Content uploaded by Arthur Bakker
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Arthur Bakker on Apr 27, 2015
Content may be subject to copyright.
http://rer.aera.net
Research
Review of Educational
http://rer.sagepub.com/content/81/2/132
The online version of this article can be found at:
DOI: 10.3102/0034654311404435
April 2011
2011 81: 132 originally published online 19REVIEW OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
Sanne F. Akkerman and Arthur Bakker
Boundary Crossing and Boundary Objects
Published on behalf of
American Educational Research Association
and
http://www.sagepublications.com
can be found at:Review of Educational ResearchAdditional services and information for
http://rer.aera.net/alertsEmail Alerts:
http://rer.aera.net/subscriptionsSubscriptions:
http://www.aera.net/reprintsReprints:
http://www.aera.net/permissionsPermissions:
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
132
Review of Educational Research
June 2011, Vol. 81, No. 2, pp. 132–169
DOI: 10.3102/0034654311404435
© 2011 AERA. http://rer.aera.net
Boundary Crossing and Boundary Objects
Sanne F. Akkerman and Arthur Bakker
Utrecht University
Diversity and mobility in education and work present a paramount challenge
that needs better conceptualization in educational theory. This challenge has
been addressed by educational scholars with the notion of boundaries, par-
ticularly by the concepts of boundary crossing and boundary objects.
Although studies on boundary crossing and boundary objects emphasize that
boundaries carry learning potential, it is not explicated in what way they do
so. By reviewing this literature, this article offers an understanding of bound-
aries as dialogical phenomena. The review of the literature reveals four
potential learning mechanisms that can take place at boundaries: identifica-
tion, coordination, reflection, and transformation. These mechanisms show
various ways in which sociocultural differences and resulting discontinuities
in action and interaction can come to function as resources for development
of intersecting identities and practices.
Keywords: boundary, boundary crossing, boundary object, dialogicality, learning
theory.
I am conscious of myself and become myself only while revealing myself for
another, through another, and with the help of another. . . . [E]very internal
experience ends up on the boundary.
Bakhtin (1984, p. 287)
All learning involves boundaries. Whether we speak of learning as the change
from novice to expert in a particular domain or as the development from legitimate
peripheral participation to being a full member of a particular community (Lave &
Wenger, 1991), the boundary of the domain or community is constitutive of what
counts as expertise or as central participation. When we consider learning in terms
of identity development, a key question is the distinction between what is part of
me versus what is not (yet) part of me.
Boundaries are becoming more explicit because of increasing specialization;
people, therefore, search for ways to connect and mobilize themselves across
social and cultural practices to avoid fragmentation (Hermans & Hermans-
Konopka, 2010). The challenge in education and work is to create possibilities for
RER404435RER10.3102/0034654311404435Akkerman & BakkerBoundary Crossing and
Boundary Objects
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Boundary Crossing and Boundary Objects
133
participation and collaboration across a diversity of sites, both within and across
institutions (Akkerman, Admiraal, & Simons, in press; Daniels, Edwards,
Engeström, Gallagher, & Ludvigsen, 2010; Ludvigsen, Lund, Rasmussen, &
Säljö, 2010).
Over the past decades, many scholars have come to study these challenges by
employing the term boundaries (e.g., Bernstein, 1971; Engeström, Engeström, &
Kärkkäinen, 1995; Star, 1989; Suchman, 1994). A boundary can be seen as a socio-
cultural difference leading to discontinuity in action or interaction. Boundaries
simultaneously suggest a sameness and continuity in the sense that within discon-
tinuity two or more sites are relevant to one another in a particular way.
An example of boundaries can be found in teacher education programs that
include periods of schoolwork (R. Edwards & Fowler, 2007; Tsui & Law, 2007).
Alsup (2006) showed how student teachers can face different pedagogical values.
Such sociocultural differences in values between a teacher education program and
a secondary school can cause discontinuity in the sense that the student teachers
experience role or perspective changes between sites as challenging. At the same
time, sameness and continuity reside in the fact that both sites are concerned with
pedagogy and with the learning process of the student teacher.
In response to challenges of facing boundaries, education scholars have become
interested in the ways in which continuity in action or interaction is established
despite sociocultural differences. Two concepts have been central in describing
potential forms of continuity across sites: boundary crossing and boundary objects.
Although boundary crossing usually refers to a person’s transitions and interac-
tions across different sites (Suchman, 1994), boundary objects refers to artifacts
doing the crossing by fulfilling a bridging function (Star, 1989). Examples of
boundary objects are a teacher portfolio as a means by which both the mentor and
the school supervisor are able to track the development of the student teacher in
teacher education and a patient record that is used by different departments and
institutes in medical care (Paterson, 2007).
According to Engeström et al. (1995), boundary crossing is “a broad and little-
studied category of cognitive process” (p. 321). Since 1995, however, the concepts
of boundary crossing and boundary objects have been used in complementary
ways by many scholars in educational sciences and educational psychology. In
ERIC and PsycINFO we found a total of 21 different works published in or before
1995 in which there is a reference to boundary object(s) and/or boundary crossing.
The years 2007, 2008, and 2009 show 101, 109, and 113 publications, respectively,
using the terms, indicating the current interest in the topic.
A review of the literature on boundary crossing and boundary objects seems
timely. The concepts have now become an explicit part of two well-known learn-
ing theories: cultural historical activity theory on expansive learning (Engeström,
1987) and situated learning theory on communities of practice (Wenger, 1998),
both stressing how boundaries carry potential for learning. The claims on boundar-
ies and learning made in the literature, although perhaps appealing, are often gen-
eral in nature, and the literature hardly explicates how or what kind of learning is
taking place. In this article we review literature on boundary crossing and bound-
ary objects to determine its current insights into learning potentials of boundaries.
To frame the review, we first describe how educational and related sciences came
to focus on boundaries and their learning potential.
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
134
The Centrality of Boundaries
In the following we elaborate on the concepts of boundary crossing and bound-
ary objects, sketch how and why these concepts resonate with a broader movement
in the social sciences, and propose how this is a new strand of literature.
The Concepts of Boundary Crossing and Boundary Objects
Education research mostly studies learning within boundaries of practices,
focusing on particular groups of people or on certain domains of expertise.
Along with new understandings of work, the emphasis on bounded and singular
domains has been challenged. Star (1989; Star & Griesemer, 1989), Suchman
(1994), and Engeström et al. (1995) found that various types of professional
work (science, technology design, and teaching) are heterogeneous in that they
involve multiple actors representing different professional cultures. In line with
studies of professional work, Phelan, Davidson, and Cao (1991) found how ado-
lescents cross boundaries, in their case among family, peers, and school. Hence,
working and learning are not only about becoming an expert in a particular
bounded domain but also about crossing boundaries.
The term boundary crossing was introduced to denote how professionals at
work may need to “enter onto territory in which we are unfamiliar and, to some
significant extent therefore unqualified” (Suchman, 1994, p. 25) and “face the
challenge of negotiating and combining ingredients from different contexts to
achieve hybrid situations” (Engeström et al., 1995, p. 319). Star (1989; Star &
Griesemer, 1989) introduced the concept of boundary object to indicate how arti-
facts can fulfill a specific function in bridging intersecting practices. Boundary
objects are those objects that
both inhabit several intersecting worlds and satisfy the informational require-
ments of each of them. . . . [They are] both plastic enough to adapt to local
needs and the constraints of the several parties employing them, yet robust
enough to maintain a common identity across sites. They are weakly struc-
tured in common use, and become strongly structured in individual site use.
(Star & Griesemer, 1989, p. 393)
Star and Griesemer found that the work of scientists during the development of a
natural history museum required the collaboration of many actors (university
administrators, professors, research scientists, curators, amateur collectors, private
sponsors, members of scientific clubs, etc.). They attributed the successful pursuit
of the research to the generation of a series of boundary objects such as data records
and lists of species for collecting and describing insects.
Along with reception of these two concepts in the educational sciences, many
different terms have emerged to refer to ways in which continuity across sites can
be established, such as brokering, boundary interactions, boundary practices, and
boundary zones. In the next section we discuss the background of the increasing
interest in boundaries.
Background of the Interest in Boundaries
The growing interest in boundaries during the past decades should be under-
stood against the background of two developments in the social sciences. First,
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Boundary Crossing and Boundary Objects
135
the interest in boundaries goes together with the study of larger units of analysis.
Star and Griesemer (1989) stated the need for ecological analysis that includes
analyzing the various institutions and different viewpoints of actors involved to
understand how boundaries are encountered and crossed (see also Clarke & Star,
2007). Likewise, Engeström, Engeström, and Vähäaho (1999) showed that study-
ing boundary crossing requires an analysis of all the loosely connected systems
involved. This extended scope of analysis has been an explicit part of what is
referred to as the third generation of cultural historical activity theory (CHAT),
which states that two activity systems are the minimal unit of analysis (Engeström,
2001; Roth & Lee, 2007). CHAT represents a theoretical tradition that can be
traced back to the works of Vygotsky (1978; 1934/1986) and his contemporaries,
conceptualizing individual goal-directed actions in the frame of the larger collec-
tive system of activity from which these actions derive their meaning (Roth &
Lee, 2007). The extended analysis beyond one practice is visible in different
social scientific areas. For example, in organizational research there is increasing
interest in the role of maintaining and crossing organizational boundaries
(Heracleous, 2004; Lamont & Molnár, 2002; Paulsen & Hernes, 2003), and in
group psychology there is increasing interest in the collaborative processes of
cross-site (e.g., interdisciplinary or interteam) groups (Yoo & Kanawattanachai,
2001).
Second, on a more paradigmatic level, studies on boundaries seem to represent
a new fine-grained appreciation of diversity. Lamont and Molnár (2002) noted in
a short review of the literature that boundaries are discussed in a wide variety of
social sciences to investigate how markers of difference are created, maintained,
or contested at many different levels of institutionalization and categorization.
Nevertheless, they indicate that researchers who draw on the concept of boundar-
ies are largely unaware of studies of boundaries beyond their own specialties and
across the social sciences. R. Edwards and Fowler (2007) argued that the increas-
ing interest in boundaries is a result of a growing attempt of social theory, influ-
enced by postmodernism, poststructuralism, postcolonialism, and feminism, to
focus on the marginal and the decentered as alternatives to discourses of power of
the center.
The paradigmatic shift can be seen in, for example, the way in which commu-
nication and the human mind are profoundly reconceptualized. In communication
theories, several scholars (Lotman, 1990; Wertsch & Toma, 1995) have begun to
argue against the basic and commonly held presupposition that communication is
a transmission process that works best in situations of sameness in the minds of
people. In contrast, they emphasize how words naturally mean different things to
different people. Several authors (Bhabha, 1990; Soja, 1996) have called attention
to the way in which intersections of cultural practices open up third spaces that
allow negotiation of meaning and hybridity—that is, the production of new cul-
tural forms of dialogue (Gutiérrez, Rymes, & Larson, 1995). In a different field of
social theory, social psychology, the human mind is no longer studied solely in
terms of a unified subject but as a self that is multiple, discontinuous, and inher-
ently related to individual and generalized others (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011).
Hence, it is more widely accepted to think in terms of a decentered self (Gergen,
1994) or dialogical self that continuously negotiates and strives to synthesize dif-
ferent subidentities (Hermans & Kempen, 1993). Accordingly, boundaries within
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Akkerman & Bakker
136
the self have become a focal point of interest of several psychologists (e.g.,
Marková, 2006; Valsiner, 2007).
What Is New for Educational Science?
An interesting question emerges concerning the extent to which the interest in
boundaries is new for educational science. The educational notion that most
closely approaches the idea of looking beyond single and singular domains and
practices is the notion of transfer. Reflecting on various approaches to transfer
throughout the history of educational sciences, Säljö (2003) reminds us that trans-
fer has been a concept for studying what is learned and for questioning how some-
thing learned in one task or context is applied in another task or context.
The literature on boundary crossing and boundary objects has a different focus
than the literature on transfer in various ways. Although transfer is mostly about
onetime and one-sided transitions, primarily affecting an individual who moves
from a context of learning to one of application (e.g., from school to work), con-
cepts of boundary crossing and boundary objects are used to refer to ongoing,
two-sided actions and interactions between contexts. These actions and interac-
tions across sites are argued to affect not only the individual but also the different
social practices at large. Following ideas underlying boundary crossing, we find
recent attempts to reconceptualize transfer (e.g., Beach, 1999; Konkola, Tuomi-
Gröhn, Lambert, & Ludvigsen, 2007; Tuomi-Gröhn, Engeström, & Young, 2003).
A second important difference between transfer studies and literature on
boundary crossing and boundary objects relates to the way in which diversity is
appreciated. Although the transfer literature approaches sociocultural differ-
ences as problematic, something that should be overcome or avoided, the bound-
ary literature initially values such differences. In the latter perspective, the
emphasis is on overcoming discontinuities in actions or interactions that can
emerge from sociocultural difference rather than overcoming or avoiding the
difference itself. The process of reestablishing action or interaction is seen as a
resource for learning. Claims on the potentials of boundaries have become an
explicit part of learning theories developed by Wenger and by Engeström.
Although Wenger (1998) took single communities of practice as his main unit of
analysis, he explicitly argued that learning at the boundaries is necessary if com-
munities of practice do not want to lose their dynamism and become stale. In the
third generation of CHAT, boundaries, in the form of contradictions between
activity systems, are seen as vital forces for change and development (Roth &
Lee, 2007).
