Systems to Transform Interdisciplinary Graduate Education: An Ecological Systems Analysis of STEM Graduate Students' Longitudinal Interdisciplinary Identity-Based Motivation

Abstract

Despite growing recognition that solving complex global challenges requires interdisciplinary approaches, traditional academic structures continue to create significant barriers for STEM graduate students attempting to pursue interdisciplinary work. To address these barriers, this dissertation examines how academic systems influence interdisciplinary identity development and motivation among STEM graduate students through the lenses of Ecological Systems Theory (EST) and Future Possible Selves (FPS). Drawing on longitudinal interviews with graduate students in an Interdisciplinary Disaster Resilience program, this case study reveals complex developmental trajectories, salient microsystems, and system interaction patterns that shape interdisciplinary scholar formation. The research unfolds across three interconnected manuscripts that : 1) identify three patterns of interdisciplinary identity development that challenge linear models; 2) map 12 critical microsystems, spanning past, present, and future, that influence development; and 3) analyze how the core functions of these microsystems act and interact to create supports, barriers, and negotiations in students' development. By integrating EST with FPS, this work demonstrates that interdisciplinary development emerges through interactions among individual aspirations and the entrenched functions of academic microsystems rather than simple acquisition of specific skills or competencies. The findings help explain why sustainable change in interdisciplinary graduate education remains challenging: stable patterns within academic microsystems operate to sustain underlying core functions that actively resist isolated modifications and privilege disciplinary over interdisciplinary development.