VIRTUAL: Learning. Life. Work.

Abstract

In 2020, funding was allocated at Ghent University in Flanders (Belgium) to set up doctoral research for active history teachers. Although the project is framed as traditional PhD research, it resembles characteristics specific to educational doctorates due to its part-time nature and practitioner-oriented focus. However, Flanders lacks tradition and governmental or institutional support for teachers engaged with doctoral research. Nevertheless, school and university contexts differ significantly (Labaree, 2003; Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009). Teachers in a dual situation may experience various difficulties. To describe difficulties between contexts, Akkerman and Bakker (2011: 133) rely on the boundary concept, which they define as “a sociocultural difference leading to discontinuity in action or interaction.” This delineation is grounded in dynamism so the learning potential of boundaries in social and cultural practices is stressed. Moreover, they propose to shift focus from systemic differences across contexts to micro-perspectives. Consequently, a new field within the already-specific literature seems to be emerging more recently. It focuses on narrative accounts that serve an introspective aim of teachers during their doctoral research and emphasizes the importance of self-reflexivity to act upon experienced boundaries in terms of professional learning. This paper presents an account of personal experience and self-reflection of being in an intermediate position between school-based and university-based contexts. First, it explores my perspective as a history teacher and a professional learner during doctoral research. Second, it examines my experience through the lens of the learning potential of boundaries. Finally, it discusses my personal account in relation to the literature.