Landscapes for Boundary Crossing Between Professional Groups in Preparation for Teaching Bilingual Children With Disabilities

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 29
  In Roundtable Session: Cultural Historical Activity Theory Ecologies of Learning and Boundary Crossing: Reimagining Social Futures, Redefining Language and Ability, and Renegotiating Cultural Identities

Abstract

Teacher education programs prepare candidates for bilingual, English as a second language, or special education as separate professionals. This creates challenges when teaching bilingual children with disabilities. There is a need to cross boundaries to combine expertise and prepare teachers for complex classrooms. Responding to this need, we facilitated a Boundary Crossing Laboratory, with 14 professors and two State consultants. We explored boundary locations, and creative actions for boundary crossing in transcribed meeting audio-data. Our analysis revealed three main boundaries addressing mostly the artifacts needed for effective collaborative work. The process evolved from defending/maintaining to questioning boundaries, with emerging efforts to transforming them. Our study widens the understanding of possibilities for boundary crossing between multiple professionals in teacher education programs.

Authors

• Patricia Martínez-Álvarez, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Angela Maria Lopez-Velasquez, Southern Connecticut State University

• Anu Kajamaa, University of Helsinki