Boundary Crossing and Line-Stepping as Ingenuity
Patrick Johnson, José Ramón Lizárraga, Krista L Cortes and Kris Gutiérrez
Purpose: In this poster we advance the concept of line-stepping as a new way of seeing ingenious boundary crossing in action, which is the playful resistance which occurs at the time that the boundary line is acknowledged and engaged. Through analysis of youths’ routine activity, we found line-stepping to be a collective and distributed activity, where youth employed the assistance and resistance of other individuals in their home to push boundaries in ways they found meaningful (McDermott & Raley, 2011).
Theoretical Framework: As a part of the domain of ingenuity, boundary crossing attends to the horizontal dimension of learning, bringing to the fore the everyday ingenuity in movements through and across domains of practice. Scholars contend that researchers often fail to capture ingenious practices that occur in the horizontal movement of knowledge and the boundary crossing that is part of such practices (cf. Bang & Vossoughi, 2016; Engeström & Sannino, 2010; Jurow & Shea, 2015; Vossoughi & Gutiérrez, 2014).
We recognize the particular analytical affordance in understanding the practices that thrive on the boundary and the hybridity and the counter-scripts that help characterized agency, transformation, and openings for those navigating cultural, affective and cognitive borderlands (cf. Anzaldúa, 1999; Gutiérrez, Rymes, & Larson, 1995). Additionally, through the work of queer scholars of color, in particular, we gain insight into the pliable nature of boundaries and in the process reveal new ways of seeing where boundaries blur, blend, and at times rupture, bleeding across ecologies.
The aforementioned theoretical perspectives inform our conceptualization of how youth in our study engage the material and ideational boundaries erected by family and broader society.
Methods:
Study Design
The analysis reported here developed within the context of a larger multi-sited ethnography (Marcus, 1995). We took an ecological approach to our inquiry, noting daily routines, social networks, family routines, and family beliefs about health, education, energy, social networks, and digital media use.
Participants
14 families in total participated (12 Latino, 2 White). Families self-identified as working class. We focus here on 4 families (2 Latino, 2 White).
Qualitative Data Sources
•Video recorded observations: 175+ hours
•Surveys/Interviews: Family members’ perceptions of issues related to health, education, energy, social networks, and digital media use
•Photos/videos taken by family members
Data Analysis
•Video and audio logged in 2- and 10-minute segments on variety of metadata (e.g., tool use, main activity)
•Units of analysis: Family home practices (Level 1); Instances of ingenuity (Level II)
•Subcodes (Level III) developed inductively during systematic coding of video recordings, interview transcripts, survey responses, field notes, and video logs
•Data further reduced through analytic memos and weekly research team meetings that helped identify salient themes shared across the focal families
Findings:
•Our emergent analysis highlights youths’ ingenious, subversive, and rebellious acts of boundary crossing as attempts to present more authentic, often liminal, selves. Focusing on youth’s everyday practices allows us to see the gradual progressions--characterized by the queering of norms--toward the crossings of boundary lines that we have theorized as line-stepping. Line-stepping is an instantiation of boundary-crossing where an individual deliberately and consciously pushes against society’s ideological constraints.
Our use of the term line-stepping was inspired by a recurring sketch on comedian Dave Chappelle’s hit television series, Chappelle’s Show. In a segment titled “Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories,” Chappelle portrays funk music superstar Rick James as a “habitual line-stepper” who regularly “step[s] across the line[s]” of decorum; recklessly disregarding others’ personal boundaries. Absent of the entitlements that enable James to blatantly disregard societal norms, we acknowledge that most youth are required to tread familial and societal boundaries with a much lighter touch than the musician. Line-stepping is a form of transgression that is
•processual
•methodical
•executed with deftness
•predicated on an intimate awareness of the boundaries and the potential consequences for crossing them.
Theoretical Framework: As a part of the domain of ingenuity, boundary crossing attends to the horizontal dimension of learning, bringing to the fore the everyday ingenuity in movements through and across domains of practice. Scholars contend that researchers often fail to capture ingenious practices that occur in the horizontal movement of knowledge and the boundary crossing that is part of such practices (cf. Bang & Vossoughi, 2016; Engeström & Sannino, 2010; Jurow & Shea, 2015; Vossoughi & Gutiérrez, 2014).
We recognize the particular analytical affordance in understanding the practices that thrive on the boundary and the hybridity and the counter-scripts that help characterized agency, transformation, and openings for those navigating cultural, affective and cognitive borderlands (cf. Anzaldúa, 1999; Gutiérrez, Rymes, & Larson, 1995). Additionally, through the work of queer scholars of color, in particular, we gain insight into the pliable nature of boundaries and in the process reveal new ways of seeing where boundaries blur, blend, and at times rupture, bleeding across ecologies.
The aforementioned theoretical perspectives inform our conceptualization of how youth in our study engage the material and ideational boundaries erected by family and broader society.