We propose that dialogicality is a useful theoretical concept to underpin and
understand these claims on learning. Marková (2003) described dialogicality as
the ontological characteristic of the human mind to conceive, create, and commu-
nicate about social realities through mutual engagement of the ego (i.e., self or
selves) and the alter (i.e., others). The notion of dialogicality goes back to the
philosophy of Bakhtin (e.g., 1981, 1986), who, as Marková’s historical review of
social psychology indicates, was one of the first to state clearly that all understand-
ing and all symbolic activity of humans are “founded on ‘dialogue’ between dif-
ferent minds expressing multitudes of multivoiced meanings” (p. 83).
Bakhtin’s basic line of reasoning was that others or other meanings are required
for any cultural category to generate meaning and reveal its depths:
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Boundary Crossing and Boundary Objects
137
Contextual meaning is potentially infinite, but it can only be actualized when
accompanied by another (other’s) meaning, if only by a question in the inner
speech of the one who understands. Each time it must be accompanied by
another contextual meaning in order to reveal new aspects of its own infinite
nature (just as the word reveals its meanings only in context). (Bakhtin, 1986,
pp. 145–146)
This Bakhtinian notion of dialogicality comes to the fore in the various claims on
the value of boundaries and boundary crossing for learning: learning as a process
that involves multiple perspectives and multiple parties. Such an understanding is
different from most theories on learning that, first, often focus on a vertical process
of progression in knowledge or capabilities (of an individual, group, or organization)
within a specific domain and, second, often do not address aspects of heterogeneity
or multiplicity within this learning process. Nevertheless, the claims on boundaries
as a dialogical learning resource do not specify the exact mechanisms taking place.
We contend that the increasing literature on boundary crossing and boundary
objects reflects a potentially new horizon in educational theory. First, this literature
focuses explicitly on boundaries rather than on the centers of particular domains
or communities; and second, it claims boundaries to be potential learning resources
rather than barriers. To investigate both of these aspects in more detail, two ques-
tions are central to the literature review: (a) What is the nature of boundaries? and
(b) What dialogical learning mechanisms take place at boundaries?
Method
We conducted a literature search in ERIC and PsycINFO in three waves (May
2008, November 2009, and November 2010) with boundary object(s) and bound-
ary crossing as terms used in one of all fields, without restrictions regarding
the source, language, type, or year of reference. This resulted in an overall list
of 704 unique hits. From this list we selected 187 references based on two rules:
(a) boundary objects and/or boundary crossing are used as central analytical concepts
in theoretical or empirical analyses and (b) the study focuses on learning, under-
stood in its broadest sense (i.e., including an interest in change and development).
The latter rule mainly implied that we excluded studies in therapeutic contexts
where boundary crossing refers to ethical problems between therapists and
patients. The selection took place based on abstracts and, in cases of doubt, on full
texts. Five of the selected references could not be retrieved as full texts, leading to
a final number of 181 studies for review.
For the review, the full texts were first read and coded on paper according to
contextual information (specific domain, theoretical underpinnings) and concep-
tual information: boundary terms, implicit or explicit definitions, visual represen-
tations of boundaries, critical examples of boundary phenomena, and claims and
findings regarding boundary phenomena. The contextual information of the stud-
ies was scrutinized for determining different domains in which boundaries are
encountered. The conceptual information was analyzed regarding the nature of the
boundary (Question a) and the learning mechanisms taking place at the boundary
(Question b). As to the first question, we considered all descriptions of boundaries
and the way they play out for people and in boundary objects. As to the second
question, we analyzed what processes were described as being the basis for the
learning intended.
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
138
Results
In the first part of the Results section we briefly discuss the different domains
within and between which boundaries are encountered. In the second and third
part of this section we consider the two research questions, respectively observing
that boundaries are ambiguous in nature and describing four dialogical learning
mechanisms.
Boundaries Within and Across Domains
The review revealed how boundaries are encountered within and between the
domains of work, school, and everyday life. Appendix A gives an overview of the
focus of the studies reviewed. Most studies focused on boundaries within work,
discussing how groups and individual professionals with different expertise, tasks,
or cultural backgrounds collaborate during work. Although the reviewed literature
covers studies within many different professional domains, four specific domains
are more prominently represented: science and academia, health care, technology
and design, and teaching. Boundaries can be expected in these professional
domains because of a high degree of specialization and a need for interdisciplinary
and cross-sectional work.
A much smaller number of studies focus on boundaries within school. This
literature covers secondary and further education and includes one study in the
context of primary education. Most of these studies are concerned with boundaries
between discourses and perceptions of students on one hand and discourses and
perceptions of teachers and/or the school on the other. For example, objects of
study are differences between the academic literacy and the hybrid language prac-
tice of students (Gutiérrez, 2008) or cultural differences in terms of institutional-
ized versus context-bound mathematics (Hoyles, Noss, & Kent, 2004). Some
studies report on boundaries that both teachers and students have to deal with, such
as different perspectives on shared scientific subject matter (F. V. Christiansen &
Rump, 2008).
A small number of studies in our review investigated boundaries in everyday
life. The very diverse types of boundaries in this domain include not only boundar-
ies encountered by adolescents between childhood and adulthood (Fine, 2004) but
also boundaries resulting from racial categories (e.g., Telles & Sue, 2009) or from
cultural categories that are worked on by different actors (e.g., Huyard, 2009).
Boundaries do occur not only within the domains of work, school, or everyday
life but also between them. Studies that focus on the latter often investigate the way
in which a single individual (student or professional) moves across these domains.
After the publication of Between School and Work (Tuomi-Gröhn & Engeström,
2003), many studies appeared studying the way in which students encounter
boundaries between school and work practice when graduating, doing internships,
or combining the sorts of knowledge they learned at both sites. Boundaries are
investigated between vocational education and vocational practice (e.g., Harreveld
& Singh, 2009), between secondary education and scientific practices (van Eijck,
Hsu, & Roth, 2009), between teacher education and teaching practice in schools
(e.g., Gorodetsky & Barak, 2008), and between higher education and workplaces
(e.g., F. V. Christiansen & Rump, 2008). These studies consistently denote how
students need to relate to different values and norms and find their own position.
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
139
In remarkably similar ways, boundaries are reported between school and everyday
life (e.g., family life, peer groups), stressing how the differences between these
worlds and their discourses make it difficult for students to adapt, reorient, or
integrate their experiences (Phelan et al., 1991). The few studies on work and
everyday life show that professionals also face these challenges (e.g., Ashforth,
Kreiner, & Fugate, 2000).
The Nature of Boundaries
Having discussed how boundaries can be encountered in and between different
domains, we now address the nature of boundaries, focusing on similarities in how
various studies conceptualized boundaries. One central feature emerging from the
literature reviewed is that boundaries are always conceptualized in between two or
more sites. This can be seen most explicitly in the figures of boundaries and bound-
ary crossing in many studies. A typical example of such a visualization is Figure 1.
The figure is presented by the authors to indicate how both school and work
have a potentially similar interest in educating students, yet each have different
cultures. The boundary in the middle of two activity systems thus represents the
cultural difference and the potential difficulty of action and interaction across these
systems but also represents the potential value of establishing communication and
collaboration.
To speak of boundaries as social scientific phenomena, we need to know how
they play out. Let us therefore consider how the studies describe the people and
objects that, figuratively speaking, play a central role at the boundary.
People at the boundary. We defined boundaries as sociocultural differences that
give rise to discontinuities in interaction and action. Since it is individuals or
groups of people that actually encounter discontinuities in their actions and inter-
actions, it is worthwhile looking more closely at their experiences to understand
what boundaries are about. This stands out most clearly in cases with only one or
FIGURE 1. Figure of school and workplace as integrating activity systems.
Reconstructed from Konkola, Tuomi-Gröhn, Lambert, and Ludvigsen (2007, p. 216),
reprinted by permission of the publisher (Taylor & Francis Group, http://www
.informaworld.com).
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Akkerman & Bakker
140
a few persons doing the crossing. Terms such as brokers, boundary crossers, and
boundary workers are often employed to denote them. The experiences of these
people illustrate the ambiguity of boundaries. In the study by Fisher and Atkinson-
Grosjean (2002), for example, managers of commercialization institutes are situ-
ated between industry and university. On one hand, they have a task of “building
bridges” between both worlds (p. 463), being the means for connecting both sides.
At the same time, however, these persons are held accountable in each world and
must endure criticism “by academics for being too aligned with industry, and by
industry for being too academic” (p. 453). Collinson (2006) describes the liminal
(Turner, 1969; Van Gennep, 1909/1960) and ambiguous nature of the work of
researcher administrators, who are sometimes positioned as administrative sup-
porters while at other times are required to work as full colleagues in academic
affairs. Focusing on identity formation of apprentices in trade vocation, Tanggaard
(2007) characterizes their position at the boundary as that of marginal strangers
“who sort of belong and sort of don’t” (p. 460). Williams, Corbin, and McNamara
(2007) point out how this ambiguous role can lead to conflicted narratives. They
describe how teachers in their role as school numeracy coordinators feel a conflict
between a collegial discourse and accountability discourse. Although it is consist-
ently reported how boundary-crossing individuals run the risk of not being
accepted (e.g., A. Edwards, Lunt, & Stamou, 2010), Jones (2010) found in a his-
torical analysis of boundary-crossing architects that people can receive apprecia-
tion for their innovative role in changing established professional practices in the
longer term.
The accounts of single groups and individuals crossing boundaries show how
they not only act as bridge between worlds but also simultaneously represent the
very division of related worlds. On one hand they have a very rich and valuable
position since they are the ones who can introduce elements of one practice into
the other (cf. Wenger, 1998). On the other hand they face a difficult position
because they are easily seen as being at the periphery, with the risk of never fully
belonging to or being acknowledged as a participant in any one practice.
How can people manage this ambiguous position at the boundary? It gener-
ally calls for “personal fortitude” (Landa, 2008, p. 195). More specifically it
requires people to have dialogues with the actors of different practices, but also
to have inner dialogues between the different perspectives they are able to take
on (Akkerman, Admiraal, Simons, & Niessen, 2006). Morse (2010b) describes
how some leaders and organizations are successful precisely because of a
boundary-crossing leadership style. D. Walker and Nocon (2007) make an
explicit plea for stimulating “boundary-crossing competence,” which is the
“ability to manage and integrate multiple, divergent discourses and practices
across social boundaries” (p. 181). Likewise, Fortuin and Bush (2010) stress the
importance of boundary skills.
Objects at the boundary. Not only people but also objects can play an essential role
in crossing boundaries. In studies of boundary objects we also find the aforemen-
tioned ambiguity. On one hand, boundary objects are artifacts that articulate mean-
ing and address multiple perspectives. As already indicated by the definition by Star
and Griesemer (1989), boundary objects have different meanings in different social
worlds but at the same time have a structure that is common enough to make them
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Boundary Crossing and Boundary Objects
141
recognizable across these worlds. However, it is not only interpretative flexibility
that turns objects into boundary objects; boundary objects are organic arrangements
that allow different groups to work together, based on a back-and-forth movement
between ill-structured use in cross-site work and well-structured use in local work
(Star, 2010). Hence, they are “a means of translation” (Star & Griesemer, 1989,
p. 393) within a situation of multisite work relations and requirements.
Several of the studies reviewed report that artifacts can fail as boundary objects
when they do not fully or rightfully capture multiple meanings and perspectives.
For example, Hasu and Engeström (2000) found how supportive message boxes
with system-related information about a medical technology were designed by
system designers but failed to be supportive because the concerns and interpreta-
tions of users were not accounted for. Boundary objects are often designed to
displace a part of communication or practice by anticipating multiple perspectives.
Hunter (2008) described the successful development of policy documents that
have a life of their own and function as tools for future communication and col-
laboration.
Despite design intentions, it is stressed that boundary objects are only partially
communicative and, therefore, can never fully displace communication and col-
laboration. The risk with boundary objects is that they, especially because of their
“material and processual nature” (Star, 2010, p. 604), appear to be self-contained
objects. Wenger (1998) warned that “it is easy to overlook that they are in fact the
nexus of perspectives, and that it is often in the meeting of these perspectives that
artifacts obtain their meanings” (p. 108). Several scholars have described how
additional information (e.g., about its inception, its history, and the surrounding
negotiations) is needed to render boundary objects intelligible to other parties or
for future use (e.g., C. P. Lee, 2007; Lutters & Ackerman, 2007). Furthermore, it
has been argued that boundary objects can be perceived or used differently over
time, at one time enabling communication and collaboration across sites, whereas
at other times losing their boundary crossing function (Barrett & Oborn, 2010;
Pennington, 2010).
Given the ambiguous nature of addressing and articulating multiple meanings
while being simultaneously ill structured across sites, what are important consid-
erations when designing boundary objects? J. K. Christiansen and Varnes (2007)
make a connection between boundary objects as displacements and using these as
obligatory passage points to which, in this case, project managers must direct their
attention. This suggestion of boundary objects as displacements resonates with
descriptions of boundary objects as black boxes. As black boxes, boundary objects
tend to be invisible or taken-for-granted mediations that translate across sites but,
when carefully considered or opened up, may provide learning opportunities
(Williams & Wake, 2007).
