Engaging Humanities and Social Science Students in Interdisciplinary Team Projects: Influences on Career Identity Narratives

<p dir="ltr">Humanities and Social Science (HASS) students often encounter challenges related to career clarity. This perception may stem from a characterization of HASS disciplines as generalist and lacking a direct vocational orientation. Despite this, many HASS students are motivated to study based on interests and self-exploration. Although the employability discourse focuses on the importance of ‘human capital,’ it is appropriate that students establish a deeper level of engagement between their education and identity. Students' awareness of their career identity is needed to navigate their transition into employment and to identify suitable career opportunities.  </p><p dir="ltr">The study aims to explore the learning impacts of interdisciplinary team projects on HASS career identity formation. Interdisciplinary team projects are an example of social learning environments which can enable the crafting of career identity. They involve students from diverse disciplines working together to address business and societal challenges. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten HASS students enrolled in different interdisciplinary projects in higher education institutions from Australia, Finland and the Netherlands. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with nine educators from Australia, Finland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom who developed and facilitated these interdisciplinary team projects. The educator perspective added further context and pedagogical insight into the students’ comments and experiences.</p><p dir="ltr">Before exploring the influence on career identity, it was pivotal to understand the learning impacts of interdisciplinary team projects. Following Braun and Clarke’s (2022) understanding of thematic analysis, two key themes emerged from my analysis of the interview data. The first theme was enhanced disciplinary awareness, which enabled HASS students to gain a better appreciation of the breadth and utility of their HASS education. A second theme was relational learning, which refers to understanding peers from diverse disciplines, both interpersonally (interpersonal relations) and cognitively (interdisciplinary mindset).</p><p dir="ltr">The main research question: ‘how interdisciplinary team projects influence the career identity development of university HASS students’ was explored using narrative thematic analysis through a framework of identity learning by Meijers (2002). This framework posits that individuals learn about their identity through ‘boundary experiences’ which are ambiguous learning environments that challenge an individual's sense of self and lead to transformational learning about themselves. Interdisciplinary team experiences were identified as boundary experiences as they can be discomforting and anxiety provoking as students are taken out of their educational silos to work in a discipline-diverse environment. Viewing their experiences as a ‘structure of meaning,’ career identity involves a dual interpretation between discursive meaning-giving of experiences and intuitive sense-giving by connecting with emotions and alignment with personal histories. </p><p dir="ltr">The findings revealed that HASS students' enhanced disciplinary awareness shaped their career identity by negotiating the salience and positioning of their disciplinary, personal and professional identities. The findings reinforce the concept of career identity for HASS students as more powerful than professional identity. Career identity is holistic and flexible as it defines more than an individual's relationship to their profession. Relational learning showed that interpersonal relations and an interdisciplinary mindset allowed HASS students to develop adaptable career identities. For example, students were more open-minded about their career after seeing and imagining future career possibilities through exposure to interdisciplinary projects.</p><p dir="ltr">This research suggests creating interdisciplinary learning environments in higher education develops students' particularly non-vocational students' career learning related to self-knowledge and career clarity to help them transition into workplace contexts. The study reveals the importance of interdisciplinary education and career identity. Firstly, interdisciplinary learning influenced students' relationship with their discipline in forming their career identity. Interdisciplinary learning experiences move beyond the hierarchical discourses of disciplines. This helps students see how their education fits in with the ‘interdisciplinary world,’ enabling them to not only be ‘job ready’ but ‘society ready.’ Secondly, students were able to explore possible selves in experiencing diverse roles, tasks and industries which has implications on how they approach the labour market. This also has implications for educators in designing learning experiences to allow students to imagine different career possibilities.</p><p dir="ltr">The findings of this study call for universities to develop interdisciplinary learning ecologies as it disrupts siloed thinking and aligns with the needs of the future workforce. Furthermore, the results show the importance of developing students' career identity through career dialogues and career writing. This has implications for how career practitioners work with non-vocational students. Connecting and extending students’ pedagogical experiences with their professional and personal life experiences in making sense of their relationship to their work and future careers is crucial in illustrating the holistic nature of career identity.</p>