Page 13 - Interdisciplinary Approach to Research

had touched, narrated their experience differently. The blind man who felt the side of the

elephant described it as a wall, while the one who felt the elephant tusk described it as a spear.

The six blind men argued among themselves whether what they touched was a snake, a cow, or a

piece of rope? Only when they worked together, sharing their different ideas and experiences

with the elephant, were they able to discover the truth.Well, it seems as if scientists and scholars

of empirical research across the world are increasingly getting the point of the six blind men

story. They are expanding their communication across fields, telling one another about their part

of the elephant which has resulted to the formation of new, interdisciplinary scientific fields,

such as bioinformatics, that are painting expanded pictures of the world around us. The

historian/biologist, the business/mathematics/communication professional, the American studies,

the Nigerian history written and told from the perspective of sociology, history, anthropology

and political science addresses the same sentiment about the concept of working together and

thanks to the collective helps of diverse groups of researchers with collaborative mindset.

Interdisciplinary research is motivated by the belief that by drawing from different fields

or employing different types of methodologies, a person can gain a broad understanding and

produce a new perspective on an existing issue (White, 2003). For example, many decades ago

race would have been something addressed by historians or sociologists, which would have

provided a viewpoint from only one perspective. With the emergence of African American

studies, however, perspectives and insights are drawn from many different areas, which has

produced a more accurate and well-balanced perspective on the African American experience

(White, 2003).

Glod, (2016) identified five broad significant advantages of Interdisciplinary research

such as: (1) creation of a wider audience where a computer scientist who can think like a

12