Updates on Interdisciplinary Education research

18 May 2026

Dr David Overend has been working with colleagues on the MA (Hons) Interdisciplinary Futures at Edinburgh Futures Institute on a model of Interdisciplinary Education with the aim of informing future planning, opening up conversations, and supporting learners and educators working across boundaries. The results of this work so far can now be accessed in the publications below.

In Undisciplined Learning Spaces: An Environmental Model for Interdisciplinary Education, published in Postdigital Science and Education, David proposes a way of thinking about interdisciplinary (or undisciplined) spaces, which promotes a more open and pluralist approach than is typical in this area. He defines interdisciplinarity as 'a space of possibility between existing ways of knowing and doing things’: link.

The Toolkit for Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching (TILT) was originally created as a website as part of a University of Edinburgh ‘PTAS' funded project, but has now been repackaged and published as an open access e-book by Edinburgh Diamond.

Finally, David has been writing collaboratively about interdisciplinary learning and teaching with colleagues at Edinburgh Futures Institute, the wider university, and beyond, for a few years now. Here are some other publications specifically about EFI Education, which you may also be interested in:

Overend, D., Choi, S., Cross, A. & Winter, M. (2026) Future Change Agents: Emotional interactions in the challenge-based classroom: In Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching: Practice and pedagogies. Scott, S. & Kemp, I. (eds.). Ethics Press. 138-160.

Cullen, C., Jay, D., Overend, D. and Winter, M. (2024) Creating Edinburgh: diffracting interdisciplinary learning and teaching in the contemporary city. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 11, 1151.

Winter, M. and Overend, D. (2024) Troubling Leadership in the Interdisciplinary Challenge-Based Classroom. Issues in Interdisciplinary Studies 41(2), 77-100.

Overend, D., Ewing, S., and Swanton, D. (2024) “Loose Ends and Missing Links”: Learning Journeys in the Postdigital City. In: Lamb, J., Carvalho, L. (eds) Postdigital Learning Spaces: Towards Convivial, Equitable, and Sustainable Spaces for Learning. Springer.