Crafting interdisciplinary in an M.Sc. programme in management of natural resources and sustainable agriculture

This paper discusses challenges of an educational program, where interdisciplinarity is an important ambition. A theoretical perspective on interdisciplinarity must be more than adding insights from different disciplines as surprisingly many actors still take it to be. Interdisciplinarity is a fruitful meeting-ground and constitute processes for translation and integration of disciplinary perspectives. Interdisciplinary candidates must learn and should develop skills to identify, select, translate and integrate knowledge from different disciplines into a coherent framework. From theories in interdisciplinarity, one should develop explicit theories for interdisciplinarity. A common field focus can motivate integration of and translation between disciplines. The multipurpose re-orientation in forestry as an example of natural resource management displays the need for development of management proficiency not only related to multipurpose management, but also to handle social issues and interactions between conflicting actors. Within forestry, interdisciplinary challenges are often met through implicit, tacit and experience-based "common sense" knowledge. An explicit focus on integration of and translation between disciplines as well as development of experience-based skills is required to build interdisciplinary proficiency. This includes using practical field assignments and problem-based learning approaches to develop candidates' abilities to select, translate and integrate knowledge. Key words: interdisciplinarity, environment and development, cross-epistemic communication, natural resource management and education