Methods:
Study Design
The analysis reported here developed within the context of a larger multi-sited ethnography (Marcus, 1995). We took an ecological approach to our inquiry, noting daily routines, social networks, family routines, and family beliefs about health, education, energy, social networks, and digital media use.
Participants
14 families in total participated (12 Latino, 2 White). Families self-identified as working class. We focus here on 4 families (2 Latino, 2 White).
Qualitative Data Sources
•Video recorded observations: 175+ hours
•Surveys/Interviews: Family members’ perceptions of issues related to health, education, energy, social networks, and digital media use
•Photos/videos taken by family members
Data Analysis
•Video and audio logged in 2- and 10-minute segments on variety of metadata (e.g., tool use, main activity)
•Units of analysis: Family home practices (Level 1); Instances of ingenuity (Level II)
•Subcodes (Level III) developed inductively during systematic coding of video recordings, interview transcripts, survey responses, field notes, and video logs
•Data further reduced through analytic memos and weekly research team meetings that helped identify salient themes shared across the focal families
Findings:
•Our emergent analysis highlights youths’ ingenious, subversive, and rebellious acts of boundary crossing as attempts to present more authentic, often liminal, selves. Focusing on youth’s everyday practices allows us to see the gradual progressions--characterized by the queering of norms--toward the crossings of boundary lines that we have theorized as line-stepping. Line-stepping is an instantiation of boundary-crossing where an individual deliberately and consciously pushes against society’s ideological constraints.
Our use of the term line-stepping was inspired by a recurring sketch on comedian Dave Chappelle’s hit television series, Chappelle’s Show. In a segment titled “Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories,” Chappelle portrays funk music superstar Rick James as a “habitual line-stepper” who regularly “step[s] across the line[s]” of decorum; recklessly disregarding others’ personal boundaries. Absent of the entitlements that enable James to blatantly disregard societal norms, we acknowledge that most youth are required to tread familial and societal boundaries with a much lighter touch than the musician. Line-stepping is a form of transgression that is
•processual
•methodical
•executed with deftness
•predicated on an intimate awareness of the boundaries and the potential consequences for crossing them.
Significance:
Through line-stepping youth:
•transcend reality through the engagement of the playful imagination
•can move the lines that are used to demarcate “appropriate” behavior
•creatively re-define themselves and the worlds they inhabit.
Through line-stepping youth:
•transcend reality through the engagement of the playful imagination
•can move the lines that are used to demarcate “appropriate” behavior
•creatively re-define themselves and the worlds they inhabit.
Emergent Questions:
•What does line-stepping look like in different settings?
•What practices facilitate or constrain the playful imagination?
•How does the line-stepper’s shifting identities impact their relationships with family and friend?
References:
Anzaldua, G. (1999). Borderlands: La frontera. San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute Books.
Bang, M., & Vossoughi, S. (2016). Participatory design research and educational justice:
Studying learning and relations within social change making. Cognition and Instruction, 34(3),
173-193.
Engeström, Y., & Sannino, A. (2010). Studies of expansive learning: Foundations, findings and
future challenges. Educational Research Review, 5(1), 1-24.
Gutierrez, K., Rymes, B., & Larson, J. (1995). Script, counterscript, and underlife in the
classroom: James Brown versus Brown v. Board of Education. Harvard Educational Review,
65(3), 445–472.
Jurow, A. S., & Shea, M. (2015). Learning in equity-oriented scale-making projects, The Journal
of the Learning Sciences, 24(2), 286-307.
Vossoughi, S. & Gutiérrez, K. (November, 2014). Studying movement, hybridity, and change:
Toward a multi-sited sensibility for research on learning across contexts and borders in
Learning in and Across Contexts: Reimagining Education (pp. 603-632). NSSE: National
Society for the Study of Education.
•What does line-stepping look like in different settings?
•What practices facilitate or constrain the playful imagination?
•How does the line-stepper’s shifting identities impact their relationships with family and friend?
References:
Anzaldua, G. (1999). Borderlands: La frontera. San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute Books.
Bang, M., & Vossoughi, S. (2016). Participatory design research and educational justice:
Studying learning and relations within social change making. Cognition and Instruction, 34(3),
173-193.
Engeström, Y., & Sannino, A. (2010). Studies of expansive learning: Foundations, findings and
future challenges. Educational Research Review, 5(1), 1-24.
Gutierrez, K., Rymes, B., & Larson, J. (1995). Script, counterscript, and underlife in the
classroom: James Brown versus Brown v. Board of Education. Harvard Educational Review,
65(3), 445–472.
Jurow, A. S., & Shea, M. (2015). Learning in equity-oriented scale-making projects, The Journal
of the Learning Sciences, 24(2), 286-307.
Vossoughi, S. & Gutiérrez, K. (November, 2014). Studying movement, hybridity, and change:
Toward a multi-sited sensibility for research on learning across contexts and borders in
Learning in and Across Contexts: Reimagining Education (pp. 603-632). NSSE: National
Society for the Study of Education.