Cross-sector early years teacher collaboration: using professional learning workshops as boundary objects for professional boundary crossing

ABSTRACT

In Victoria, Australia, the transition from preschool to compulsory school education is impacted by systemic disconnections in organisation, pedagogical thinking and curricula. These disconnections can create discontinuities in children’s experiences, and continuity of learning. At a policy level, attempts have been made to build cooperative relationships and shared understandings between teachers in both contexts with a focus on transition-to-school. This paper describes the extent to which participation in a cross-sector professional learning workshop, around the transition-to-school process as a boundary object, supported educators to develop shared understandings and an appreciation of one’s own and others’ professional values and actions. Using the lens of boundary crossing, the study found that participating in collaborative professional learning workshops provided educators with opportunities to engage at the intersection of their collective professional and pedagogical boundaries and enhanced professional connections. Policy implications for future cross-sector professional development are also discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Boundary crossing
• transition to school
• early years
• professional learning
• teacher partnership

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data is not publicly available.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Victorian Department of Education and Training as part of the Transition: A Positive Start to School Professional Learning Project.