Table 4.

Challenges and Obstacles to Transdisciplinary Training and Success.

Ambivalence about transdisciplinary training in social work
Social work identity threatened	“[Transdisciplinary research training may lead to] dancing at everyone else’s party rather than throwing a party of our own . . . we might be giving up what little power we have as a discipline if relationships are not reciprocal, respectful, and mutually beneficial.” (Participant #44)
Social work knowledge base diluted	“Transdisciplinary training may water down the foundation in social work theory and methods.” (Participant #45)
Confused about transdisciplinary definition	“I am a bit skeptical [about transdisciplinary research training in PhD programs] as I struggle to fully understand the distinction between transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary research in practice . . . and what the added value of the former relative to the latter is.” (Participant #63))
Uncertain about how to do transdisciplinary training	“I think it would be difficult to prepare doctoral students for this kind of work. It is extremely difficult. Often even within one discipline there are subspecialties that have completely different terms for similar or the same constructs.” (Participant #17)
Challenges in transdisciplinary research
Transdisciplinary research not supported or valued by institution/discipline	“We are encouraged to collaborate with other disciplines in the University text, talk, and rhetoric. However, the incentive structures are less concrete and precise in encouraging and incentivizing transdisciplinary work. I would say that this is especially the case for pretenured faculty. That is, tenured faculty have much more leniency to do collaborative work without the threat of needing to perform ‘independently’ . . .We need more specific and concrete incentives for collaborative research; Tenure policies must value and reward collaborative and multiauthored scholarship . . . funders must providing funding for longer period to allow for the additional time required to do transdisciplinary work.” (Participant #84)
Social work will be overshadowed by other disciplines on transdisciplinary team	“[Social work might be] overpowered by more research-oriented or heavily funded disciplines (e.g., medicine) . . . [because there are] stereotypes about social workers as researchers from more established/heavily funded research professions (again, e.g., medicine).” (Participant #71)
Difficulty finding transdisciplinary collaborators	“[Obstacles for transdisciplinary training in social work include] finding colleagues from other fields especially as a junior faculty member and integrating various methods into building a shared framework; How to be creative enough to prove to colleagues from other fields that you have innovative methods for research that they can learn from.” (Participant #76)