CHAPTER ONE

 INTRODUCTION

Scholars have attempted to define and explain interdisciplinary studies and related terminologies since the 1970s. The earliest attempt took place in 1970 with the first international seminar on interdisciplinarity organized by the international organization for economic cooperation and development (OECD). In 1972, the results of this seminar were published in a book form as Interdisciplinarity: problems of teaching and research in universities. The book according to Klein (1990) remains the most widely cited reference on the ideas and definitions provided quickly disputed by other scholars and/or outdated. Even the OECD revised it earlier definitions after conducting a survey of the relationship between the Universities on the community in its member countries as well as hosting a 1980 international conference on the topic (Klein, 1990).

Interdisciplinarity refers to the general phenomenon of combining or integrating disciplinary perspectives. Klein (1990) defines Interdisciplinarity more comprehensively as follows;

Interdisciplinarity has been variously defined in this century: as a methodology, a philosophy, a concept, a process, a way of thinking and a reflexive ideology. It has been linked with attempts to expose the dangers of fragmentation, to establish old connections, to explore emerging relations and to create new subjects adequate to handle our practical and conceptual needs. Cutting across all this theories is one recurring idea. Interdisciplinarity is a means of solving problems and answering questions that cannot be satisfactorily addressed using single methods or approach.

Diana Rhoten, Erin O’Connor, and Edward J. Hackett (2009) offer another definition of Interdisciplinarity emphasizing that it is a communal activity that is both purposeful and result driven. “We understand Interdisciplinarity as both a process and a practice by which a set of purposive arrangements and a sense of community are established and ultimately integrates ideas with others to form an end product “( Rhoten , O’Connor,& Hackett, 2009).

 “Interdisciplinary” and “interdisciplinarity” are frequently viewed as twentieth century terms, the concept has historical antecedents, most notably Greek philosophy. Julie Thompson Klein attests that “the roots of the concepts lie in a number of ideas that resonate through modern discourse the ideas of a unified science, general knowledge, synthesis and the integration of knowledge”, while Giles Gunn says that Greek historians and dramatists took elements from other realms of knowledge (such as medicine or philosophy) to further understand their own material. The building of Roman roads required men who understood surveying, material science, logistics and several other disciplines. Any broadminded humanist project involves interdisciplinarity, and history shows a crowd of cases, as seventeenth-century Leibniz’s task to create a system of universal justice, which required linguistics, economics, management, ethics, law philosophy, politics, and even sinology.

Out of its definition, there equally different types of Interdisciplinarity ,They will be discussed below.

The most commonly used classification of types of interdisciplinarity is provided by OECD (1972, pp. 25-26). Here four classes of interdisciplinarity are identified. These are:

Multidisciplinary […] juxtaposition of various disciplines, sometimes with no apparent connection between them, e.g. music + mathematics + history.

Pluridisciplinary […] juxtaposition of various disciplines, assumed to be more or less related, e.g. mathematics + physics, or French + Latin + Greek: “classical humanities” in France.

Interdisciplinary […] an adjective describing the interaction among two or more different disciplines. This interaction may range from simple communication of ideas to the mutual integration of organising concepts, methodologies, procedures, epistemologies, terminologies, data leading to an organisation of research and education in a fairly large field. An interdisciplinary group consists of persons trained in different fields of knowledge (disciplines) with different concepts, terms, methods and data organised by a common effort working on a common problem with continuous intercommunication.

Transdisciplinary […] establishing a common system of axioms for a set of  deciplines .

Based on this basic conceptualisation, Boisot divides interdisciplinarity into three. These are:

Linear interdisciplinarity: this happens when crude phenomena from one discipline is legalised by laws in another discipline.

Structural interdisciplinarity: this happens when “interactions between two or more disciplines lead to the creation of a body of new laws forming the basic structure of an original discipline that cannot be reduced to the formal combination of its generators, yet complies with the definition criteria we have suggested above” [of a discipline] .

Restrictive interdisciplinarity: this happens when there are no interactions among disciplines. Yet, the disciplines are brought into play by a field of application, wherein “[e]ach restricting discipline imposes technical, economic or human bounds on the others” .

As seen above, there are many ways in which the concept of interdisciplinarity has been categorised and classified that has led to a profound understanding of the ways in which it might occur. Generally speaking it is important to note that  when one studies Interdisciplinary studies, one utilizes two or more academic disciplines in some way or ways . Which enhances socio economic development and also promotes the 21st century skills .

1.1 Background of the Study                                                   

1.1.1 Historical and Contextual Background 

Inherited from the  colonial legacy,  shaped  on  French and  English  system  (Ngwana, 2001),  Cameroon’s higher education like in many other African countries, face lots of challenges such as educational policy conception and implementation,  governance,  funding,  among  others.All  these  problems  hinder  the  proper  development  of higher education. Today, higher education has been proved to be very crucial for the development of any country in the world. The discourse regarding the return  of investment in the education sector has changed. Despite the criticism of some existing literature regarding the current discourse contradicting the  one in the late 1980s which seemed  to  highlight that  investment  in  tertiary education  yields  a  smaller return  than  that  of lower  sectors  of education (Eta & Vuban, 2018; Schendel & Mccowan, 2014), higher education has become the sector, which has the biggest return. Since the publication in 2000 of the report “Higher Education in Developing Countries: Peril and  Promise”  which  pointed  out  the  actual  and  potential  contribution  of  quality  higher  education  to  social, economic and  political  development, higher  education  has become  the  sector  per excellence  in  shaping human capital instead of basic  education  sector  as it has been proved in the 1990s by many international organisations and economists (Bloom, Altbach, & Rosovsky2016).

