Transition from content expert to interdisciplinary educator: narrative accounts from health and law

Interdisciplinary education is gaining prominence in higher education, but little is known about the experiences and professional development needs of interdisciplinary educators. Through the lenses of self-reflection, peer review, and the educational literature, this paper uses a narrative enquiry approach to explore the lived experiences of two academics as they transition from a focus on their disciplines into roles as interdisciplinary educators. By exploring sequential events, we identify five key phases: making the move, starting out, the teaching experience, learning more, and looking forward. We faced many challenges, including working with an interdisciplinary teaching team, feeling ‘undisciplined’, and the need for an adaptive curriculum. Based on our experiences, there is a real opportunity for academic developers to design and implement initiatives to support academics embarking on interdisciplinary teaching.