Boundary Crossing in Higher Education: Exploring Possibilities for Bilingual Special Education Preparation Programs

• In Event: 63.084 - Roundtable Session 22
  In Roundtable Session: 63.084-8 - Innovation, Imagination, Transformation in Education

Abstract

In this study, we aim to widen the understanding of organizational change efforts in higher education. We document an effort initiated by an interdisciplinary faculty group from a state university in the Northeast of the US, who sought to merge their expertise in bilingual and special education. To understand change in this context, we analyzed boundary crossing as it occurred during laboratory change meetings as a series of expansive learning actions shaped as a cycle of expansive learning (Engeström, 1999; Engestrom & Sannino, 2010). Our emerging findings reveal the contradictions and tensions faced by the participants as they crossed disciplinary boundaries, and the creative actions undertaken.

Authors

• Angela Maria Lopez-Velasquez, Southern Connecticut State University

• Patricia Martínez-Álvarez, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Russell Alexander Oost-Lievense, Southern Connecticut State University