83professional learning relationships with the supervising teachers and school, they
brokered the theory taught by the university. Through the weekly meetings with
preservice teachers, they negotiated this theory to assist preservice teachers towards
effective teaching practices in schools.
Discussion
We argued earlier in this chapter that boundary crossing is a generative standpoint
from which to understand the cross-institutional collaboration required for effective
professional experience. In the findings reported in the previous section, we were
able to identify a boundary object and broker that mediated the boundary crossing
from university to school for preservice teachers on their first professional experi-
ence. These were teaching methods as the boundary object and the university men-
tor as boundary broker. In this section of the chapter, we discuss how this boundary
object and broker mediated a third learning space for preservice teachers on their
first professional experience.
The teaching methods the preservice teachers learnt on-campus enabled their
boundary crossing into successful classroom lessons on their first professional
experience. Engeström, Engeström, and Kärkkäine ( 1995 ) argue that the potential
for boundary crossing depends on several factors such as the way boundary objects
are used and negotiated by all stakeholders. It was evident from this case study that
only some of the preservice teachers were able to negotiate the implementation of
the teaching strategies learnt on-campus. This finding suggests that the context will
not always be conducive for this boundary object to mediate learning as well as the
importance of the interaction of this boundary object with a boundary broker doing
the political and philosophical work of negotiation and translation.
The boundary broker that mediated border crossing for the preservice teachers in
this case study was the university mentor. The actions of the university mentors
reported here are emblematic of Tsui and Laws’ ( 2007 ) suggestion that the way to
overcome contradictions between supervising teachers and university mentors is to
create a space where all participants can generate collective knowledge by crossing
community boundaries in the professional experience. The university mentors in
this study helped to create that space through offering informal professional learn-
ing for supervising teachers and building a relationship of trust over time. In this
case study, the university mentor seemed to be a key person in the creation of a
shared community of practice between the school and university that facilitated the
boundary crossing of these preservice teachers on their first professional experi-
ence. This evidence raises the awareness of the importance of the role of university
mentors in the school-university partnership as the boundary brokers in transform-
ing the preservice teachers’ learning in the professional experience.
5 Boundary Objects and Brokers in Professional Experience