Rationale and aims of crosscurricular teaching and learning: For life, knowledge, and work

This chapter outlines the theoretical basis for an inclusive and flexible approach to crosscurricular teaching. It demonstrates how the classical conception of Bildung and its more recent developments can support a wide range of aims and goals of teaching and show them to be interrelated. Specifically, it argues that the concern for fostering competences, meeting societal needs, and answering societal challenges is compatible with ideals of self-cultivation and critical and non-conformist thinking. It uses the idea of Bildung to strike a balance between the need to relate to students’ personal interests and lifeworld and the importance of observing transpersonal constraints grounded in disciplinary knowledge and societal norms and challenges.