Considering that academia tends to follow an apprenticeship model of socialising graduate students to become future academic practitioners (Brownell & Tanner, 2012; Kezar & Lester, 2009; Wilson et al., 2020), developing skills to collaborate effectively across disciplinary boundaries in teams is key for early-career academics in sustainability (Eigenbrode et al., 2007; O’Rourke et al., 2014). Such team science experiences can be difficult to come by in early careers stage, as commonly the socialisation of graduate students in academic norms is through a singular specialised field or discipline (Haider et al., 2018; Kezar & Lester, 2009; Luft et al., 2004; Piazza et al., 2024). Therefore, considering places for supporting early-career academics team science capacities, I present a case study of learning through a collaborative teaching assistantship for an interdisciplinary climate crisis course. By applying the theoretical frame of situated learning (Lave & Gomes, 2019; Lave & Wenger, 1991), this study viewed this team TA experience as legitimate peripheral participation in an interdisciplinary academic community of practice.

This case study was situated in an introductory level climate course, offered annually to undergraduate students of all levels and across departments and faculties. While these students may not necessarily come from interdisciplinary backgrounds, the course environment becomes interdisciplinary through its enrollment and format. Core learning was facilitated by core team of 12 graduate teaching assistants (TAs) in pairs from a diversity of disciplines through weekly workshops. The course themes shifted weekly, focusing on different domains of the climate crisis. TAs might not have always been familiar with each angle prior to facilitating the workshops. Still, as doing interdisciplinary team teaching related to the climate crisis requires moving between boundaries and understandings of a singular field (Leite, 2024; Lotz-Sisitka et al., 2015; McCowan, 2025), the TAs are expected to navigating through diversity of changing norms, knowledge and understandings.

Considering this collaborative complexity, this TA experience presents a relevant case study to understand how we can support development of early -career academics interdisciplinary collaboration skills and knowledge. Through facilitating reflective practice (Phelps, 2005; Reed et al., 2020) with audio journals (Noyes, 2004) longitudinally a single term TA experience, my research highlights the complex tensions faced in their Climate educator role, as they negotiate their knowledge and values in a collaborative teaching environment.

My case study brings insights in potential best practices to support an interdisciplinary teaching team. Furthermore, this study highlights transferable skills and knowledge among these early-career academics for future collaborative and interdisciplinary work. Key insights include expanding one’s knowledge beyond a singular discipline, adaptation of communication frames across specialties and fostering an interdisciplinary graduate community.

Those who work with graduate TAs, academics in supporting the education of teams or interested in Climate Education generally will find this presentation/ poster particularly relevant.