Boundaries as ambiguous in nature. The descriptions of boundaries and of people
and objects at the boundaries show an ambiguous nature. As an in-between or mid-
dle ground, the boundary belongs to both one world and another. It is precisely this
feature that seems to explain how the boundary divides as well as connects sides
(Kerosuo, 2001). However, the boundary also reflects a nobody’s land, belonging
to neither one nor the other world. The ambiguity seems to cause what we call a
sandwich effect for people or objects that cross or stand in between sites. On one
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Akkerman & Bakker
142
hand, they enact the boundary by addressing and articulating meanings and per-
spectives of various intersecting worlds. At the same time, these people and objects
move beyond the boundary in that they have an unspecified quality of their own
(neither–nor).
We contend that it is precisely this ambiguous nature that explains the interest
in boundaries and boundary crossing as phenomena of investigation for education
scholars. Both the enactment of multivoicedness (both–and) and the unspecified
quality (neither–nor) of boundaries create a need for dialogue, in which meanings
have to be negotiated and from which something new may emerge.
What Mechanisms Constitute the Learning Potential of Boundary Crossing?
To understand more precisely what the claimed learning potential at boundaries
entails, we scrutinized the literature with respect to the descriptions provided of
the learning processes. In line with this literature, we employ the term learning in
a very broad sense, including new understandings, identity development, change
of practices, and institutional development. We have discerned four mechanisms
of learning at the boundary, which we summarize as identification, coordination,
reflection, and transformation. In the following, each of these learning mecha-
nisms is described with examples from the studies reviewed. Appendix B provides
an overview of the mechanisms described in the studies reviewed.
Identification. In the literature we can identify studies that describe learning at the
boundary in terms of identification. These studies all focus on boundary crossing
as a process in which previous lines of demarcation between practices are uncer-
tain or destabilized because of feelings of threat or because of increasing similari-
ties or overlap between practices. The reported processes of identification entail a
questioning of the core identity of each of the intersecting sites. This questioning
leads to renewed insight into what the diverse practices concern. We found two
common processes of identification described in the studies.
First, the identification processes occur by defining one practice in light of
another, delineating how it differs from the other practice. This dialogical process
of identification can be called othering. For example, some studies consider the
challenge of individuals participating simultaneously in various institutionalized
domains such as work and home (e.g., Ashforth et al., 2000) or such as school and
home (e.g., Hughes & Greenhough, 2008). These studies denote that cultural con-
structions of work and home or school and home are drawn into question when
people come to act in both worlds simultaneously, for example, when private
phone calls interrupt work or when doing homework. In such instances, it becomes
important to determine how both practices do and do not relate to one another.
Hughes and Greenhough (2008) provide a rich example of the tensions that can
emerge when a student does mathematics homework with his mother’s help. A
range of personal and cultural identities is contested: the wider practice of home-
work; the school’s mathematical practice and connected to this practice also the
boy’s school identity as a low-achieving pupil; the boy’s home identity as someone
wanting to play; and the mother’s identity as helper, checker, and enforcer of
homework and as someone with her own ambivalent feelings toward mathematics.
The cultural differences of practices here lead to a negotiation of different identi-
ties, which do not harmoniously coexist.
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Boundary Crossing and Boundary Objects
143
The study by Considine (2006) of the challenged boundaries of universities
shows how a process of identification by contesting or othering can also take place
when it concerns institutional identity. He denotes that managers and employees
of universities are finding it more and more difficult to explain what they do as
distinctive from other systems that produce knowledge. He emphasizes more gen-
erally that “what establishes the system as a system are the distinctions actors use,
and have others use, to define themselves, and this typically comes to light at the
border of one system and another” (p. 257). In a similar way, Geiger and Finch
(2009) describe how salespersons’ work is not a matter of crossing fixed boundar-
ies but a matter of continuously redefining and thereby shaping boundaries of the
seller and buyer markets.
A second, related process of identification that we found is the underlying need
for legitimating coexistence. Bogenrieder and van Baalen (2007) describe how
people, when working simultaneously in different organizational groups, have to
consider the interference between their multiple participations to be able to pursue
each one and be accepted in this multiple membership by others in the respective
groups. Hong and O (2009) provide an example of a failed attempt of identifica-
tion, reporting how in-house staff and outsourcing technicians of a tertiary educa-
tion institute were unable to come to terms with their distinct roles and
responsibilities. In contrast, Huemer, Becerra, and Lunnan (2004) describe how
individual actors from different organizations may successfully define their differ-
ing organizational identities as well as their shared identities on a network level
based on the project activities of this network. It should be noted that legitimating
coexistence is often highly political and sensitive to those involved. Timmons and
Tanner (2004) discuss how theater nurses feel threatened in their professional
identity by the emergence of a new, slightly similar profession that was labeled as
operating department practitioners. Reconstructing their own identities in light of
the other was then a way for the nurses to preserve their profession.
What is typical in identification processes is that the boundaries between prac-
tices are encountered and reconstructed, without necessarily overcoming discon-
tinuities. The learning potential resides in a renewed sense making of different
practices and related identities.
Coordination. Several studies, particularly those studying the role of boundary
objects as mediating artifacts, describe learning at the boundary as a matter of
coordination. They analyze how effective means and procedures are sought allow-
ing diverse practices to cooperate efficiently in distributed work, even in the
absence of consensus (Star, 2010). In these cases, dialogue between diverse part-
ners is established only as far as necessary to maintain the flow of work. Four
processes can be discerned from the studies reporting actual or intended coordina-
tion effects.
First of all, coordination requires a communicative connection between diverse
practices or perspectives (Landa, 2008), which can be established by instrumen-
talities (boundary objects) that are shared by multiple parties (J. K. Christiansen &
Varnes, 2007). Paterson (2007) describes how an information structure can allow
exchange of relevant patient information across different communities of practice
in health care. Although interconnecting different actors, such instrumentalities are
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Akkerman & Bakker
144
read differently by different actors. Roth and McGinn (1998) discuss how school
grades as boundary objects mean different things in different sites:
In schools, they are related to getting a good report card, graduating, and
getting a diploma; in the admissions office of a university, the talk is about
acceptance and probability of future success. Grades are the boundary
objects that constitute the articulation between schools, colleges, and univer-
sities. (p. 410)
Second, some studies reveal that coordination entails efforts of translation
between the different worlds. Fisher and Atkinson-Grosjean (2002) describe how
the managers in industry liaison offices are charged with the role of translation, in
their case, translation of research results into concrete commercial applications (p.
450). Such translation work can also be accomplished by the use of boundary
objects and strongly relates to finding a balance in the aforementioned ambiguity
of boundaries (neither–nor and both–and). Translations entail both an intersubjec-
tive ground as well as a diversity of possible understandings.
Third, coordination entails enhancing boundary permeability (cf. Bimber,
Flanagin, & Stohl, 2005), so that one is not even aware of different practices sim-
ply because actions and interactions run smoothly without costs and deliberate
choice. Boundaries can become permeable, for example, when employees manage
to do homework without experiencing problematic discontinuities (Ashforth et al.,
2000; Shumate & Fulk, 2004). These authors claim that the permeability of bound-
aries can be enhanced by repeatedly crossing different practices (in their case role
transitions) as well as by means of rites or rituals (e.g., changing clothes or chang-
ing voice).
This latter example suggests a fourth process of coordination across
boundaries—the importance of routinization, that is, finding procedures by
means of which coordination is becoming part of automatized or operational
practice. Studies adhering to coordination often emphasize boundary objects, in
line with Star’s original definition, as useful forms of translations to take place
more or less without consensus or collaborative work between different groups
of people. Lutters and Ackerman (2007) show in their case study of service
engineers that boundary objects, although enhancing standardization and routi-
nization, can still be malleable in each instance of their use and rely a great deal
on situated interpretations of people with regard to the historic and current state
of relations between groups.
The various processes of coordination across boundaries (establishing a com-
municative connection, efforts of translation, increasing boundary permeability,
routinization) show how this learning mechanism of boundary crossing takes a
different form than identification. The potential in the coordinative mechanism
resides not in reconstructing but in overcoming the boundary, in the sense that
continuity is established, facilitating future and effortless movement between dif-
ferent sites.
Reflection. In addition to identification and coordination, we find studies, often
proposing or evaluating an intervention, that focus on the potential of the boundary
in terms of reflection. These studies emphasize the role of boundary crossing in
coming to realize and explicate differences between practices and thus to learn
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Boundary Crossing and Boundary Objects
145
something new about their own and others’ practices. Williams and Wake (2007),
for example, describe how, as college teachers, they visited workplaces together
with their students. These visits made them aware of the differences between the
mathematical genres in both college and work cultures, each having its own con-
ventions and rules.
This reflective mechanism emphasizes not only comprehension but also the
formulation of the distinctive perspectives. Hence, reflection involves what Boland
and Tenkasi (1995) in their study called perspective making, that is, making
explicit one’s understanding and knowledge of a particular issue. Boland and
Tenkasi discuss how cognitive maps and narrative structures are means to formu-
late and represent one’s perspective, which in knowledge-intensive firms may
“reflexively give access to the implicit and unstated assumptions” (p. 364).
Similarly, Hoyles, Bakker, Kent, and Noss (2007) state that boundary crossing
occurs “if these [boundary] objects facilitate communication between different
activity systems by making explicit the knowledge and assumptions mobilized in
the interpretation of the object” (p. 335).
A second process that is strongly emphasized in studies focused on reflection is
that a boundary creates a possibility to look at oneself through the eyes of other
worlds. With regard to their visits to workplaces, Williams and Wake (2007) also
pointed to this second process:
On the other hand we noticed sometimes that the process has a reflexive
impact on the workplace: workers who did not perhaps see their activity as
mathematical were sometimes brought to see things our way, and thus look
at their practice with a new, more mathematical perspective, e.g., the police-
man who came to see the “error” of using an average of the averages in per-
formance management, from a mathematical point of view. (p. 340)
The reflective impact of boundaries thus also entails what Boland and Tenkasi
(1995) called perspective taking. They argued that boundary objects in knowledge
intensive firms are artifacts that can serve as a perspective-taking experience for
those who have the attitude of engaging the horizons of another thought world:
“This taking of the other into account, in light of a reflexive knowledge of one’s
own perspective, is the perspective-taking process” (p. 362). Discussing cross-
cultural business negotiations, White, Härtel, and Panipucci (2005) argue that a
lack of such perspective taking can result in misunderstandings, which in turn
negatively affect how the negotiation process is perceived and proceeds, with the
risk of leading to major miscommunication. Taking another perspective is a way
to begin to see things in a different light.
From a Bakhtinian point of view, both perspective making and perspective tak-
ing are dialogical and creative in nature. If it were merely duplication, it would not
entail anything new or enriching. This generation of something new comes to the
fore nicely in the study by Williams et al. (2007), who investigated teachers with
an additional role as school numeracy coordinators. These teachers literally
embody the boundary as they stand in between the research and development group
at the university and the group of colleagues at school. Although initially experi-
encing a conflict between the role and discourse of colleague and of an accountable
coordinator, one manager–teacher came to redefine both these perspectives, for
example, perceiving management not as an activity conflicting with collegiality
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Akkerman & Bakker
146
but as an activity that involves making sure that colleague teachers will have an
easier and better job. The authors point out that through this process, manager–
teachers “come to reflexively understand and appreciate the exigencies of manage-
ment” (p. 62). In this way, the demands of collegiality in school partly turn the
audit (which tends to emphasize inspection, accountability, and blame) into a mat-
ter of dialogical inquiry for rethinking current structures, standards, and resources
in the school.
A consequence of perspective making and perspective taking is that people’s
ways of looking into the world are enriched so that one enriches one’s identity
beyond its current status. This is clearly described in the study by George (1999),
which discusses how students in a village high school in the Republic of Trinidad
and Tobago face both traditional wisdom and scientific knowledge. According to
George, boundary crossing strategies should “make it possible for students in
traditional settings to have easier access to science through overt comparisons of
their world view with that of science” (p. 94). She points out how both traditional
wisdom and science originate from attempts of human beings to take care of
themselves and to make sense of their world. Both concern public knowledge,
have a personal side (to suit individual circumstances), and are historic systems
in which current knowledge is based on knowledge of the past, whereas differ-
ences mainly concern what are considered to be appropriate mechanisms to attain
health and a good relation with the environment. She reasons that both types of
knowledge allow traditional students to evaluate the likely contribution of science
to their lives.
Though this reflective mechanism might look similar to the mechanism of iden-
tification, they are different in focus. Where identification represents a focus on a
renewed sense of practices and a reconstruction of current identity or identities,
reflection results in an expanded set of perspectives and thus a new construction
of identity that informs future practice.
Transformation. A fourth learning mechanism described in the literature can be
summarized as transformation (see Appendix B for an overview). Similar to stud-
ies describing reflection, studies describing transformation often investigate the
effects of interventions. Transformation leads to profound changes in practices,
potentially even the creation of a new, in-between practice, sometimes called a
boundary practice.
The studies that describe transformation processes consistently start with
describing the confrontation with some lack or problem that forces the intersecting
worlds to seriously reconsider their current practices and the interrelations. If such
a confrontation is not occurring, transformation cannot be expected. Buxton et al.
(2005) reason that the potential of boundary objects often goes unrecognized and
untapped because underlying cultural models remain implicit. They suggest that
exploration and discussion of the boundary objects are needed to affect the dis-
courses of participants over time. Akkerman et al. (2006) stress the same problem,
having found that participants of a collaborative intercultural research project do not
come to explore each others’ thought worlds. They conclude that the meaning-
generating effect of diversity cannot be presupposed; only when cultural differences
lead to discontinuities can these generate negotiation of meaning; hence, “group
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Boundary Crossing and Boundary Objects
147
members should be encouraged to perceive and treat each other as other persons and
to render each other’s arguments as strange and new” (p. 482). The findings of
various scholars lead them to conclude something similar: Confrontation entails
encountering discontinuities that are not easily surpassed.
