Inter-professional pedagogical collaboration between teachers and their out-of-school partners

Abstract

Teachers cross boundaries when they collaborate with out-of-school partners to provide more authentic learning experiences for students. Using the framework of boundary crossing, the study draws on interview data from schools and their out-of-school partners to examine the research question of how the research participants viewed the beginning of their inter-professional pedagogical collaboration. We use this term because in the context of primary and secondary education contexts mere inter-professional collaboration has usually referred to activities aimed, for example, at addressing children’s social exclusion. The starting point for inter-professional pedagogical collaboration can be seen through the identification of boundaries and boundary crossing. Using theory-based analysis to categorise the interview data, inter-professional pedagogical collaboration became evident in terms of (1) shared pedagogical knowledge, (2) finding roles in new situations and contexts, and (3) resources for collaboration. Recognising these can help schools respond to the needs of twenty-first century learning.

Keywords:

• Boundary crossing
• inter-professional collaboration
• out-of-school learning