Teacher learning across boundaries: a challenge to the legitimacy of language teachers' disciplinary knowledge

The legitimate forms of knowledge recognised for language teachers in Chinese universities are differentiated by strong academic boundaries, subject only to disciplinary authority and fashion. Classroom practice on the whole tends not to be informed by research. For many language teachers, a disconnect exists between the academic discipline in which they are situated and the knowledge they apply in the language classroom. The ethnographic study addresses this disconnection. It is based on 3years of fieldwork, which investigated a case of disciplinary innovation in the English language department of a Chinese university. Two aspects of teacher learning are investigated, namely institutional boundary practice as discursive space for learning and the learning experience of individual teachers within that space. The study reveals that boundary practice can be a source of transformative energy in developing learning cultures within which individuals may experience a process of identity integration.