Many of the studies describing transformation suggest that a confrontation with
a boundary can be caused by a disruption in the current flow of work. For example,
a breakdown of a patient measurement in the context of health care specialists
using a new technological design leads to strong frustration; however, it also cre-
ates an opportunity for negotiating the technological design with the developers
and thus for re-mediating the measurement activity and the division of labor within
it (Hasu & Engeström, 2000). Following the ideas of second- and third-generation
CHAT, these scholars denote that tensions and conflicts may represent structural
contradictions within or between activity systems. It is argued that they can, there-
fore, be made productive for transformation of the systems. Besides disruptions in
work flow, confrontation with important boundaries can also be caused by the
appearance of a third perspective. In Kerosuo’s (2001, 2004) studies, the story of
the patient with a chronic or complex disease is deliberately introduced in meet-
ings with specialists from different domains, departments, or institutions who are
all involved in the same patient’s case. The patient’s story of their treatment com-
pels the specialists to reconsider how they work because their current approach
apparently does not lead to a complete and satisfying diagnosis and treatment of
the disease. In the context of a classroom, Matusov et al. (2007) describe how
teachers can contribute to the emergence of Creole communities with diverse and
distinguished cultural groups by making explicit to the pupils when the teacher
encounters a recursive interactional breakdown without offering a ready-made
solution.
A second process in intended and reported transformations is recognizing a
shared problem space, often in direct response to the confrontation. For the health
care specialists this shared problem space is the health of the patient with a chronic
or complex (rather than single) disease. For diverse and Creole classrooms this
shared problem is the recurrent interactional breakdown that needs to be solved
collaboratively.
It should be noted here that some of the studies we have reviewed (e.g.,
R. Edwards & Fowler, 2007) have come to use the term boundary object to refer
to this shared problem space. Object then is understood, following cultural his-
torical activity theories, as the motive for activity and, in these cases of boundary
crossing, as the motive for shared activity between diverse systems of activity.
This conceptualization of boundary object is very different from the original
definition by Star and colleagues, in which object refers to mediating artifacts
(in the form of signs or tools). This twofold meaning of boundary objects in
CHAT can be explained, as boundary objects have been initially referred to by
Engeström et al. (1995) in terms of Star’s conceptualization of boundary objects,
whereas in later, third-generation CHAT literature (Engeström, 2001) boundary
objects have been pictured as shared motives of two or more activity systems. In
the image of two interacting activity systems such as the one previously shown
in Figure 1, boundary objects are thus either (in Star’s sense) localized as similar
artifacts in the upper triangle that mediate two or more systems or localized as
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Akkerman & Bakker
148
“the potentially shared or jointly constructed object” between two activity
systems (Engeström, 2001, p. 136).
We propose that to prevent confusion in this new body of literature, boundary
object should be restricted to its original conceptualization by Star (1989; Star
& Griesemer, 1989). Nonetheless, the various CHAT-informed studies make an
important contribution to the understanding of boundary crossing as a potential
process of transformation: Transforming current practices is not without direc-
tion; it is motivated by and directed toward the problem space that binds the
intersecting practices together. As such, boundaries and the crossing of boundar-
ies mediate a deliberate target of change. Although in coordination the focus is
on minimal dialogue between practices (dialogue is intended only inasmuch as
needed to pursue collaborative work), in the transformation mechanism dia-
logue becomes the focal point of interest.
A third process in transformation is hybridization. Given a certain problem
space, practices that are able to cross their boundaries engage in a creative pro-
cess in which something hybrid—that is, a new cultural form—emerges. In
hybridization, ingredients from different contexts are combined into something
new and unfamiliar. This can take the shape of new tools or signs, such as the
formation of a new concept (Engeström et al., 1995) or an analytical model
(Postlethwaite, 2007). The hybrid result can also take the shape of a completely
new practice that stands in between established practices, such as school–work
partnerships (Konkola et al., 2007) or an interdisciplinary field of science
(Palmer, 1999). In the latter case a new place with its own boundaries eventually
evolves.
A fourth process found in the descriptions of transformation is the crystalliza-
tion of what is created, denoting how transformation is a more extreme version of
learning at the boundary than the previously described mechanisms. The reasoning
is that it is one thing to create something hybrid at the boundary but quite another
to embed it in practice so that it has real consequences. Crystallization can occur
by means of what Wenger (1998) called reification, that is, to “congeal this experi-
ence into ‘thingness’” (p. 58). As already discussed, a boundary object is an exam-
ple of reification. However, as argued by Macpherson and Jones (2008), it may not
be enough for transformation to take place if new shared conceptions of activity
are crystallized in the form of boundary objects:
There also has to be a pragmatic commitment to these new activities, which
occur not through the object itself, but through the engagement the objects
facilitate. . . . It is this object-centered activity that has the potential to renew
existing organizational artifacts of production (tools), of work distribution
(processes and divisions of labor) and of work regulation (norms and values).
(pp. 192–193)
Crystallization also takes place by means of developing new routines or proce-
dures that embody what has been created or learned. Gorodetsky and Barak (2008)
describe how the emergence of a community of student teachers, schoolteachers,
and teacher educators represents a successful form of boundary crossing because
the teachers started to enact new ideas in their own teaching practices. Although
the importance of crystallization is emphasized in many of the studies pointing at
transformation processes, their empirical findings suggest it is rarely realized. This
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Boundary Crossing and Boundary Objects
149
proves how hard it is to transform practices at the boundary, something that can
often be explained by considering the distinct cultural history of practices.
Some studies describing transformation denote a crucial fifth process: the
importance of maintaining uniqueness of the intersecting practices. This may
seem at odds with the hybridization described earlier. The ambivalent direction—
creation and connection to a new hybrid field, but also maintaining the integrity of
the familiar field—is reflected in the following quote from Palmer (1999) about
the interdisciplinary work of scientists:
Interdisciplinary research requires a balance between established core
knowledge and the infusion of new knowledge. As researchers explore new
problem areas, they do not necessarily abandon their disciplinary concentra-
tions. Most have dual or multiple agendas, building on a core research
specialization as they transit into a newer hybrid area. (p. 250)
In this way, it seems that transformation into changed or new practices does not go
without some level of reinforcement of the established practices, as happens in
identification processes. A plausible argument underlying this ambivalence is that
it is precisely the difference (in this case of distinct disciplines) that upholds the
relevance and value of the intersecting practices to one another.
A last process required for transformation and reported by most studies is that
continuous joint work at the boundary is required to preserve the productivity of
boundary crossing. This is where transformation seems almost opposite to the
coordination mechanism, where the focus is on achieving a way to cross practices
without much effort or awareness (e.g., Bimber et al., 2005; Hasu & Engeström,
2000). More than in the other mechanisms, transformation involves real dialogue
and collaboration between “flesh-and-blood partners” at either side of the bound-
ary (Engeström et al., 1995, p. 333). This seems to be the basic motive to create
what are known as boundary-crossing laboratories in which people from different
systems of activity are invited to meet to discuss and work on shared problems at
the boundary, with the researcher acting as a mirror confronting people with the
problem they share (e.g., Kerosuo, 2001). In addition to difficulties with crystal-
lization, insufficient continuous joint work at the boundary could explain the lack
of finding lasting transformations throughout most of the empirical work that we
reviewed. Discussing student teacher assessment schemes as boundary objects
between schools and higher education institutions, A. Edwards and Mutton (2007)
formulated this issue as follows:
Once the scheme has been worked on and it enters each system as a tool to
be used within the system rather than a joint object to be worked on
[between the systems], its potential to reconfigure practices may diminish.
(p. 508)
This continuous joint work at the boundary is often described by the reviewed
studies as a process of negotiation of meaning. Related to this point, Oswick and
Robertson (2009) warn other scholars not to give merely positive accounts of
processes of boundary crossing and the role of boundary objects in particular. Too
often boundary objects are perceived and presented as knowledge-transforming
devices developed and applied between collaborating parties with complementary
interests where agreed outcomes and change are rendered coherent, desirable, and
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Akkerman & Bakker
150
achievable. Instead, they argue, boundary objects are often subject to political
processes, having a mediating role for contrasting goals, possibly reinforcing
power structures and occupational hierarchies.
In contrast with the other mechanisms, transformation can entail the emergence
of new in-between practices. The various processes of transformation indicate how
difficult it is to achieve but, if successful, also imply sustainable impact. Not sur-
prisingly, most of the literature reviewed—particularly intervention studies—aims
for this fourth type of dialogical learning mechanism at the boundary.
Conclusions and Discussion
In the introductory sections, we state that the emerging body of literature on
boundary crossing and boundary objects urges us to look at learning across and
between multiple social worlds and thus expands education research beyond the
study of learning within single domains and practices. We have argued that this
literature represents an understanding of learning that is grounded in the notion of
dialogicality and thus inherently involves dialogue between multiple perspectives
and parties without implying or seeking homogeneity. Our aim was to gain better
insight into the claimed learning potential of boundaries, and we asked two ques-
tions: (a) What is the nature of boundaries? and (b) What dialogical learning mech-
anisms take place at boundaries?
In response to the first question, we found that boundaries have an ambiguous
nature in that they are both–and as well as neither–nor phenomena at the same
time. This ambiguous nature creates what we call a sandwich effect for boundary-
crossing people and boundary objects. On one hand, these people and objects
enact the boundary by addressing and articulating the multiple meanings and
perspectives following from sociocultural diversity (representing both–and). At
the same time, boundary objects and boundary-crossing people move beyond the
boundary since they are not fully defined by this multivoicedness but rather are
in a middle ground and have an often unspecified quality of their own (neither–
nor). Both this multivoicedness and the unspecificity at boundaries trigger dia-
logue and negotiation of meaning, explaining why encounters of boundaries are
often described not only as challenging but also as worthwhile to investigate in
relation to learning.
In response to the second question, we analyzed the learning processes
described in the studies and discerned four dialogical learning mechanisms of
boundaries: (a) identification, which is about coming to know what the diverse
practices are about in relation to one another; (b) coordination, which is about
creating cooperative and routinized exchanges between practices; (c) reflection,
which is about expanding one’s perspectives on the practices; and, (d) transforma-
tion, which is about collaboration and codevelopment of (new) practices. These
mechanisms and accordant processes are summarized in Table 1. Most of the stud-
ies did not explicitly frame their empirical cases in these terms, and the mecha-
nisms could often be read only implicitly in their definitions, claims, findings, and
conclusions. Likewise, the small group of studies emphasizing more than one of
the four learning mechanisms did not explicitly distinguish them as such. The
categorization presented in Table 1 is intended not as a complete or fixed model
of learning at the boundary but as a conceptual means to facilitate the explication
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
151
of, and interdisciplinary dialogue about, the different ways in which scholars have
approached learning at the boundary.
The categorization of the four mechanisms raises the question of how they
relate to one another. Several things can be said about this. First, on a general level
it seems that identification is about constructing and reconstructing boundaries,
whereas the other mechanisms are more about transcending boundaries. Second,
it seems that identification and reflection mechanisms mainly reflect meaning-
oriented learning processes (at stake are perspectives and identities), whereas both
coordination and transformation reflect more practice-based learning processes (at
stake is activity). Third, the coordination mechanism seems opposite to transfor-
mation, as the former reflects a smooth, effortless, and routine process of people
or objects moving back and forth between practices, whereas the latter involves
confrontations and continuous joint work. Identification and reflection, both
involving the explication and visibility of perspectives, seem conditional for trans-
formation because in the latter boundaries need to be encountered and contested
before being put to use for codeveloping practices.
Thinking in terms of these four mechanisms allows us to think in a more fine-
grained way about boundary crossing and boundary objects. With respect to the
concept of boundary objects, there is a clear tendency to focus on achieving coor-
dination, which seems in line with the empirical way in which Star initially applied
the concept. In a critique on the common usage of the concept, C. P. Lee (2007)
stressed that boundary objects do not always “pass cleanly and unproblematically
between communities of practices and satisfying the needs of all” (p. 313) but can
come with socially negotiated and disruptive processes that give them meaning.
Following Lee’s point, Pennington (2010) showed how boundary objects can have
a function in minimizing the need for social interaction and collaboration (such as
TABLE 1
Overview of different mechanisms and according characteristic processes of
boundary crossing
Dialogical learning mechanisms Characteristic processes
Identification Othering
Legitimating coexistence
Coordination Communicative connection
Efforts of translation
Increasing boundary permeability
Routinization
Reflection Perspective making
Perspective taking
Transformation Confrontation
Recognizing shared problem space
Hybridization
Crystallization
Maintaining uniqueness of intersecting practices
Continuous joint work at the boundary
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Akkerman & Bakker
152
in coordination) as well as a function in maximizing negotiation and mutual under-
standing of perspectives. In response to the tremendous literature on boundary
objects, Star (2010) recently emphasized that her “initial framing of the concept
was motivated by a desire to analyze the nature of cooperative work in the absence
of consensus” (p. 604). Studies in our review all seem to be driven by a similar
motive as Star’s. Nevertheless, the studies reviewed indicate that boundary objects
not only can lead to coordination processes but also can be of value for processes
of identification and reflection (e.g., Kynigos & Psycharis, 2009) and processes of
transformation (e.g., Macpherson & Jones, 2008). Regardless of the learning
mechanisms that boundary objects support, Star’s original definition is useful for
distinguishing boundary objects from other types of objects. Researchers in this
field would serve the community well by sticking to the original definition of
boundary objects and using other names for other types of objects.
