Engaging in a social learning space as physical education teacher educators: lessons learned for cross-border endeavours

This paper explores the process of cross-border collaboration among physical education teacher educators and pre-service teachers from the North and South of Ireland, jurisdictions that share a politically significant border. Building on the growing priority of internationalisation in higher education, this paper draws on two cross-border projects focused on understanding and teaching social justice in physical education teacher education within these different contexts. The concept of social learning spaces is drawn on and the cross-border projects are aligned with three dimensions of participations that generate these social learning spaces: caring to make a difference, engaging uncertainty and paying attention. Lessons learned are shared for colleagues pursuing similar cross-border research. These lessons included: (i) The context of cross-border learning is crucial to its success or possibility; (ii) The biographies of the participants strongly determine cooperation and collaboration; (iii) There is a need to establish working, strong and safe relationships with team members before engaging in cross-broader research; (iv) The importance of understanding positionality and embracing vulnerability; and (v) Encouraging deep understanding and empathy assists in creating a safe space. In our cross-border experience across both projects, the three dimensions of participation were not linear but intertwined. Caring to make a difference provided the relational and ethical grounding for cross-border collaboration. Engaging uncertainty sustained inquiry and openness to hesitation and complexity. Paying attention ensured that learning was enacted, contested and aligned to the individual values. Together, they demonstrate how social learning spaces can nurture professional learning that is simultaneously critical, relational and transformative. We hope our lessons learned act as a starting point for those who wish to engage, learn from and benefit (personally and professionally) from cross-border learning. For those who are already engaged in this work, these lessons learned can be useful in further strengthening and enhancing cross-border learning.