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A Bit of a Dance

Interdisciplinarity is the cornerstone of gerontology and geriatrics. But it is often difficult to “do it right,” whether in the classroom, clinical setting, research projects, or publications. It is no different for the Editors and Editorial Board here at Gerontology & Geriatrics Education. We struggle with decisions such as selecting the topic for the annual special issue, journal marketing, and the manuscript line-up for each individual issue. Balancing content and professional and academic constituencies is a bit of a dance. The Editors and Editorial Board represent a diverse group from gerontology and geriatrics programs, with a wide range of professional affiliations including nursing, social work, medicine, and psychology, and our discussions reflect the possibilities and opportunities of “interdisciplinary,” as well as the complications. For example, we explore questions such as: are we becoming too focused on geriatrics education? What about theoretically-based strategies for gerontology education? Is the journal responding to conventions in professional publications for nursing, medicine, and other healthcare fields by offering a new ‘brief report” format? The journal’s aims and scope statement reflects this interdisciplinary conundrum, stating that we focus “on the exchange of information related to research, curriculum development, course and program evaluation, classroom and practice innovation, and other topics with educational implications for gerontology and geriatrics. [The journal] is designed to appeal to a broad range of readers, including faculty, students, practitioners, administrators, and policy makers and is dedicated to disseminating cutting edge and evidence-based knowledge in the field of gerontology and geriatrics education.” That is our dance, the balance we strive for. Then there is the other baby elephant in the room: how do we link “gerontology” and “geriatrics” stakeholders and get them to talk and listen to each other? The gulf between the fields has been historically difficult to bridge, in part because of confusion around the differences and similarities of the two, including social gerontology, application, and practice-related issues. So much, that the Association of Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE), the official sponsor of Gerontology & Geriatrics Education, found it necessary for its Executive Committee to consider and approve definitions as