Community,+objects,+and+'boundary+workers'

To download a PDF of this page click



**Community, objects, and 'boundary workers': Service learning through an activity theory lens ** Janice McMillan, Senior Lecturer, University of Cape Town [janice.mcmillan@uct.ac.za]


 * Keywords:** Boundary work, activity theory, analytic frameworks, contradictions


 * Track:** Contexts and methods: Theoretical and conceptual frameworks, research designs, and methodological issues


 * Format:** Research/Scholarly paper

This paper draws on activity theory to understand service learning as ‘boundary work.’ Through this lens, the unit of analysis shifts from the service-learning course to the university-community boundary, and learning and knowledge are viewed as fundamentally social.
 * Summary**

Drawing on situated learning, post-Vygotskian theory, and activity theory in particular (Engeström 1996), I define service-learning as complex ‘artefact-mediated interacting activity systems.’ I then use this framework to analyze two service-learning courses at the University of Cape Town as part of a PhD study (2008) using qualitative thematic analysis. This framework enables researchers to map service-learning practices as they occur in the field, providing detailed insight into the complexity of the practice. In particular, it makes visible:

//Expanded community:// Service-learning involves an expanded, more diverse community than traditionally in higher education. Off-campus communities represent different ways of engaging in the world, have different histories with specific tools of mediation, and different ways of knowing, all of which can challenge the university activity system, including in terms of roles, power relations, and rules of engagement.

//Dual but interrelated object:// Activity theory posits the possibility of a ‘contested object’ across two interacting activity systems. Service-learning partnerships are inherently about both student learning and community service. Due to different motives, this inherent tension in service-learning can impact the outcomes of the partnership overall, challenging notions of what counts as ‘success.’

//Role of academics as ‘boundary workers’//: The role of academics as ‘brokers’ (Wenger 1998) or ‘boundary workers’ traversing a complex boundary zone highlights many of the challenges and contradictions of service-learning. It challenges the notion that disciplinary-based knowledge is appropriate or suitable for mediating service-learning relationships (McMillan 2011a; 2011b). Following Holland et al (1998) I argue that both identity and agency – including of academics - ‘are lived in and through activity’ (1998, p. 5); in order to understand both, we need to focus on ‘the development of identities and agency specific to practices and activities situated in historically contingent, socially enacted, culturally constructed “worlds”’ (Holland et al., 1998, p. 7).

Anzaldua, G. (1987). //Borderlands/la frontera: The new mestiza//. San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute Books.
 * References**

Engeström, Y. (1996). //Perspectives on activity theory.// Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University.

Gibbons, M. (2005, March). //Engagement with the community: the emergence of a new social contract between society and science//. Paper presented at the Griffith University Community Engagement workshop, South Bank campus Queensland.

Giroux, H. (1992). //Border crossings: Cultural workers and the politics of education//. New York, NY: Routledge.

Hayes, E., & Cuban, S. (1997). Border pedagogy: a critical framework for service-learning. //Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning//, //4//(1), 72-80.

Holland, D., Lachicotte, Jr., Skinner, D., & Cain, C. (1998). //Identity and agency in cultural worlds//. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.

McMillan, J. (2008). What happens when the university meets the community? An analysis of service learning as ‘boundary work’ in higher education. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Cape Town, South Africa.

McMillan, J. (2011a) What happens when the university meets the community? Service learning, boundary work and boundary workers. //Teaching in Higher Education Special Issue: Leaving the Academy, 16//(5), 553-564.

McMillan, J. (2011b) Identities at the boundary: ‘boundary workers’ and service learning partnerships in higher education. //Metropolitan Universities,// //22//(2), 106-120.

Skilton-Sylvester, E., & Erwin, E. (2000). Creating reciprocal learning relationships across socially-constructed borders [Special issue]. //Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, Fall//, 65-75.

Taylor, J. (2002). Metaphors we serve by: Investigating the conceptual metaphors framing national and community service and service-learning. //Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning//, //9//(1), 45-57.

Wenger, E. (1998). //Communities of practice: Learning, meaning and identity//. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University.


 * To access materials from this session please click on the file link(s) below:**

include component="comments" page="Community, objects, and 'boundary workers'" limit="50"