Professional learning through the lens of boundary crossing in an international physical education and sport pedagogy project

The aim of this research is to analyse the professional learning experiences of eight physical education and sport pedagogy (PESP) academics involved in an international project focused on supporting how coaches could prioritise meaningful experiences for children aged 6–12 years in youth sport contexts. Project participants partnered with coaches from youth sport clubs to create an accessible resource that volunteer coaches could use. Our focus in this paper is on how the internationalisation of project activities supported our individual and collective learning. Using practitioner inquiry, several forms of self-generated qualitative data were gathered, including focus group discussions and artefacts. Data were analysed deductively using concepts from boundary crossing. Analysis showed that individual and collective learning occurred from interacting at boundaries between: (a) physical education and sport, and (b) geographic, political, social, and cultural contexts. Our learning was facilitated by interacting with others who worked in or occupied spaces outside the boundaries of higher education (especially coaches) and by producing boundary objects (e.g. a coaching resource). Through engaging in reflective processes and analyses of the boundaries of physical education and sport, we learned about important similarities and differences in practices between physical education and sport on the one hand, and norms and values between our own and one another’s cultural contexts on the other. In some instances, these processes led us to reframe our respective priorities and knowledge, resulting in differing perspectives of how some participants identified professionally. This research is significant because it provides needed empirical evidence about the ways that internationalisation of higher education activities in PESP can support individual and collective learning. The outcomes of this research carry implications for how other PESP academics might engage in and study learning that can arise from international activities.