Boundary Spanning Among Educational Partners in the Service of Equality of Opportunity

• In Event: 32.057 - Activity Theory: Mediating Interdisciplinary Methods and Methodologies

Abstract

This study focuses on boundary-spanning within and across a university-school- community partnership meant to foster equality of opportunity for at-risk secondary school students. Cooperative education for 9th-11th graders enrolled in a general education program was the context of the study. Formative intervention and design research methodologies were applied, and ethnographic methods used. Results are presented in three forms: 1)tensions that arose between educational partners’ activity systems; 2) partners’ manifestations of boundary spanning, and 3) students’ learning outcomes. Implications for educational policy with attention to context are drawn.

Authors

• Therese Laferriere, Laval University

• Sylvie Barma, Laval University

• Marie-Claude Bernard, Laval University

• Chantal Trepanier, Laval University

• Marie-Caroline Vincent, Laval University