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Interdisciplinary health research (IDHR):
An analysis of the lived experience from the theoretical perspective of
identity
By
Koshila Kumar
Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Sydney Medical School
The University of Sydney
2012
Abstract
Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary research involves the integration of theories, concepts,
methodologies or methods from two or more academic disciplines or professional practice
fields into a common research framework. Interdisciplinary health research (IDHR) refers
specifically to the integration of frameworks and perspectives from multiple disciplines
within or allied to health. The existing empirical literature including in the health research
domain, has privileged a focus on the collaborative and interpersonal aspects of
interdisciplinarity resulting in a focus on the processes and practices of collaboration and the
interdisciplinary team as the unit of analysis. This has meant that researchers’ voices and
stories regarding their personal journey and lived experience of interdisciplinarity have
largely been absent from the literature.
This thesis explores how IDHR is enacted, experienced and lived by health researchers in
higher education, as well as the link between the lived experience of IDHR and identity. It
uses hermeneutic phenomenological methods to gather rich idiographic data from twenty-
one health researchers engaged in IDHR in the Australian higher education sector. Data
interpretation occurs at two levels: a phenomenological analysis explores the essential
characteristics of IDHR as a human phenomenon, while a theoretical analysis explicates
issues related to identity and identification associated with health researchers’ lived
experience.
The phenomenological findings of this thesis illustrate that health researchers’ lived
experience of IDHR is simultaneously enabling and disabling, and thus fundamentally
paradoxical in nature. These findings also show the multiplicity of levels at which health
researchers enact IDHR, including the social-relational and personal-embodied level.
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Theoretical interpretation of findings from the perspective of identity shows that health
researchers’ engaged in IDHR encounter a tension between their institution-identity which is
traditionally defined and legitimised in relation to a discipline, and their affinity-identity
reflecting their personal values and preferences for interdisciplinary work. Using identity
dissonance as a theoretical lens, this thesis illustrates that health researchers engaged in
IDHR strive to reconcile the conflict in identities and associated feelings of vulnerability and
discomfort, by constructing and negotiating their identity in different ways. Strategies health
researchers use include: conformist practices aimed at aligning with dominant discipline-
based values and expectations in the institution and the higher education sector;
performative tactics aimed at presenting a favourable image of self to significant others; and
resistive strategies aimed at affirming personal interdisciplinary preferences and values.
In summary, this thesis illustrates that the lived experience of IDHR can be conceptualised as
a conflicted space within which researchers’ identities are contested, constructed and
negotiated. This is the first phenomenological and theoretical account of how IDHR is
experienced, enacted and lived by health researchers in the higher Australian education
setting. This thesis identifies a number of practical recommendations related to the need for
individual researchers and research teams to articulate and constructively manage the
ambiguities and conflict in identities characterising the lived experience of IDHR. This thesis
also provides an important message about how higher education institutions and the sector
more broadly can transform research cultures and practices in order to foster and support
integrative and creative forms of working and thinking (including about self) that transcend
discipline boundaries.
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Acknowledgements
To my supervisors Chris Roberts and Jill Thistlethwaite, I am indebted to you for your wise
counsel, guidance and support. I am grateful for the diversity in perspectives and expertise
that you brought to this work, as well as for your patience and trust in letting this thesis
evolve.
To the participants in this study, I thank you for your generosity in sharing your stories and
insights which have provided the foundation for this work.
To my PhD colleagues and friends, in particular Judith Amed and Lucila Carvalho, it has been
fantastic having you around to share in the joys and miseries. We are there now! To my
work colleagues, both present and past, your encouragement, advice and help have been
welcome and much appreciated.
My thanks also go to the University of Sydney for the financial support it provided in the
form of a University Postgraduate Award.
Last but not least, my deepest thanks go to my family and friends. I thank my parents
Nemindra and Sunil for inspiring me to learn and to question the world around me; my
sisters Mano for cheering me on and Sachi for being a great study buddy; my extended
family for their encouragement; and my friend Fazi for always putting things into
perspective. I especially thank my husband Namnit for always believing in me, and for his
love and support which sustains me. I am fortunate to have you all by my side.
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Associated publications and presentations
Kumar K, Roberts C, Thistlethwaite J. Interdisciplinary health research (IDHR): a
phenomenological analysis of the lived experience. Paper submitted to Qualitative Health
Research, 2012.
Kumar K, Roberts C, Thistlethwaite J. (2011). Interdisciplinary health research: an analysis of
the lived experience. Paper presented at the Postgraduate Research Students' Society
(PReSS) seminar, Kolling Institute of Medical Research & Royal North Shore Hospital, 14
nd
October 2011. Awarded best PhD presentation by student in 2 half of candidature.
Kennington S & Kumar K. Collaborating across disciplinary and organisational cultures.
Invited presentation. Qualitative Health Research Collaboration (QHeRC). The University of
Sydney. 27 April 2010.
Kumar K, Thistlethwaite J & Roberts C. Interdisciplinary teamwork in research: what are the
experiences of cross-disciplinary collaboration? Paper presented at ANZAME: The
Association for Health Professional Education Annual Conference. Launceston, Tasmania. 30
June – 3 July 2009.
Kumar K, Thistlethwaite J & Roberts C. Resilience of the interdisciplinary health education
research team. Paper presented at ANZAME: The Association for Health Professional
Education Annual Conference. Sydney, Australia. 10-13 July 2008.
