Interdisciplinary graduate programs which require academic and professional perspectives

This paper explores considerations that need to be taken into account in the development of academic and professional interdisciplinary programs. Such programs are built on a social view of knowing; take into account the personal world of those involved; and contain program structures that support an interdisciplinary perspective. The paper begins with four features of the knowing person that point to a view of scholarship rooted in the constructive and collaborative activity of human beings. It then describes an interdisciplinary program of graduate study that blends professional and academic concerns.