Education encounters which could help policymakers to improve interdisciplines, especially ones which are the result of combining Basic Sciences with Education.

Goals play crucial role in the development of any system. In education systems too the goals determine the attitudes and resource allocation program. Furthermore, not only goals incite the personnel and help to improve their work, but also offer a good criteria through which one could evaluate the organizational efficiency. The present study attempts to explore the role goals and goal-setting process play in the interdisciplinary sciences. Therefore, first the process of goal-making and the related theories would be explained. Then, different kinds of goals and measuring instruments in goal-evaluating process in universities would be explored. Finally, analyzing the role goals play in the academic processes, some strategies for goal-setting in programming and assessment in universities would be suggested.

Research management has been brought up as an interdisciplinary subject –a combination of “management” and “research methodology”- especially in Humaninties and Social Sciences research. As an essential concept in research management, utilization of research findings is so important that some believe neglecting it would cause failure of research efforts. Utilization Model is the frame within which the matter is programmed. Introducing different Utilization models, the present study attempts to suggest a variety of research frameworks to be selected in proportion to organizational status. Points of strength and weakness of any model have been explored here. Three different uses –instrumental, conceptual, and procedural- have been explained according to their corresponding utilization models. In the procedural use, various models are introduced including communication models, science push, knowledge driven, problem solving, demand push, diffusion, settler, the knowledge-to action process, cronbach Rossi model in conceptual use, and the Ottawa model, Canadian Institutes of health research, understanding user context framework, collaborative model, and the utilization forced model for evaluation. They are introduced to be selected for different organizational structures. The variety of utilization models show that they are especially rooted in the local environment, and thus when applying them, the user should pay attention to the specific characteristics of the models besides the organizational and environmental specifications.

The goal of this paper is to show that, as in other fields of humanities and social studies, there has been a shift from monologue to dialogue in the course of the history of “science, technology, and society” studies. The paper discusses the topic by reconsideration of key paradigms of science and society studies, such as scientific literacy, public understanding of science and technology etc. During this paradigm evolution, it has been gradually accepted that up-down models of Science Communication, which assume public as suffering from knowledge deficit, do not work even to improve the public support of science. The outcome of related debates in the recent half-century, according to the paper, was that science and society should participate in a proper, immediate, and equivalent dialogue. The paper supports this conclusion by review of studies that documented and analyzed the history of studies and initiatives of “science, technology, and society”.

Introducing science and religion and the relationship between them, the present study attempts to explain what “religious science” is. Then, describing the major field of religious science, the role of values in science would be addressed through explaining the value-oriented approaches to science. The main part of the study is dedicated to describing various dimensions and aspects on which writings on Islamic Management are evaluated. A brief study shows that there are at least 70 book volumes focused on the matter, from which 13 are selected for the present study. A meta-analysis applied in this study, focuses on these books from four evaluating dimensions: content analysis, methodological analysis, reference analysis, and finally author analysis.