There is one conclusion that holds for all four of the mechanisms: Dialogical
engagement at the boundary does not mean a fusion of the intersecting social
worlds or a dissolving of the boundary. Hence, boundary crossing should not be
seen as a process of moving from initial diversity and multiplicity to homogene-
ity and unity but rather as a process of establishing continuity in a situation of
sociocultural difference. This holds also for the transformation mechanism, in
which something new is generated in the interchange of the existing practices,
precisely by virtue of their differences. This leaves open whether these practices,
over time, develop a new core practice. This maintenance of diversity is precisely
what is captured in the notion of dialogicality: “[D]ialogical antinomies both
unite and divide, both estrange and appropriate, both orientate the self towards
ideas and meaning of others as well as towards the self’s own ideas” (Marková,
2003, p. 97).
Future Research
We see two main directions that would help advance the research in this area.
First, in response to the literature reviewed, we see the need for defining the bound-
ary concept beyond that of a sensitizing concept. In this article we defined bound-
aries as sociocultural differences leading to discontinuities in action and
interaction. We contend that this definition is in line with the reviewed studies,
even though most did not define the boundary concept. Many studies seem to use
the term boundaries when discontinuities are expected rather than empirically
detected. This can lead to a problematic conceptualization of boundaries, namely,
one that completely resides in the existence of sociocultural differences. Dialogue
and transitions of people and objects across different communities testify against
this. We move across different practices all the time, often without awareness.
Continuity of actions and interactions thus turns such a notion of boundaries into
an artificial one. We therefore stress that boundaries, as a meaningful analytic
concept, are about sociocultural differences leading to discontinuities rather than
about sociocultural diversity per se. Defining boundaries in this way, it becomes
clear how boundaries are real in their consequences, yet it also makes clear that
boundaries are malleable and dynamic constructs. Sociocultural differences can
lead to discontinuities in action and interaction in various ways at various times,
but these discontinuities can also be overcome, even if temporal and partial. We
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Boundary Crossing and Boundary Objects
153
should also note that vice versa, it is by means of discontinuities that sociocultural
differences between practices are being defined and shaped.
Methodologically, the proposed definition of boundaries requires researchers to
take not only a systemic or macro perspective, describing the sociocultural differ-
ences (e.g., cross-contextual analysis or historical formation of differences), but
also a situated or micro perspective, describing who experiences a particular dis-
continuity in which interactions or actions. In this way, it becomes possible to
study how sociocultural differences play out in and are being shaped by knowledge
processes, personal and professional relations, and mediations, but also in feelings
of belonging and identities.
Following from the previous point, a second worthwhile direction for research
is to identify a set of methodological indicators or markers with which diversity as
well as consequent discontinuities can be empirically detected. Wenger (1998)
denoted how the boundaries of communities of practice can be “reified with
explicit markers of membership, such as titles, dress, tattoos, degrees of initiation
rites” (p. 104). One can also think of spatial markers within architecture and inte-
rior design, such as tables and walls that indicate who belongs where (e.g., some
decades ago it was not uncommon for teachers to sit on a higher platform in the
classroom, marking their authority). Kerosuo (2004) explicitly asks how boundar-
ies can be traced, describing some verbal markers as fragile signals in social inter-
action. In her study on boundaries in health care, she found three types of verbal
markers: metaphors of boundaries (such as fences, walls, limits), actors’ attributes
and definitions of social relations (we vs. they), and references to different loca-
tions (locations of care in this context). Kerosuo maintains that boundaries may
also be captured by temporal distinctions, for example, by working hours and
activity schedules.
As a final point we stress that the main value of this emerging body of literature
on boundary objects and boundary crossing resides in (a) a recognition and
acknowledgment of increasing diversity in and between schools, work, and every-
day life; (b) putting decentered or marginalized spaces of social organization at
the center of researchers’ attention; and (c) perceiving boundaries not only as
barriers to but also as potential resources for learning. At the same time, most of
the literature has not explicitly defined its central concepts. As nicely articulated
by R. Edwards and Fowler (2007), “[T]here is a sense in which these concepts
have been as much subject to the boundary-making of conceptualizing practices,
as they have challenged the boundaries themselves” (p. 108). One difficulty of this
body of literature is that the scholars are scattered across highly diverse and more
or less separate domains of study (as Appendix A shows). Nonetheless, they all
share a similar interest, which creates the need for a more extensive, integrative
discussion on boundaries from a multidisciplinary perspective (Heracleous, 2004).
With this review we hope not only to have identified this body of literature in the
field of educational theory but also to have stimulated educational scholars to
move across the boundary of their own field of study.
Note
The research reported in this manuscript was funded by the Dutch Program Council
for Educational Research of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research
under Grant PROO 411-06-205. We want to thank Nathalie Kuijpers and Ellen
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
154
APPENDIX A
Overview of the studies in the different domains
Work (127)
Science and
academia
18 Akkerman et al. (2006); Benn and Martin (2010); Broekkamp
and van Hout-Wolters (2007); Considine (2006); R. Edwards
and Fowler (2007); Fisher and Atkinson-Grosjean (2002)
Goodwin (2005); Kynigos and Psycharis (2009); Lagesen
(2010); Liebenberg (2009); Palmer (1999); Pennington
(2010); Pierce (1999); Pohl et al. (2008); Postlethwaite
(2007); Star (2005); Tate (2008); Zittoun et al. (2009)
Technology and
design
14 Barcellini et al. (2009); Barrett and Oborn (2010); Broberg
and Hermund (2007); Carlile (2002); Cohn et al. (2009);
Hasu and Engeström (2000); Johannessen and Ellingsen
(2009); Luna-Reyes et al. (2008); Massanari (2010); Neff
et al. (2010); Paay et al. (2009); Puustinen et al. (2006);
Veinot (2007); Whyte et al. (2008)
Health care and
social work
14 Allen (2009); Engeström (2001); Heldal (2010); Huzzard
et al. (2010); Kerosuo (2001, 2004); Kerosuo and
Engeström (2003); Mitchell et al. (2010); Mørk et al.
(2008); Paterson (2007); Schryer et al. (2009); Swan et al.
(2002); Swan et al. (2007); Timmons and Tanner (2004)
Teaching 15 S. Andersson (2006); Cobb et al. (2003); Cobb et al. (2009);
Cobb and McClain (2006); A. Edwards et al. (2010);
Engeström (2008); Gorodetsky and Barak (2009); Kärk-
käinen (2000); Landa (2008); Rasku-Puttonen et al. (2004);
Soliday (1995); Stein and Coburn (2008); Venkat and Adler
(2008); S. Walker and Creanor (2005); Williams et al.
(2007)
General and
other specific
work domains
66 Allen-Collinson (2009); Bechky (2003); Behrend and Erwee
(2009); Bogenrieder and van Baalen (2007); Boland and
Tenkasi (1995); Burman (2004); Carlile (2002, 2004);
Carlile and Rebentisch (2003); J. K. Christiansen and Varnes
(2007); Collinson (2006); Crosby and Bryson (2010);
Daniels (2004); Decuyper et al. (2010); Dillon (2008);
Doherty et al. (2010); Donnelly (2009); Dulipovici (2009);
Engeström (2004); Engeström et al. (1995); Engeström
et al. (1997); Engeström and Sannino (2010); Falconer
(2007); Faraj and Xiao (2006); Fenton (2007); Fleischmann
(2007); Fuller et al. (2009); Gal (2008); Gasson (2005);
Geiger and Finch (2009); Hall et al. (2002, 2005); Harris
and Simons (2006); Hemetsberger and Reinhardt (2009);
Hepso (2008); Hildreth et al. (2000); Hinds and Kiesler
(1995); Hong and O (2009); Hoyles et al. (2007); Huemer
et al. (2004); Hustad (2007); Jones (2010); Kellogg et al.
(2006); Kent et al. (2007); Kim and King (2004); Landry et al.
(2010); C. P. Lee (2007); Levina and Orlikowski (2009);
(continued)
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
155
Lindgren and Wåhlin (2001); Lutters and Ackerman
(2007); Macpherson and Jones (2008); Metiu (2002);
Morse (2010a, 2010b); Nitzgen (2004); Nosek (2004);
O’Mahony and Bechky (2008); Ordanini et al. (2008); Os-
wick and Robertson (2009); Rose-Anderssen et al. (2010);
Scarbrough et al. (2004); Strübing (1998); Thurk and Fine
(2003); Toiviainen et al. (2009); Werr et al. (2009); White
et al. (2005)
School (12)
Primary 1 Matusov et al. (2007)
Secondary 3 Buxton et al. (2005); Hoyles et al. (2004); Roth and McGinn
(1998)
Tertiary and
higher ed.
7 Cambridge (2008); F. V. Christiansen and Rump (2008); East
(2009); Fortuin and Bush (2010); Gutiérrez (2008); Melles
(2008); Zitter et al. (2009)
General 1 Young and Muller (2010)
Everyday life (11)
11 Bilici (2009); Brown and Gómez de García (2006); Fine
(2004); Fleischmann (2003); Garcia and McDowell (2010);
Hunter (2008); Huyard (2009); H. J. Lee (2009); Loveman
and Muniz (2007); Miettinen (2006); Telles and Sue (2009)
School–work (17)
Vocational
education or
training–work
4 Harreveld and Singh (2009); Konkola et al. (2007); Tanggaard
(2007); Vähäsantanen et al. (2009)
Secondary
education–
work
1 van Eijck et al. (2009)
Teacher
education–
teaching
6 I. Andersson and Andersson (2008); A. Edwards and Mutton
(2007); Finlay (2008); Gorodetsky and Barak (2008); Tsui
and Law (2007); Yoon et al. (2006)
Higher education–
work
3 Garraway (2010); Smeby and Vågan (2008); Williams and
Wake (2007)
School–work
general
3 Guile and Griffiths (2001); Hung and Chen (2007); Saunders
(2006)
Work–everyday life (3)
3 Ashforth et al. (2000); Bimber et al. (2005); Shumate and
Fulk (2004)
School–everyday life (11)
11 Clark (2007); R. Edwards et al. (2009); George (1999);
Hughes and Greenhough (2008); Kisiel (2010); Leander
(2002); Lund (2006); Phelan et al. (1991); D. Walker and
Nocon (2007); Yamazumi (2006; 2009)
APPENDIX A (continued)
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
156
APPENDIX B
Categorization of reviewed studies
Identification (27)
Allen-Collinson (2009); Ashforth et al. (2000); Bilici (2009); Bogenrieder and van
Baalen (2007); Burman (2004); Cohn et al. (2009); Considine (2006); A. Edwards
et al. (2010); R. Edwards and Fowler (2007); Engeström et al. (1995); Engeström
et al. (1997); Gal (2008); Garraway (2010); Geiger and Finch (2009); Hong and O
(2009); Huemer et al. (2004); Hughes and Greenhough (2008); Jones (2010);
Kynigos and Psycharis (2009); Leander (2002); Loveman and Muniz (2007); Metiu
(2002); Mørk et al. (2008); Shumate and Fulk (2004); Timmons and Tanner (2004);
Werr et al. (2009); Young and Muller (2010)
Coordination (60)
Allen (2009); Ashforth et al. (2000); Barcellini et al. (2009); Barrett and Oborn (2010);
Behrend and Erwee (2009); Bimber et al. (2005); Brown and Gómez de García
(2006); Carlile (2002, 2004); J. K. Christiansen and Varnes (2007); Clark (2007);
Cobb et al. (2003); Considine (2006); Decuyper et al. (2010); Donnelly (2009);
Dulipovici (2009); Falconer (2007); Faraj and Xiao (2006); Fisher and Atkinson-
Grosjean (2002); Gal (2008); Garcia and McDowell (2010); Heldal (2010); Hepso
(2008); Hinds and Kiesler (1995); Hoyles et al. (2004); Hunter (2008); Huyard
(2009); Kärkkäinen (2000); Kellogg et al. (2006); Kerosuo and Engeström (2003);
Lagesen (2010); Landa (2008); Landry et al. (2010); C. P. Lee (2007); Lutters and
Ackerman (2007); Melles (2008); Metiu (2002); Neff et al. (2010); Nitzgen (2004);
Nosek (2004); Ordanini et al. (2008); Paterson (2007); Pennington (2010); Phelan et
al. (1991); Puustinen et al. (2006); Roth and McGinn (1998); Schryer et al. (2009);
Shumate and Fulk (2004); Smeby and Vågan (2008); Star (2005); Stein and Coburn
(2008); Swan et al. (2007); Thurk and Fine (2003); Timmons and Tanner (2004);
Vähäsantanen et al. (2009); Veinot (2007); Williams and Wake (2007); Yakura
(2002); Zitter et al. (2009); Zittoun et al. (2009)
Reflection (23)
S. Andersson (2006); Bechky (2003); Boland and Tenkasi (1995); Cambridge (2008);
Carlile (2002); F. V. Christiansen and Rump (2008); Collinson (2006); Fleischmann
(2003); George (1999); Hoyles et al. (2007); Kent et al. (2007); Kynigos and
Psycharis (2009); H. J. Lee (2009); Liebenberg (2009); Loveman and Muniz (2007);
Luna-Reyes et al. (2008); Mørk et al. (2008); Pierce (1999); Scott and Walsham
(2005); Soliday (1995); White et al. (2005); Williams and Wake (2007); Yoon et al.