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Table of Contents
Abstract .......................................................................................................................... ii
Acknowledgements........................................................................................................ iv
Associated publications and presentations ...................................................................... v
Table of Contents ........................................................................................................... vi
List of Tables ................................................................................................................ xiii
List of Figures ............................................................................................................... xiv
Prologue - My personal journey....................................................................................... 1
Chapter 1 – Introduction to this thesis ............................................................................. 4
1.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 4
1.2 Describing the study ........................................................................................... 8
1.2.1 Research aim and questions ................................................................................. 8
1.2.2 Research objectives .............................................................................................. 9
1.2.3 Study context and participants ........................................................................... 10
1.2.4 Research approach.............................................................................................. 10
1.2.5 Theoretical framework .............................................................................................. 11
1.4 Significance of this research .............................................................................. 11
1.4.1 Methodological significance ............................................................................... 12
1.4.2 Theoretical significance ...................................................................................... 12
1.4.3 Practical significance ........................................................................................... 12
1.5 Thesis structure ................................................................................................ 13
1.6 Summary of chapter.......................................................................................... 16
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Chapter 2 – Contemporary understandings of interdisciplinarity and IDHR ..................... 17
2.1 Introduction to the chapter ............................................................................... 17
2.2 The literature review strategy and process ........................................................ 17
2.3 The academic disciplines ................................................................................... 20
2.3.1 Anthropological perspective ............................................................................... 21
2.3.2 Sociological perspective ...................................................................................... 25
2.3.3 Socialisation to the discipline .............................................................................. 30
2.4 The impetus for integration across the academic disciplines .............................. 32
2.5 The continuum of integration across disciplines ................................................. 33
2.5.1 Multidisciplinarity ............................................................................................... 34
2.5.2 Transdisciplinarity ............................................................................................... 34
2.5.3 Interdisciplinarity ................................................................................................ 35
2.6 Interdisciplinary health research (IDHR)............................................................. 36
2.7 The multiple levels of interdisciplinarity ........................................................... 39
2.7.1 Interdisciplinarity at the interpersonal level....................................................... 39
2.7.2 Interdisciplinarity at the intrapersonal level ....................................................... 42
2.8 Interdisciplinarity, IDHR and identity ................................................................. 43
2.9 Factors impacting interdisciplinarity and IDHR ................................................... 46
2.9.1 Macro-level factors ............................................................................................. 46
2.9.1.1 The normative power of the discipline ............................................................ 46
2.9.1.2 Changing discourses regarding knowledge production .................................. 53
2.9.1.3 Political and economic climate ....................................................................... 55
2.9.1.4 Tensions between disciplinary paradigms ...................................................... 56
2.9.2 Meso-level factors............................................................................................... 57
2.9.3 Micro-level factors .............................................................................................. 58
2.10 Summary of chapter.......................................................................................... 60
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Chapter 3 – Research approach ..................................................................................... 63
3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 63
3.2 Philosophical orientations to research ............................................................... 64
3.2.1 My philosophical orientation to this thesis ............................................................... 67
3.3 Research questions and objectives .................................................................... 68
3.4 Phenomenology as a human science research methodology .............................. 69
3.4.1 Key characteristics of phenomenology ............................................................... 71
3.4.1.1 Lifeworld.......................................................................................................... 71
3.4.1.2 Essence ............................................................................................................ 71
3.4.1.3 Intentionality ................................................................................................... 71
3.4.1.4 Bracketing ....................................................................................................... 72
3.4.2 Hermeneutic phenomenology ............................................................................ 73
3.4.3 Rationale for using hermeneutic phenomenology ............................................. 83
3.5 Reflexivity: the complexities of being positioned as an ‘insider’ ......................... 83
3.6 Ethical considerations for this study .................................................................. 87
3.7 Participants ...................................................................................................... 89
3.7.1 Sampling .............................................................................................................. 89
3.7.2 Recruitment ........................................................................................................ 90
3.7.2.1 Sources of recruitment .................................................................................... 90
3.7.2.2 Methods of recruitment .................................................................................. 91
3.7.3 Introducing the participants ............................................................................... 92
3.7.3.1 Participants demographic data ....................................................................... 92
3.7.3.2 Participant narratives ..................................................................................... 95
3.8 Gathering data ................................................................................................ 103
3.8.1 The interview as a source of data ..................................................................... 103
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3.9 Interpreting data ............................................................................................ 108
3.9.1 Stage 1 – Preparing for analysis ........................................................................ 109
3.9.2 Stage 2 - Immersion in the data ........................................................................ 110
3.9.3 Stage 3 - Making exploratory notes .................................................................. 111
3.9.4 Stage 4 - Developing emergent themes ............................................................ 113
3.9.5 Stage 5 - Making connections across emergent themes .................................. 114
3.9.6 Stage 6 - Theoretical interpretation of data ..................................................... 115
3.9.7 Writing as interpretation .................................................................................. 117
3.10 Ensuring quality in phenomenological inquiry .................................................. 118
3.10.1 Credibility or trustworthiness of the research .................................................. 119
3.10.2 Dependability and confirmability...................................................................... 121
3.10.3 Transferability ................................................................................................... 121
3.10.4 Overall rigour .................................................................................................... 122
3.10.5 Reflexivity .......................................................................................................... 123
3.11 Summary of chapter........................................................................................ 124
Chapter 4 – Health researchers’ lived experience of IDHR ............................................ 126
4.1 Introduction to the chapter ............................................................................. 126
4.2 The conflicted experience of IDHR ................................................................... 126
4.2.1 IDHR as enabling ............................................................................................... 127
4.2.1.1 IDHR as valuable ........................................................................................... 127
4.2.1.2 IDHR as facilitating learning ......................................................................... 130
4.2.1.3 IDHR as transformative ................................................................................. 134
4.2.2 IDHR as disabling ............................................................................................... 139
4.2.2.1 IDHR as lacking legitimacy and credibility .................................................... 139
4.2.2.2 IDHR as risky .................................................................................................. 145
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