 Montenegro & Patrinos (2013)  carried out a study on the returns of schooling and  found out that  tertiary education  sector across the  regions  of  the  world  has the  highest returns,  and  Sub-Saharan  Africa  has  the biggest  rate  with  21.9%  return  from  tertiary  education  compared to 13.4%  at  primary  and  10.8  at  secondary  level.  Higher  education  allows  to  attain  economic  growth,  poverty reduction and sustainable  development, especially in developing countries such as African countries which face growth and development challenges on all fronts (Magdalin, 2014). With a population of relatively  well  educated, Cameroon is a  lower  middle-income country (World  Bank, 2016). In 2016 the youth unemployment rate (age 15-24) was 9.024% (World Bank, 2016). The country average annual  gross  domestic  product  (GDP)  growth  has  stood  between  5.5%  and  5.9%  between  2013  and  2015 (Systematic Country Diagnostic[SCD], 2016) with GDP per capita estimated at U$$1,429 in 2014 (World Bank, 2016).

 The pace of economic growth over the last decade has been too slow to lead to sustainable development, significant poverty reduction,  and shared prosperity. Since  2001, an estimate of 40% of the  population has been living below  the  poverty line,  and  around  one-quarter  of the  population is considered  chronically poor  (World Bank, 2016). Contrary to its rich potential in natural resources, with active young working population, Cameroon remains a poor  country with  a high  unemployment  rate and  low  productivity.  One  of  the goals  of  the 1993  reform  in higher education  in  Cameroon was to expand  and  increase higher  education  opportunities and  make  university programmes more professional and more responsive to the market forces (Ngwana 2001). However, until to date, there is no significant progress made in terms  of key programmes  related  to the economy’s  modernisation . 

Vision

We seek to foster knowledge and a love of literature and of language in our students. To this effects, we provide students in all emphasis areas with a coherent curricular framework and relevant, well-structured choices, geared at developing a critical and imaginative mindset.

Mission

The mission of the English department is:

To include and sustain critical and imaginative thinking in students with a view to maximizing their research, writing and teaching skills. To impart research, managerial and other skills capable of enhancing productivity and marketability. To widen students horizons through interdisciplinary and professional pursuits capable of enhancing their competitiveness in a global environment. To provide an environment for personal and academic growth that lays a premium on moral and ethical probity. The department offers under graduate courses leading to a Bachelor of Arts in English Language, Literatures in English and creative writing. It also offers post graduate courses to leading to a master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy in English Language and Literatures in English.

 Outlook on the English department programme in the University of Bamenda

Talking on the English programme in the University of Bamenda, we first have to understand that the admission in to this department is an open system through a simple document submission. Below is a table given of the English language programme in the university of bamenda . 

A table of the programme

The tables above shows  the nature of the programmes in English language department are not interdisciplinary and stresses only on one domain . Surprisingly, the analysis shows that out of the 35 courses at the undergraduate level of the department, there are just courses concern with the department. No diversification of courses of  other departments  or other domains for a fast running 21 century. The programme is limited only within the department which is a great call for concern for the fast running 21 st  century there is the need for impeding 21 st century skills in modern pedagogy curricula in other to promote inter, trans,cross and multi disciplinarity.  Based on the programme above, it might hinders students to cope for  the fast running 21 century in that , what so ever field you are offering you need to get skills, knowledge, aptitude and altitudes in health education, financial education, civic education, moral education and many more . This programme equally do not prepare students for the job market given the fact that we live in a composite world today which is made of everything. And lastly, according to  the English department programme , there are lack of courses which promotes digital literacy, health literacy,financialliteracy,environmental literacy just to name a few.

1.2 Statement of the Problem 

The main problem is that course in the department of English language in the university of Bamenda are not interdisciplinary, According to the English programme . That is, in the globalizing world , there is need for inter, trans, multi and cross disciplinarity in study and education . This term goes to talk on the uselessness of focusing only on one domain to the exclusureof other domains given that the world in which we live in is a composite world made of of so many things having to focus only on one domain students may not be able to feet in the global world 21st century. The fact that you are studying English does not mean you should not seek for openest in other aspects like health, finance , communication, management just to name a few . There is need for Imbedding 21 st century education skills in modern pedagogy curricular so as   to promote inter, trans , multi and cross disciplinarity.

1.3 Research objectives 

The main aim of this study is to evaluate the extent to which courses in the department of English language  are interdisciplinary in the university of bamenda Cameroon .

The specific objectives include the following

To evaluate the extent to which 21st century education skills are imbedded in modern pedagogy curricula in the English department

To evaluate the extent  to which courses in the department English enable students to cope for the fast running 21st century given that we live in a composite world made of everything.

To evaluate the extent to which English programmes prepare higher education graduates for future employment and leadership positions

To evaluate the nature of disciplines in the English department

1.4 Research questions 

The following questions will guide our study

Are courses in the department of English in the university of Bamenda interdisciplinary?

If yes , how are they Interdisciplinary ?

 Do courses in the department of English enable students to cope for the fast running 21^st century?

How do English programmes prepare higher education graduates for future employment and leadership positions.