(2006)
Transformation (92)
Akkerman et al. (2006); I. Andersson and Andersson (2008); Benn and Martin (2010);
Bilici (2009); Broberg and Hermund (2007); Broekkamp and van Hout-Wolters
(2007); Brown and Gómez de García (2006); Buxton et al. (2005); Carlile (2004);
Carlile and Rebentisch (2003); Cobb et al. (2009); Cobb and McClain (2006); Crosby
and Bryson (2010); Daniels (2004); Dillon (2008); Doherty et al. (2010); East (2009);
A. Edwards and Mutton (2007); R. Edwards and Fowler (2007); Engeström (2001,
2004, 2008); Engeström et al. (1995); Engeström and Sannino (2010); Fenton (2007);
Fine (2004); Finlay (2008); Fleischmann (2007); Fuller et al. (2009); Garraway
(2010); Gasson (2005); Goodwin (2005); Gorodetsky and Barak (2008, 2009);
(continued)
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
157
Komproe for their library help, Larike Bronkhorst for a careful reading of the final
article, and Tim Muentzer for his editing help. Finally, we want to thank the editor and
reviewers of Review of Educational Research for their thorough feedback on an earlier
version of this article.
References
Akkerman, S. F., Admiraal, W., & Simons, P. R. J. (in press). Unity and diversity in a
collaborative research project. Culture & Psychology.
Akkerman, S., Admiraal, W., Simons, R. J., & Niessen, T. (2006). Considering diver-
sity: Multivoicedness in international academic collaboration. Culture & Psychology,
12, 461–485.
Akkerman, S. F., & Meijer, P. C. (2011). A dialogical approach to conceptualizing
teacher identity. Teaching and Teaching Education, 27, 208–319.
Allen, D. (2009). From boundary concept to boundary object: The practice and politics
of care pathway development. Social Science & Medicine, 69, 354–361.
Allen-Collinson, J. (2009). Negative “marking”? University research administrators
and the contestation of moral exclusion. Studies in Higher Education, 34, 941–954.
Alsup, J. (2006). Teacher identity discourses. Negotiating personal and professional
spaces. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Andersson, I., & Andersson, S. B. (2008). Conditions for boundary crossing: Social
practices of newly qualified Swedish teachers. Scandinavian Journal of Educational
Research, 52, 643–660.
Andersson, S. (2006). Newly qualified teachers’ learning related to their use of infor-
mation and communication technology: A Swedish perspective. British Journal of
Educational Technology, 37, 665–682.
Ashforth, B. E., Kreiner, G. E., & Fugate, M. (2000). All in a day’s work: Boundaries
and micro role transitions. Academy of Management Review, 25, 472–491.
Guile and Griffiths (2001); Gutiérrez (2008); Hall et al. (2002, 2005); Harreveld
and Singh (2009); Harris and Simons (2006); Hasu and Engeström (2000); Hemets-
berger and Reinhardt (2009); Hildreth et al. (2000); Hung and Chen (2007); Hustad
(2007); Huzzard et al. (2010); Kerosuo (2001, 2004); Kim and King (2004); Kisiel
(2010); Konkola et al. (2007); Macpherson and Jones (2008); Palmer (1999); C.
P. Lee (2007); Levina and Orlikowski (2009); Lindgren and Wåhlin (2001); Lund
(2006); Massanari (2010); Matusov et al. (2007); Metiu (2002); Miettinen (2006);
Mitchell et al. (2010); Morse (2010a, 2010b); Mørk et al. (2008); O’Mahony and
Bechky (2008); Oswick and Robertson (2009); Paay et al. (2009); Pennington
(2010); Pohl et al. (2008); Postlethwaite (2007); Rasku-Puttonen et al. (2004);
Rose-Anderssen et al. (2010); Saunders (2006); Scarbrough et al. (2004); Stein and
Coburn (2008); Strübing (1998); Swan et al. (2002); Swan et al. (2007); Tanggaard
(2007); Tate (2008); Telles and Sue (2009); Toiviainen et al. (2009); Tsui and Law
(2007); van Eijck et al. (2009); Venkat and Adler (2008); D. Walker and Nocon
(2007); S. Walker and Creanor (2005); Whyte et al. (2008); Williams et al. (2007);
Yamazumi (2006, 2009)
Note. Some studies describe more than one dialogical learning mechanism and therefore appear in more
than one category.
APPENDIX B (continued)
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Akkerman & Bakker
158
Bakhtin, M. (1981). Discourse in the novel (C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Trans.). In
M. Holquist (Ed.), The dialogical imagination (pp. 259–422). Austin: University of
Texas Press.
Bakhtin, M. (1984). Problems of Dostoevsky’s poetics (C. Emerson, Trans.). Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press.
Bakhtin, M. (1986). From notes made in 1970-71 (V. McGee, Trans.). In C. Emerson,
& M. Holquist (Eds.), Speech genres & other late essays (pp. 132–158). Austin:
University of Texas Press.
Barcellini, F., Detienne, F., & Burkhardt, J. (2009). Participation in online interaction
spaces: Design-use mediation in an open source software community. International
Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 39, 533–540.
Barrett, M., & Oborn, E. (2010). Boundary object use in cross-cultural software devel-
opment teams. Human Relations, 63, 1199–1221.
Beach, K. (1999). Consequential transitions: A sociocultural expedition beyond trans-
fer in education. Review of Research in Education, 24, 101–139.
Bechky, B. A. (2003). Sharing meaning across occupational communities: The trans-
formation of understanding on a production floor. Organization Science, 14,
312–330.
Behrend, F. D., & Erwee, R. (2009). Mapping knowledge flows in virtual teams with
SNA. Journal of Knowledge Management, 13(4), 99–114.
Benn, S., & Martin, A. (2010). Learning and change for sustainability reconsidered:
A role for boundary objects. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 9,
397–412.
Bernstein, B. (1971). Class, codes and control. London, UK: Routledge.
Bhabha, H. K. (Ed.). (1990). Nation and narration. London, UK: Routledge.
Bilici, M. (2009). Finding Mecca in America: American Muslims and cultural citizen-
ship (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Bimber, B., Flanagin, A. J., & Stohl, C. (2005). Reconceptualizing collective action in
the contemporary media environment. Communication Theory, 15, 365–388.
Bogenrieder, I., & van Baalen, P. (2007). Contested practice: Multiple inclusion in
double-knit organizations. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 20,
579–595.
Boland, R. J., & Tenkasi, R. V. (1995). Perspective making and perspective taking in
communities of knowing. Organization Science, 6, 350–372.
Broberg, O., & Hermund, I. (2007). The OHS consultant as a facilitator of learning in
workplace design processes: Four explorative case studies of current practice.
International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 37, 810–816.
Broekkamp, H., & van Hout-Wolters, B. (2007). The gap between educational research
and practice: A literature review, symposium, and questionnaire. Educational
Research and Evaluation, 13, 203–220.
Brown, K., & Gómez de García, J. (2006). Linguistic research meets cultural-historical
theory. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 13, 311–329.
Burman, E. (2004). Boundary objects and group analysis: Between psychoanalysis and
social theory. Group Analysis, 37, 361–379.
Buxton, C., Carlone, H., & Carlone, D. (2005). Boundary spanners as bridges of stu-
dent and school discourses in an urban science and mathematics high school. School
Science and Mathematics, 105, 302–313.
Cambridge, D. (2008). Universities as responsive learning organizations through
competency-based assessment with electronic portfolios. Journal of General
Education, 57(1), 51–64.
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Boundary Crossing and Boundary Objects
159
Carlile, P. R. (2002). A pragmatic view of knowledge and boundaries: Boundary
objects in new product development. Organization Science, 13, 442–455.
Carlile, P. R. (2004). Transferring, translating, and transforming: An integrative
framework for managing knowledge across boundaries. Organization Science, 15,
555–568.
Carlile, P. R., & Rebentisch, E. S. (2003). Into the black box: The knowledge transfor-
mation cycle. Management Science, 49, 1180–1195.
Christiansen, F. V., & Rump, C. (2008). Three conceptions of thermodynamics:
Technical matrices in science and engineering. Research in Science Education, 38,
545–564.
Christiansen, J. K., & Varnes, C. J. (2007). Making decisions on innovation: Meetings
or networks? Creativity and Innovation Management, 16, 282–298.
Clark, K. R. (2007). Charting transformative practice: Critical multiliteracies via
informal learning design (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of
California, San Diego.
Clarke, A. E., & Star, S. L. (2007). The social worlds framework: A theory/methods
package. In E. Hackett, O. Amsterdamska, M. Lynch, & J. Wacjman (Eds.),
Handbook of science and technology studies (pp. 113–137). Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press.
Cobb, P., & McClain, K. (2006). The collective mediation of a high-stakes account-
ability program: Communities and networks of practice. Mind, Culture, and Activity,
13, 80–100.
Cobb, P., McClain, K., de Silva Lamberg, T., & Dean, C. (2003). Situating teachers’
instructional practices in the institutional setting of the school and district.
Educational Researcher, 32(6), 13–24.
Cobb, P., Zhao, Q., & Dean, C. (2009). Conducting design experiments to support
teachers’ learning: A reflection from the field. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 18,
165–199.
Cohn, M. L., Sim, S. E., & Lee, C. P. (2009). What counts as software process?
Negotiating the boundary of software work through artifacts and conversation.
Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 18, 401–443.
Collinson, J. A. (2006). Just “non-academics”? Research administrators and contested
occupational identity. Work, Employment and Society, 20, 267–288.
Considine, M. (2006). Theorizing the university as a cultural system: Distinctions,
identities, emergencies. Educational Theory, 56, 255–270.
Crosby, B. C., & Bryson, J. M. (2010). Integrative leadership and the creation and
maintenance of cross-sector collaborations. Leadership Quarterly, 21, 211–230.
Daniels, H. (2004). Cultural historical activity theory and professional learning.
International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 51, 185–200.
Daniels, H., Edwards, A., Engeström, Y., Gallagher, T., & Ludvigsen, S. R. (2010).
Activity theory in practice: Promoting learning across boundaries and agencies.
London, UK: Routledge.
Decuyper, S., Dochy, F., & Van den Bossche, P. (2010). Grasping the dynamic com-
plexity of team learning: An integrative model for effective team learning in organ-
isations. Educational Research Review, 5, 111–133.
Dillon, P. (2008). A pedagogy of connection and boundary crossings: Methodological
and epistemological transactions in working across and between disciplines.
Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 45, 255–262.
Doherty, N., Dickmann, M., & Mills, T. (2010). Mobility attitudes and behaviours
among young Europeans. Career Development International, 15, 378–400.
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Akkerman & Bakker
160
Donnelly, R. (2009). Career behavior in the knowledge economy: Experiences and
perceptions of career mobility among management and IT consultants in the UK and
the USA. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 75, 319–328.
Dulipovici, A. M. (2009). Exploring IT-based knowledge sharing practices:
Representing knowledge within and across projects (Doctoral dissertation).
Retrieved from Dissertation Abstracts database. (2009-99191-120)
East, K. (2009). Content: Making it a boundary object in the college classroom. College
Teaching, 57, 119–125.
Edwards, A., Lunt, I., & Stamou, E. (2010). Inter-professional work and expertise:
New roles at the boundaries of schools. British Educational Research Journal, 36,
27–45.
Edwards, A., & Mutton, T. (2007). Looking forward: Rethinking professional learning
through partnership arrangements in initial teacher education. Oxford Review of
Education, 33, 503–519.
Edwards, R., & Fowler, Z. (2007). Unsettling boundaries in making a space for
research. British Educational Research Journal, 33, 107–123.
Edwards, R., Ivanič, R., & Mannion, G. (2009). The scrumpled geography of literacies
for learning. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 30, 483–499.
Engeström, Y. (1987). Learning by expanding. An activity-theoretical approach to
developmental research. Helsinki, Finland: Orienta-Konsultit.
Engeström, Y. (2001). Expansive learning at work: Toward an activity theoretical
reconceptualization. Journal of Education and Work, 14, 133–156.
Engeström, Y. (2004). New forms of learning in co-configuration work. Journal of
Workplace Learning, 16, 11–21.
Engeström, Y. (2008). From teams to knots: Activity-theoretical studies of collabora-
tion and learning at work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Engeström, Y., Engeström, R., & Kärkkäinen, M. (1995). Polycontextuality and bound-
ary crossing in expert cognition: Learning and problem solving in complex work
activities. Learning and Instruction, 5, 319–336.
Engeström, Y., Engeström, R., & Kärkkäinen, M. (1997). The emerging horizontal
dimension of practical intelligence: Polycontextuality and boundary crossing in
complex work activities. In R. Sternberg & E. Grigorenko (Eds.), Intelligence,
heredity, and environment (pp. 440–462). New York, NY: Cambridge University
Press.
Engeström, Y., Engeström, R., & Vähäaho, T. (1999). When the center does not hold:
The importance of knotworking. In S. Chaiklin, M. Hedegaard, & U. J. Jensen
(Eds.), Activity theory and social practices (pp. 12–30). Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus
University Press.
Engeström, Y., & Sannino, A. (2010). Studies of expansive learning: Foundations,
findings and future challenges. Educational Research Review, 5, 1–24.
Falconer, I. (2007). Mediating between practitioner and developer communities: The
learning activity design in education experience. ALT-J: Research in Learning
Technology, 15, 155–170.
Faraj, S., & Xiao, Y. (2006). Coordination in fast-response organizations. Management
Science, 52, 1155–1169.
