Abstract

Writing Studies’ emphasis on knowledge-transfer and learning stems from our pedagogical focus and is motivated by the fact that much of our research is about and our teaching is directed at students who will be entering other disciplines. Much of the research in the field has focused on tracing transfer and learning longitudinally through students’ college careers. This paper contributes to this larger body of research by presenting an approach to researching transfer and learning that focuses on the situated, moment-to-moment interactions that occur when students learn, when their dispositions form, and when they experience transfer. Initial findings from a study conducted at an R1 public university following this approach reveal that within these moments, students engage in complex boundary-marking interactions that iteratively define the material and discursive world and students’ place within it. The boundary marked in each iteration then affects future boundary-work, a phenomenon this study calls micro-transfer . The initial findings reveal that any given moment can have a profound impact on the trajectory of a student through a class, and that boundaries themselves have different characteristics and micro-transfer depends upon these characteristics. This study presents an initial set of categories of boundaries based on their flexibility and permeability and the field in which they form that could be a foundation for future research in boundary-work and micro-transfer in writing studies.

Journal
Composition Forum
Published
2019
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