Unsettling boundaries in making a space for research

Citation

Edwards R & Fowler Z (2007) Unsettling boundaries in making a space for research. British Educational Research Journal, 33 (1), pp. 107-123. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411920601104565

Abstract
In engaging in research we draw upon and develop meanings and concepts that help to frame what we do, how we do it and the meaning we make of it. In the process of framing, we exclude other possibilities from our research practices. To do research then is to engage in the fashioning of conceptual boundaries. This article explores the dilemmas of boundary-making in the context of a research project aimed at exploring the border literacy practices of students in UK further education, those boundary crossing practices which relate to the everyday and more formal demands of the curriculum. This discussion is related to wider debates in the social sciences on the significance of boundaries and borders and their powerful effects on identities and actions.

Keywords
Spatiality; Categorisation; Conceptualisation; Further education; Literacy; Boundary making; Boundary crossing; Methodology; Continuing education Great Britain Research; Research Great Britain Methodology

Journal
British Educational Research Journal: Volume 33, Issue 1

People

Professor Richard Edwards

Emeritus Professor, Education