A Global Educational Experience between Geography and Nursing: Interdisciplinarity and Sustainability

As the world becomes increasingly more interconnected and interdependent, it is critical that academic institutions continue to build opportunities to prepare students to become global citizens. It is also a priority to expand approaches for students to learn within interdisciplinary environments so that students acquire a broader “team lens” needed for success in future employment and scholarship. Across the globe, part of the “common language” connecting professionals across disciplines has been the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These seventeen interconnected goals serve as a blueprint for the nations of the world to address the ongoing challenges to peace and prosperity for people and our planet. The SDGs address interconnected broad issues ranging from ending poverty, addressing climate change, improving health and education, reducing inequalities, and spurring economic growth (United Nations 2020). There is a growing body of literature dealing with the concept of interdisciplinarity in American universities. Interdisciplinarity commonly refers to the joining of forces by two or more academic fields of knowledge (Raento 2009, 517). Advocates of the use of interdisciplinarity in higher education consider it necessary to address complex problems facing the world in the twenty-first century (Bracken and Oughton 2009). Several disciplines have participated in the process, and geography is no exception. As Baerwald (2010, 497) stated, in his presidential address to the Association of American Geographers, “If disciplines are tribes with distinctive cultures, geographers are a breed inclined to wandering, exploring, and working together with others.” Such calls, however, need not be limited only to research agendas, but they need to extend to teaching and learning (Taylor 2018). Similarly, the profession of nursing stresses the need for interdisciplinary education and practice experiences to provide “health for all,” most often interdisciplinary education takes place across other health disciplines (e.g., medicine, pharmacy, physical therapy). The American Association of Colleges of Nursing position statement on interdisciplinary education and practice stresses that nursing students should be educated in ways that promote joint interdisciplinary planning, decision-making, and goal setting (Morrison-Beedy et al. 2021) The purpose of this paper is to present an interdisciplinary model of Education Abroad in Cyprus. This unique educational opportunity allows undergraduate students from across several campuses to achieve three goals: (1) to enhance their global perspective by participating in an Education Abroad experience, (2) to participate in an interdisciplinary learning experience between geography and nursing with the SDGs as an overarching thread, and (3) to fulfill the proposed university general education thematic requirements.