Fenton, E. M. (2007). Visualising strategic change: The role and impact of process
maps as boundary objects in reorganisation. European Management Journal, 25,
104–117.
Fine, G. A. (2004). Adolescence as cultural toolkit: High school debate and the reper-
toires of childhood and adulthood. Sociological Quarterly, 45, 1–20.
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Boundary Crossing and Boundary Objects
161
Finlay, I. (2008). Learning through boundary-crossing: Further education lecturers
learning in both the university and workplace. European Journal of Teacher
Education, 31(1), 73–87.
Fisher, D., & Atkinson-Grosjean, J. (2002). Brokers on the boundary: Academy-
industry liaison in Canadian universities. Higher Education, 44, 449–467.
Fleischmann, K. R. (2003). Frog and cyberfrog are friends: Dissection simulation and
animal advocacy. Society & Animals, 11, 123–143.
Fleischmann, K. R. (2007). Digital libraries with embedded values: Combining insights
from LIS and science and technology studies. Library Quarterly, 77, 409–427.
Fortuin, I. K. P. J., & Bush, S. R. (2010). Educating students to cross boundaries
between disciplines and cultures and between theory and practice. International
Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 11(1), 19–35.
Fuller, A., Kakavelakis, K., Felstead, A., Jewson, N., & Unwin, L. (2009). Learning,
knowing and controlling the stock: The nature of employee discretion in a supermar-
ket chain. Journal of Education and Work, 22, 105–120.
Gal, U. (2008). Boundary matters: The dynamics of boundary objects, information
infrastructures, and organisational identities (Unpublished doctoral dissertation).
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH.
Garcia, M., & McDowell, T. (2010). Mapping social capital: A critical contextual
approach for working with low-status families. Journal of Marital and Family
Therapy, 36(1), 96–107.
Garraway, J. (2010). Knowledge boundaries and boundary-crossing in the design of
work-responsive university curricula. Teaching in Higher Education, 15, 211– 222.
Gasson, S. (2005). The dynamics of sensemaking, knowledge, and expertise in col-
laborative, boundary-spanning design. Journal of Computer-Mediated
Communication, 10(4), Article 14. doi:10.1111/j.1083–6101.2005.tb00277.x
Geiger, S., & Finch, J. (2009). Industrial sales people as market actors. Industrial
Marketing Management, 38, 608–617.
George, J. (1999). World view analysis of knowledge in a rural village: Implications
for science education. Science Education, 83, 77–95.
Gergen, K. (1994). Realities and relationships: Soundings in social construction.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Goodwin, C. (Ed.). (2005). Seeing in depth. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Gorodetsky, M., & Barak, J. (2008). The educational-cultural edge: A participative
learning environment for co-emergence of personal and institutional growth.
Teaching and Teacher Education, 24, 1907–1918.
Gorodetsky, M., & Barak, J. (2009). Back to schooling: Challenging implicit routines
and change. Professional Development in Education, 35, 585–600.
Guile, D., & Griffiths, T. (2001). Learning through work experience. Journal of
Education and Work, 14, 113–131.
Gutiérrez, K. D. (2008). Developing a sociocritical literacy in the third space. Reading
Research Quarterly, 43, 148–164.
Gutiérrez, K., Rymes, B., & Larson, J. (1995). Script, counterscript, and underlife in
the classroom: James Brown versus Brown v. Board of education. Harvard
Educational Review, 65, 445–471.
Hall, R., Stevens, R., & Torralba, T. (2002). Disrupting representational infrastructure
in conversations across disciplines. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 9, 179–210.
Hall, R., Stevens, R., & Torralba, T. (2005). Disrupting representational infrastructure
in conversations across disciplines. In S. J. Derry, C. D. Schunn, & M. A. Gernsbacher
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Akkerman & Bakker
162
(Eds.), Interdisciplinary collaboration: An emerging cognitive science (pp. 123–166).
Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Harreveld, B., & Singh, M. (2009). Contextualising learning at the education-training-
work interface. Education and Training, 51, 92–107.
Harris, R., & Simons, M. (2006). VET practitioners working with private enterprises:
A “third space”? Journal of Workplace Learning, 18, 478–494.
Hasu, M., & Engeström, Y. (2000). Measurement in action: An activity-theoretical
perspective on producer-user interaction. International Journal of Human-Computer
Studies, 53, 61–89.
Heldal, F. (2010). Multidisciplinary collaboration as a loosely coupled system:
Integrating and blocking professional boundaries with objects. Journal of
Interprofessional Care, 24(1), 19–30.
Hemetsberger, A., & Reinhardt, C. (2009). Collective development in open-source
communities: An activity theoretical perspective on successful online collaboration.
Organization Studies, 30, 987–1008.
Hepso, V. (2008). “Boundary-spanning” practices and paradoxes related to trust among
people and machines in a high-tech oil and gas environment. In D. Jemielniak &
J. Kociatkiewicz (Eds.), Management practices in high tech environments (pp. 1–17).
Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference/IGI Global.
Heracleous, L. (2004). Boundaries in the study of organization. Human Relations, 57,
95–103.
Hermans, H. J. M., & Hermans-Konopka, A. (2010). Dialogical self theory: Positioning
and counter-positioning in a globalizing society. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press.
Hermans, H. J. M., & Kempen, H. J. G. (1993). The dialogical self: Meaning as move-
ment. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Hildreth, P., Kimble, C., & Wright, P. (2000). Communities of practice in the distrib-
uted international environment. Journal of Knowledge Management, 4(1), 27–38.
Hinds, P., & Kiesler, S. (1995). Communication across boundaries: Work, structure,
and use of communication technologies in a large organization. Organization
Science, 6, 373–393.
Hong, J. F., & O, F. K. (2009). Conflicting identities and power between communities
of practice: The case of IT outsourcing. Management Learning, 40, 311–326.
Hoyles, C., Bakker, A., Kent, P., & Noss, R. (2007). Attributing meanings to represen-
tations of data: The case of statistical process control. Mathematical Thinking and
Learning, 9, 331–360.
Hoyles, C., Noss, R., & Kent, P. (2004). On the integration of digital technologies into
mathematics classrooms. International Journal of Computers for Mathematical
Learning, 9, 309–326.
Huemer, L., Becerra, M., & Lunnan, R. (2004). Organizational identity and network
identification: Relating within and beyond imaginary boundaries. Scandinavian
Journal of Management, 20, 53–73.
Hughes, M., & Greenhough, P. (2008). “We do it a different way at my school”:
Mathematics homework as a site for tension and conflict. In A. Watson & P. Winbourne
(Eds.), New directions for situated cognition in mathematics education (pp. 129–151).
New York, NY: Springer.
Hung, D., & Chen, D. T. V. (2007). Context–process authenticity in learning:
Implications for identity enculturation and boundary crossing. Educational
Technology Research and Development, 55, 147–167.
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Boundary Crossing and Boundary Objects
163
Hunter, S. (2008). Living documents: A feminist psychosocial approach to the rela-
tional politics of policy documentation. Critical Social Policy, 28, 506–528.
Hustad, E. (2007). Managing structural diversity: The case of boundary spanning net-
works. Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management, 5, 399–410.
Huyard, C. (2009). How did uncommon disorders become “rare diseases”? History of
a boundary object. Sociology of Health & Illness, 31, 463–477.
Huzzard, T., Ahlberg, B. M., & Ekman, M. (2010). Constructing interorganizational
collaboration: The action researcher as boundary subject. Action Research, 8,
293–314.
Johannessen, L. K., & Ellingsen, G. (2009). Integration and generification-agile soft-
ware development in the healthcare market. Computer Supported Cooperative
Work, 18, 607–634.
Jones, C. (2010). Finding a place in history: Symbolic and social networks in creative
careers and collective memory. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 31, 726–748.
Kärkkäinen, M. (2000). Teams as network builders: Analysing network contacts in
Finnish elementary school teacher teams. Scandinavian Journal of Educational
Research, 44, 371–391.
Kellogg, K. C., Orlikowski, W. J., & Yates, J. (2006). Life in the trading zone:
Structuring coordination across boundaries in postbureaucratic organizations.
Organization Science, 17, 22–44.
Kent, P., Noss, R., Guile, D., Hoyles, C., & Bakker, A. (2007). Characterizing the use
of mathematical knowledge in boundary-crossing situations at work. Mind, Culture,
and Activity, 14, 64–82.
Kerosuo, H. (2001). Boundary encounters as place for learning and development at
work. Outlines: Critical Social Studies, 3(1), 53–65.
Kerosuo, H. (2004). Examining boundaries in health care—Outline of a method for
studying organizational boundaries in interaction. Outlines: Critical Social Studies,
6(1), 35–60.
Kerosuo, H., & Engeström, Y. (2003). Boundary crossing and learning in creation of
new work practice. Journal of Workplace Learning, 15, 345–351.
Kim, J., & King, J. (2004). Managing knowledge work: Specialization and collabora-
tion of engineering problem-solving. Journal of Knowledge Management, 8(2),
53–63.
Kisiel, J. F. (2010). Exploring a school-aquarium collaboration: An intersection of
communities of practice. Science Education, 94, 95–121.
Konkola, R., Tuomi-Gröhn, T., Lambert, P., & Ludvigsen, S. (2007). Promoting learn-
ing and transfer between school and workplace. Journal of Education and Work, 20,
211–228.
Kynigos, C., & Psycharis, G. (2009). Investigating the role of context in experimental
research involving the use of digital media for the learning of mathematics: Boundary
objects as vehicles for integration. International Journal of Computers for
Mathematical Learning, 14, 265–298.
Lagesen, V. A. (2010). The importance of boundary objects in transcultural interview-
ing. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 17, 125–142.
Lamont, M., & Molnár, V. (2002). The study of boundaries in the social sciences.
Annual Review of Sociology, 28, 167–195.
Landa, M. S. H. (2008). Crossing the divide: A phenomenological study of early child-
hood literacy teachers who choose to work with children in high-poverty schools
(Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Maryland, College Park.
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Akkerman & Bakker
164
Landry, S. J., Levin, K., Rowe, D., & Nickelson, M. (2010). Enabling collaborative
work across different communities of practice through boundary objects: Field stud-
ies in air traffic management. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction,
26, 75–93.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Leander, K. M. (2002). Polycontextual construction zones: Mapping the expansion of
schooled space and identity. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 9, 211–237.
Lee, C. P. (2007). Boundary negotiating artifacts: Unbinding the routine of boundary
objects and embracing chaos in collaborative work. Computer Supported
Cooperative Work, 16, 307–339.
Lee, H. J. (2009). The screen as boundary object in the realm of imagination (Doctoral
dissertation). Retrieved from Dissertation Abstracts database. (2009-99231-317)
Levina, N., & Orlikowski, W. J. (2009). Understanding shifting power relations within
and across organizations: A critical genre analysis. Academy of Management
Journal, 52, 672–703.
Liebenberg, L. (2009). The visual image as discussion point: Increasing validity in
boundary crossing research. Qualitative Research, 9, 441–467.
Lindgren, M., & Wåhlin, N. (2001). Identity construction among boundary-crossing
individuals. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 17, 357–377.
Lotman, Y. M. (1990). Universe of the mind. A semiotic theory of culture (A. Shukman,
Trans.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Loveman, M., & Muniz, J. O. (2007). How Puerto Rico became White: Boundary
dynamics and intercensus racial reclassification. American Sociological Review, 72,
915–939.
Ludvigsen, S. R., Lund, A., Rasmussen, I., & Säljö, R. (Eds.). (2010). Introduction.
Learning across sites. New tools, infrastructures and practices. London, UK:
Routledge.
Luna-Reyes, L. F., Black, L. J., Cresswell, A. M., & Pardo, T. A. (2008). Knowledge
sharing and trust in collaborative requirements analysis. System Dynamics Review,
24, 265–297.
Lund, A. (2006). The multiple contexts of online language teaching. Language
Teaching Research, 10, 181–204.
Lutters, W. G., & Ackerman, M. S. (2007). Beyond boundary objects: Collaborative
reuse in aircraft technical support. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 16,
341–372.
Macpherson, A., & Jones, O. (2008). Object-mediated learning and strategic renewal
in a mature organization. Management Learning, 39, 177–201.
Marková, I. (2003). Dialogicality and social representations: The dynamics of mind.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Marková, I. (2006). On the “inner alter” in dialogue. International Journal for
Dialogical Science, 1(1), 125–147.
Massanari, A. L. (2010). Designing for imaginary friends: Information architecture,
personas and the politics of user-centered design. New Media & Society, 12,
401–416.
Matusov, E., Smith, M., Candela, M. A., & Lilu, K. (2007). “Culture has no internal
territory”: Culture as dialogue. In J. Valsiner & A. Rosa (Eds.), The Cambridge
handbook of sociocultural psychology (pp. 460–483). New York, NY: Cambridge
University Press.
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Boundary Crossing and Boundary Objects
165
Melles, G. (2008). Curriculum documents and practice in the NZ polytechnic sector:
Consensus and dissensus. Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 13(1), 55–67.
Metiu, A. M. (2002). Faraway, so close: Code ownership over innovative work in the
global software industry (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
Miettinen, R. (2006). The sources of novelty: A cultural and systemic view of distrib-
uted creativity. Creativity and Innovation Management, 15, 173–181.
Mitchell, R., Parker, V., Giles, M., & White, N. (2010). Toward realizing the potential
of diversity in composition of interprofessional health care teams: An examination
of the cognitive and psychosocial dynamics of interprofessional collaboration.
