Navigating Disciplinary Boundaries: Two Stories of Collaborative Teaching in English and Social Studies

ABSTRACT This narrative inquiry shares the stories of two teachers’ collaborative experiences with their counterparts in social studies and English. The primary objective was to learn about how these teachers, within separate teaching dyads, understand and attempt to accomplish the goals of both colleagues’ disciplines while planning instruction. Field texts were collected over two years and consist of stories derived from five recorded conversations, observations, e-mail exchanges, student work samples, teaching materials, PowerPoint slides, and reflective notes. Data were analyzed through the three-dimensional space approach. Findings suggest that a) collaborative tensions arise due to “grammar of schooling,” including the structure and the culture of teaching the subject matters in middle and high schools; b) cross-disciplinary collaboration serves as a space for teacher learning; and c) despite their intentions and willingness, the two teachers tend to implement a hybrid of disciplinary literacy practices coupled with their old notion of literacy when collaborating.