23 October 2026
In the article Holding the tensions: nurturing spaces for transdisciplinary higher education, Luca Bertolini et al. examine how transdisciplinary education can develop within universities that are predominantly organised along disciplinary lines.
From individual experiences to shared insights
The article is based on a reflective and exploratory approach. The authors bring together experiences and perspectives from the practice of transdisciplinary higher education, drawing on four workshops involving those engaged in this form of education.
On this basis, they explore three questions: what specific demands does transdisciplinary education place on us, what institutional barriers stand in the way of its development, and what strategies can help to address these?
The article is therefore not a large-scale empirical study, but a scientifically grounded reflection that brings together practical experiences to arrive at broader insights.
Don’t resolve tensions, but use them to your advantage
Transdisciplinary education brings together students, lecturers and partners from the wider community to tackle complex issues from different perspectives. This places different demands on educational development, collaboration and organisation than traditional disciplinary education.
The authors note that the challenges involved in implementing transdisciplinary education are persistent and require a great deal of perseverance and inventiveness. A complete transdisciplinary transformation of the university is not, however, a self-evident or even necessary ultimate goal.
Instead, they advocate a pragmatic approach: recognise that transdisciplinary education inevitably creates tensions within a disciplinary environment, and focus on ways to make these tensions productive. Central to this is the creation and protection of niches where transdisciplinary education can be experimented with, and from which successful initiatives can be scaled up.
What does this mean for educational innovation?
These insights are relevant to teachers, educational developers and school leaders who wish to develop and sustainably embed transdisciplinary education.
The key message is that educational innovation does not have to wait for institutional reforms. It is precisely within existing structures that opportunities can be sought to experiment, collaborate and develop new educational practices.
The question is therefore not only how institutional barriers can be removed, but above all how we can create space for transdisciplinary education within the existing university context.
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