Interdisciplinarity in the Philippine Academia: Theory, History, and Practice

• Main Authors: Sollano, Francis C, Cuartero, Jose Mari B
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2019
• Subjects: CMO 20; s. 2013; K to 12 system; modern university; neoliberalism; Philippine educational system
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/english-faculty-pubs/29; https://journals.ateneo.edu/ojs/index.php/kk/article/view/3070/2892
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

Forum Kritika on Interdisciplinarity in the Philippine Academia discusses the history of how universities and academics construct their respective notions of disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity. Our decision to engage with this development in tertiary education takes off from a historical phase in our educational system. Questions on the character of disciplines have heightened in the last half-century, and this phenomenon does not only emerge out of the critical practice of the people who are part of universities, but the external world of the universities have started to knock on the university doors. Informed by the present situation of our universities and the educational system at large, we both argue that both disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity are modern constructs that should be understood by elucidating dialectics of theoretical and historical underpinnings. The tandem of history and theory provides the frames for us to better see the challenges when universities implement such paradigm, and this forum hopes to shed some light to our fellow academics as the Philippines undergo crucial changes, revamps, and overhauls in our educational system.