Medical Care Research and Review, 67(1), 3–26.
Mørk, B. E., Aanestad, M., Hanseth, O., & Grisot, M. (2008). Conflicting epistemic
cultures and obstacles for learning across communities of practice. Knowledge &
Process Management, 15(1), 12–23.
Morse, R. S. (2010a). Bill Gibson and the art of leading across boundaries. Public
Administration Review, 70, 434–442.
Morse, R. S. (2010b). Integrative public leadership: Catalyzing collaboration to create
public value. Leadership Quarterly, 21, 231–245.
Neff, G., Fiore-Silfvast, B., & Dossick, C. S. (2010). A case study of the failure of
digital communication to cross knowledge boundaries in virtual construction.
Information, Communication & Society, 13, 556–573.
Nitzgen, D. (2004). Commentary on “boundary objects and group analysis” by Erica
Burman. Group Analysis, 37, 379–385.
Nosek, J. T. (2004). Group cognition as a basis for supporting group knowledge cre-
ation and sharing. Journal of Knowledge Management, 8(4), 54–64.
O’Mahony, S., & Bechky, B. A. (2008). Boundary organizations: Enabling collabora-
tion among unexpected allies. Administrative Science Quarterly, 53, 422–459.
Ordanini, A., Rubera, G., & Sala, M. (2008). Integrating functional knowledge and
embedding learning in new product launches: How project forms helped EMI
music. Long Range Planning: International Journal of Strategic Management,
41(1), 17–32.
Oswick, C., & Robertson, M. (2009). Boundary objects reconsidered: From bridges
and anchors to barricades and mazes. Journal of Change Management, 9, 179–194.
Paay, J., Sterling, L., Vetere, F., Howard, S., & Boettcher, A. (2009). Engineering the
social: The role of shared artifacts. International Journal of Human-Computer
Studies, 67, 437–454.
Palmer, C. L. (1999). Structures and strategies of interdisciplinary science. Journal of
the American Society for Information Science, 50, 242–253.
Paterson, G. I. (2007). Boundary infostructures for chronic disease (Unpublished
doctoral dissertation). Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.
Paulsen, N., & Hernes, T. (Eds.). (2003). Managing boundaries in organizations:
Multiple perspectives. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Pennington, D. D. (2010). The dynamics of material artifacts in collaborative research
teams. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 19, 175–199.
Phelan, P., Davidson, A. L., & Cao, H. T. (1991). Students’ multiple worlds: Negotiating
the boundaries of family, peer, and school cultures. Anthropology and Education
Quarterly, 22, 224–250.
Pierce, S. J. (1999). Boundary crossing in research literatures as a means of interdisci-
plinary information transfer. Journal of the American Society for Information
Science, 50, 271–279.
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Akkerman & Bakker
166
Pohl, C., van Kerkhoff, L., Hirsch Hadorn, G., & Bammer, G. (2008). Integration. In
G. Hirsch Hadorn, H. Hoffmann-Riem, S. Biber-Klemm, W. Grossenbacher-
Mansuy, D. Joye, C. Pohl, U. Wiesmann, & E. Zemp (Eds.), Handbook of transdis-
ciplinary research (pp. 411–424). New York, NY: Springer.
Postlethwaite, K. (2007). Boundary crossings in research: Towards a cultural under-
standing of the research project “transforming learning cultures in further educa-
tion.” Educational Review, 59, 483–499.
Puustinen, M., Baker, M., & Lund, K. (2006). GESTALT: A framework for redesign of
educational software. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 22, 34–46.
Rasku-Puttonen, H., Etelapelto, A., Lehtonen, O., Nummila, L., & Hakkinen, P. (2004).
Developing teachers’ professional expertise through collaboration in an innovative
ICT-based learning environment. European Journal of Teacher Education, 27(1),
47–60.
Rose-Anderssen, C., Baldwin, J., & Ridgway, K. (2010). Communicative interaction
as an instrument for integration and coordination in an aerospace supply chain.
Journal of Management Development, 29, 193–209.
Roth, W., & Lee, Y. (2007). “Vygotsky’s neglected legacy”: Cultural-historical activity
theory. Review of Educational Research, 77, 186–232.
Roth, W., & McGinn, M. K. (1998). >unDELETE science education: /Lives/work/
voices. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 35, 399–421.
Säljö, R. (2003). Epilogue: From transfer to boundary-crossing. In T. Tuomi-Gröhn &
Y. Engeström (Eds.), Between school and work: New perspectives on transfer and
boundary-crossing (pp. 311–321). Amsterdam, Netherlands: Pergamon.
Saunders, M. (2006). From “organisms” to “boundaries”: The uneven development of
theory narratives in education, learning and work connections. Journal of Education
and Work, 19, 1–27.
Scarbrough, H., Swan, J., Laurent, S., Bresnen, M., Edelman, L., & Newell, S. (2004).
Project-based learning and the role of learning boundaries. Organization Studies, 25,
1579–1600.
Schryer, C. F., Afros, E., Mian, M., Spafford, M., & Lingard, L. (2009). The trial of the
expert witness: Negotiating credibility in child abuse correspondence. Written
Communication, 26, 215–246.
Scott, S. V., & Walsham, G. (2005). Reconceptualizing and managing reputation risk
in the knowledge economy: Toward reputable action. Organization Science, 16,
308–322.
Shumate, M., & Fulk, J. (2004). Boundaries and role conflict when work and family
are colocated: A communication network and symbolic interaction approach. Human
Relations, 57, 55–74.
Smeby, J., & Vågan, A. (2008). Recontextualising professional knowledge. Newly
qualified nurses and physicians. Journal of Education and Work, 21, 159–173.
Soja, E. (1996). Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and other real-and-imagined
places. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Soliday, M. (1995). Shifting roles in classroom tutoring: Cultivating the art of bound-
ary crossing. Writing Center Journal, 16(1), 59–73.
Star, S. L. (1989). The structure of ill-structured solutions: Boundary objects and het-
erogeneous distributed problem solving. In L. Gasser & M. Huhns (Eds.),
Distributed artificial intelligence (pp. 37–54). San Mateo, CA: Morgan Kaufmann.
Star, S. L. (2005). Categories and cognition: Material and conceptual aspects of large-
scale category systems. In S. J. Derry, C. D. Schunn, & M. A. Gernsbacher (Eds.),
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Boundary Crossing and Boundary Objects
167
Interdisciplinary collaboration: An emerging cognitive science (pp. 167–186).
Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Star, S. L. (2010). This is not a boundary object: Reflections on the origin of a concept.
Science, Technology, & Human Values, 35, 601–617.
Star, S. L., & Griesemer, J. R. (1989). Institutional ecology, “translations” and bound-
ary objects: Amateurs and professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate
Zoology, 1907–39. Social Studies of Science, 19, 387–420.
Stein, M. K., & Coburn, C. E. (2008). Architectures for learning: A comparative analy-
sis of two urban school districts. American Journal of Education, 114, 583–626.
Strübing, J. (1998). Bridging the gap: On the collaboration between symbolic interac-
tionism and distributed artificial intelligence in the field of multi-agent systems
research. Symbolic Interaction, 21, 441–463.
Suchman, L. (1994). Working relations of technology production and use. Computer
Supported Cooperative Work, 2, 21–39.
Swan, J., Bresnen, M., Newell, S., & Robertson, M. (2007). The object of knowledge:
The role of objects in biomedical innovation. Human Relations, 60, 1808–1837.
Swan, J., Scarbrough, H., & Robertson, M. (2002). The construction of “communities
of practice” in the management of innovation. Management Learning, 33, 477–496.
Tanggaard, L. (2007). Learning at trade vocational school and learning at work:
Boundary crossing in apprentices’ everyday life. Journal of Education and Work, 20,
453–466.
Tate, W. F. I. V. (2008). From the desk of the president: Building a stimulating and
sustainable research enterprise. Educational Researcher, 37(1), 51–52.
Telles, E. E., & Sue, C. A. (2009). Race mixture: Boundary crossing in comparative
perspective. Annual Review of Sociology, 35, 129–146.
Thurk, J., & Fine, G. A. (2003). The problem of tools: Technology and the sharing of
knowledge. Acta Sociologica, 46(2), 107–117.
Timmons, S., & Tanner, J. (2004). A disputed occupational boundary: Operating the-
atre nurses and operating department practitioners. Sociology of Health & Illness,
26, 645–666.
Toiviainen, H., Kerosuo, H., & Syrjala, T. (2009). “Development radar”: The co-
configuration of a tool in a learning network. Journal of Workplace Learning, 21,
509–524.
Tsui, A. B. M., & Law, D. Y. K. (2007). Learning as boundary-crossing in school–
university partnership. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23, 1289–1301.
Tuomi-Gröhn, T., & Engeström, Y. (Eds.). (2003). Between school and work: New
perspectives on transfer and boundary-crossing. Amsterdam, Netherlands:
Pergamon.
Tuomi-Gröhn, T., Engeström, Y., & Young, M. (2003). From transfer to boundary-
crossing between school and work as a tool for developing vocational education: An
introduction. In T. Tuomi-Gröhn & Y. Engeström (Eds.), Between school and work:
New perspectives on transfer and boundary-crossing (pp. 1–18). Amsterdam,
Netherlands: Pergamon.
Turner, V. W. (1969). The ritual process: Structure and anti-structure. Chicago, IL: PAJ.
Vähäsantanen, K., Saarinen, J., & Eteläpelto, A. (2009). Between school and working
life: Vocational teachers’ agency in boundary-crossing settings. International
Journal of Educational Research, 48, 395–404.
Valsiner, J. (2007). Looking across cultural boundaries. Integrative Psychological and
Behavioral Science, 41, 219–224.
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Akkerman & Bakker
168
van Eijck, M., Hsu, P., & Roth, W. (2009). Translations of scientific practice to “stu-
dents’ images of science.” Science Education, 93, 611–634.
Van Gennep, A. (1960). The rites of passage. London, UK: Routledge Kegan Paul.
(Original work published 1909)
Veinot, T. C. (2007). “The eyes of the power company”: Workplace information prac-
tices of a vault inspector. Library Quarterly, 77, 157–179.
Venkat, H., & Adler, J. (2008). Expanding the foci of activity theory: Accessing the
broader contexts and experiences of mathematics education reform. Educational
Review, 60, 127–140.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological
processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought and language (A. Kozulin, Ed., Trans.). Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press. (Original work published 1934)
Walker, D., & Nocon, H. (2007). Boundary-crossing competence: Theoretical consid-
erations and educational design. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 14, 178–195.
Walker, S., & Creanor, L. (2005). Crossing complex boundaries: Transnational online
education in European trade unions. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 21,
343–354.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice, learning, meaning and identity.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Werr, A., Blomberg, J., & Lowstedt, J. (2009). Gaining external knowledge—boundar-
ies in managers’ knowledge relations. Journal of Knowledge Management, 13(6),
448–463.
Wertsch, J. V., & Toma, C. (1995). Discourse and learning in the classroom: A socio-
cultural approach. In L. P. Steffe & J. Gale (Eds.), Constructivism in education
(pp. 159–175). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
White, M., Härtel, C. E. J., & Panipucci, D. (2005). Understanding cross-cultural nego-
tiation: A model integrating affective events theory and communication accommo-
dation theory. In N. M. Ashkanasy, C. E. J. Hartel, & W. J. Zerbe (Eds.), Emotions
in organizational behavior (pp. 167–182). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Whyte, J., Ewenstein, B., Hales, M., & Tidd, J. (2008). Visualizing knowledge in
project-based work. Long Range Planning: International Journal of Strategic
Management, 41(1), 74–92.
Williams, J., Corbin, B., & McNamara, O. (2007). Finding inquiry in discourses of
audit and reform in primary schools. International Journal of Educational Research,
46, 57–67.
Williams, J., & Wake, G. (2007). Black boxes in workplace mathematics. Educational
Studies in Mathematics, 64, 317–343.
Yakura, E. K. (2002). Charting time: Timelines as temporal boundary objects. Academy
of Management Journal, 45, 956–970.
Yamazumi, K. (2006). Activity theory and the transformation of pedagogic practice.
Educational Studies in Japan: International Yearbook, 1(7), 77–90.
Yamazumi, K. (2009). Expansive agency in multi-activity collaboration. In A. Sannino,
H. Daniels, & K. D. Gutierrez (Eds.), Learning and expanding with activity theory
(pp. 212–227). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Yoo, Y., & Kanawattanachai, P. (2001). Developments of transactive memory systems
and collective mind in virtual teams. International Journal of Organizational
Analysis, 9, 187–208.
Yoon, S., Pedretti, E., Bencze, L., Hewitt, J., Perris, K., & Van Oostveen, R. (2006).
Exploring the use of cases and case methods in influencing elementary preservice
at University Library Utrecht on January 2, 2013http://rer.aera.netDownloaded from
Boundary Crossing and Boundary Objects
169
science teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 17,
15–35.
Young, M., & Muller, J. (2010). Three educational scenarios for the future: Lessons
from the sociology of knowledge. European Journal of Education, 45(1), 11–27.
Zitter, I., Kinkhorst, G., Simons, P. R. J., & ten Cate, O. (2009). In search of common
ground: A task conceptualization to facilitate the design of (e)learning environments
with design patterns. Computers in Human Behavior, 25, 999–1009.
Zittoun, T., Gillespie, A., & Cornish, F. (2009). Fragmentation or differentiation:
Questioning the crisis in psychology. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral <