2.3. Transdisciplinary Approach
In the contemporary ECE literature, three main teamwork approaches among members from different professional disciplines have emerged, namely, multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary disciplines
[18,28,29][18][28][29]. Multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary teamwork can be arranged on a continuum of collaboration within various domains, with the transdisciplinary teamwork approach being most collaborative and the multidisciplinary teamwork approach being the least collaborative
[24]. The interdisciplinary teamwork approach is sandwiched in between the two approaches. An interdisciplinary teamwork approach should result in “increased professional communication, cooperation and cohesion”, while a transdisciplinary teamwork approach should result in “free flow communication”
[21]. In fact, “multi-disciplinary teams are unable to develop a cohesive care plan as each team member uses his/her own expertise to develop individual care goals. In contrast, each team member in an interdisciplinary team builds on each other’s expertise to achieve common, shared goals”
[30]. Hence, it is worth noting that the main difference between a multidisciplinary approach and an interdisciplinary approach is that the members of a multidisciplinary team work independently in providing services, whereas members of an interdisciplinary team work together.
The key feature of these three teamwork approaches used in educational services “is the pooling and exchange of inter-professional knowledge and skills across the disciplinary boundaries to maximize communication, interaction and cooperation among the members”
[31]. Lesnik-Oberstein
[32] has suggested the benefits of integrating professionals with various kinds of expertise, including the co-construction of new knowledge, understanding the different ways of collaboration, and the provision of more holistic, coherent, high-quality learning experiences for young children. Furthermore, according to the general theoretical perspective postulated by Burger
[19], the transdisciplinary approach is situated into a circular process by forming various academic disciplines as the components of novel ECE hypotheses and theories, which can further inform ECE policymaking.
Moreover, a number of factors have also been reported as the possible contributing elements to building up transdisciplinary teamwork at three different levels
[33,34][33][34]. First, the administrative-level factors consist of explicit and coherent ECE policies
[34] and training workshops that prepare team members to work together effectively
[35]. Next, at the practical level, important aspects include a shared ECE theoretical framework, as well as a clear mind-map of what it means to practice in a transdisciplinary team, strong leadership, and good school structures supporting collaboration and shared understandings within the team. Finally, at the staff training level, it is important that team members are motivated to learn about their own as well as others’ disciplines, with the ability to clearly understand the underlying implications, the capacity to become reflective, and the willingness to establish and keep a strong collaborative teamwork spirit within the transdisciplinary team
[36].
In this way, the effects of transdisciplinary programs in mainstream ECE classrooms and special needs intervention settings can be studied and evaluated by identifying the following challenges: (1) unclear and inconsistent policies regarding how an ECE or ECFE program is to be run; (2) the unclear boundaries among team members during daily practice; and (3) limited collaboration due to a lack of training for members to have a shared understanding of other team members’ foundation knowledge from respective academic disciplines
[37]. One such concept of collaboration is family-centeredness, which has been promoted as a valuable medium for ECE
[38]. Moreover, transdisciplinary team members have been challenged in terms of their transdisciplinarity in different professional disciplines
[39]. Furthermore, these professional work transfers “may be in the areas of family- and child-centred planning and evaluation”
[39].
2.4. Discussion
The current education literature suggests that the efficacy in transdisciplinary teams is facilitated by having unambiguous, pooled knowledge of the educational professionals, its collaboration purpose, and its sound philosophical framework
[18,45][18][40]. The same holds true, especially for transdisciplinary ECFE programs, where relevant knowledge and skills are apparently integrated and applied by everyone in a program. However, our findings suggest that, even when all three participants shared a growing understanding of the holistic goal of their respective classes, which underlies their own disciplines’ guiding philosophical principles, especially in the areas of child-centeredness and caregivers-as-educators, they still lacked some common understandings of the key concepts of community ergonomics and educational ergonomics underlying each other’s practices
[46][41].
In the case of the transdisciplinary ECFE program that was the focus of the current study, co-workers’ peer-to-peer learning was found to be the anchor for the daily classroom practices of how to better carry out transdisciplinary caregiver training in its social contexts. The findings suggest that ECFE classes could take many forms. For example, there was a different status attributed to caregiver training in the ECFE program depending on who was attending the sessions. The caregiver training class could pair caregivers in one-on-one sessions, create groups learning together about real ECE problems, or involve young children in weekly enrichment classes in which co-workers share and reflect on the newest skills and knowledge they have learnt with or from others. Our results support a meta-analysis on ECFE conducted by Joo et al.
[47][42] that found fully developed caregiver programs can be conducive to a wide range of young children’s development and learning.
Based on the current study’s findings, the following recommendations regarding some hands-on practices are suggested to make ECFE classes fully developed. Firstly, there is a need to choose proper co-workers to join the team. Although the structure of collaboration is horizontal instead of hierarchical, co-workers for the team should be based on young children’s individual learning and development needs. These co-workers, ideally professionals in their areas, should write lesson plans, keep everyone on track by inviting other professionals and/or caregivers as facilitators, and motivate everyone to learn, apply, and reflect. Secondly, it is necessary to maintain a respective atmosphere in staff meetings. Transdisciplinary team meetings only work when everyone feels comfortable enough to question each other. Co-workers must be open and honest enough to receive knowledge from other experts. They also need to have enough courage to give constructive feedback. This feedback must be received with gratitude. Thirdly, a transdisciplinary approach should be integrated into ECFE practices. Co-workers will feel confident and competent in applying new knowledge if they learn it by observing others’ classes (i.e., real-world situations). As a result, the co-workers will more likely integrate the new knowledge into practice. Finally, everyone should be involved
[21]. Caregiver involvement helps to set a social context around ECE. With a well-developed ECFE transdisciplinary program in place as an alternative to a traditional ECFE program, young children and their caregivers will construct knowledge and build attachments that will support them in creating a context that fosters learning
[48][43]. In a traditional ECFE program, either caregivers are not involved enough in their young children’s education, or caregivers feel there were no comprehensive explanations or descriptions gained from the program about how to become actively involved in their children’s education. These previously unrecognized differences which relate to knowledge sharing and family-centred aspects of ECFE are significant, as they support constructive and successful caregiver training. As a result, caregivers who receive adequate support from their co-workers in transdisciplinary ECFE classes will play a major role in addressing their young children’s diverse developmental and learning needs. Therefore, it is important that attention should be paid to the caregiver training by focusing on ECFE professionals and caregivers’ cooperation because cooperation is the key dimension of ECFE’s pedagogical quality
[49][44].
Recognizing others’ disciplines in terms of their knowledge and skills as shared information has been perceived as a crucial characteristic of peer-to-peer learning
[50][45]. This perception has enabled the expertise of transdisciplinary co-workers to be shared with others as an important contributing factor of community ergonomics and broadens the expertise and collections of skills of all co-workers, which is the contributing effect to educational ergonomics
[35]. Wong argued “to avoid becoming a jack-of-all-trades and master of none”; being a transdisciplinary co-worker does not necessarily mean that the co-worker must master others’ disciplines. However, Wong’s statement points to the advantage of effectively integrating others’ expertise. It highlights that transdisciplinary collaboration is not about moving towards some form of traditional ECFE practice; instead, it is about developing the skills to work collaboratively with others who can offer their related or allied expertise (e.g., childcare manager, social worker, counsellor, and psychologist).
In the current study, while the three participants seemed to have knowledge of the concept of a transdisciplinary team effort, they also expressed difficulty applying the knowledge and skills they have learnt from other professionals into their daily ECFE classroom practices. To give an example, while the participants felt that “it is quite straightforward to share a lesson plan with other co-workers”, it was much more difficult for Lian to apply Rui’s lesson plan directly. The “flexible application” relies not only on the general information or background knowledge of sharing lesson plans, but it is also based on hands-on experiences of when ECFE educational tactics would be most effective in its application within a given social context (i.e., the home) of each child and his/her caregivers. Empirical studies that have examined the benefits of ECFE caregiver programs have shown some promising results. One example is Parent Corps, an American ECFE program where ECE teachers and mental health professionals worked together by using various ECFE educational strategies in a timely manner to help caregivers to facilitate their young children’s learning across domains
[51][46]. According to the results of Joo et al.’s meta-analysis
[47][42], “fully developed parenting programs to ECE” improved young children’s various development and learning (i.e., pre-academic skills, social-emotional skills, behaviours, and health).” Therefore, for the three participants in the current study to realize the extensive benefits of transdisciplinary peer-to-peer learning, a range of alternatives must be provided for them to choose and advance a deeper understanding of these complex aspects of co-workers’ distinctive disciplinary practices and tactics and not only the basic knowledge and skills of each other’s disciplines. As a result, the implications for transdisciplinary ECFE training is to adopt a transdisciplinary loop, which is rooted in disciplinary paradigms, and the need to assess the value of these paradigms with respect to creating a new domain of knowledge or providing a solution to a practical problem in both community ergonomics
[47,52][42][47].