Disciplinarity, with the contested forms inter-, cross-, and multi-, is the approach to an academic field of knowledge through disciplines, which are conceptualized as being discrete, bounded, academic traditions of knowledge creation and knowledge dissemination. The term subject, also knowledge field, is used instead of discipline when the subject area is defined for or focused on a purpose (e.g., in compulsory education syllabuses, for projects addressing a problem requiring multiple approaches, and in teaching and the scholarship of teaching). This entry discusses the history of disciplinarity, types of discipline-based knowledge, and challenges to the boundaries of disciplines and the disciplinary structure of higher education.

With roots in the medieval university, maintained by prestigious learned societies, and strengthened by research funding and evaluations based on peer review, ...