Exercise on Transdisciplinarity: Lessons from a Field-Based Course on Rural Sustainability in an Aging Society
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Literature Review: Competence Discussion in Sustainability Science Education
3. Methods for Data Collection and Assessment
4. Case Study: Field-Based Exercise of Transdisciplinary Approach
4.1. Context of GFE Akita: Rural Sustainability Challenges in an Aging Society
4.2. Unit Fieldwork Design
4.3. Unit Implementation
4.4. Outputs: Reporting Exhibition to Local Residents
5. Analysis and Discussion
5.1. Performing Competencies Collectively
5.2. Interdisciplinary-Mindset
5.3. Transdisciplinary-Mindset
5.4. Ability to Be Empathetic to People’s Personal Experiences
6. Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Author Contributions
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
- Below is the list of questions asked during the semi-structured interviews to the middle-age and the elderly resident groups. The collected answers in each group were combined to analyze the knowledge transmission on local food and sense of place in Gojome.
- (1)
- What kind of food do you consider as traditional or typical food?
- (2)
- Why do you consider those food as traditional?
- (3)
- Have you been taught how to cook these dishes from your family?
- (4)
- What kind of food did you eat during your childhood?
- (5)
- Who prepared it including collecting ingredients?
- (6)
- Growing up, did you learn to cook the food from your childhood? Who taught you?
- (7)
- Have you transferred your knowledge on cooking to your children?
- (8)
- What kind of local food are you proud to present to visitors from outside the region?
- (9)
- What kind of food do you miss when you are away from the region?
- (10)
- How do you view the future of the local food?
- Below is the visualization done by the participant group to illustrate the alternative ways for knowledge transmission across different age groups. This infographic was presented as the summary image of the fieldwork at the reporting exhibition in Gojome.
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Kudo, S.; Mursaleen, H.; Ness, B.; Nagao, M. Exercise on Transdisciplinarity: Lessons from a Field-Based Course on Rural Sustainability in an Aging Society. Sustainability 2018, 10, 1155. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10041155
Kudo S, Mursaleen H, Ness B, Nagao M. Exercise on Transdisciplinarity: Lessons from a Field-Based Course on Rural Sustainability in an Aging Society. Sustainability. 2018; 10(4):1155. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10041155
Chicago/Turabian StyleKudo, Shogo, Huma Mursaleen, Barry Ness, and Masafumi Nagao. 2018. "Exercise on Transdisciplinarity: Lessons from a Field-Based Course on Rural Sustainability in an Aging Society" Sustainability 10, no. 4: 1155. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10041155