Collaborating in Writing: Crossing the Threshold

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to make visible and appreciate the transformative possibilities of collaborating, and how to work together in a liminal space. In this meta-reflective chapter, we collaborate to demonstrate the argument that collaborative writing can achieve much more than the simple goal of producing an article or book chapter. Collaboration provides rich opportunities to develop new understandings and deeper collegial relationships. Entering a collaborative relationship requires stepping over the threshold between familiar, discursively produced positions and entering new, unfamiliar epistemological and ontological frameworks. Developing collaboration means always ‘becoming’. Gaining new understandings is an ongoing connection-oriented process, so collaboration requires an ethic of care, and valuing rather than tolerating alternate perspectives. Learning from each other demands a willingness to explore different meanings and in the process to find common ground with language that appears to be stable but is itself always shifting and changing. Collaboration for us is not simply the coordination of efforts towards a common goal, but is dependent on our differences and the interactions they foster. Furthermore, we suggest that by privileging equity over equality, we can avoid quantifiably measuring individual contributions. Participation and interaction are valued as well as sharing existing knowledge, for the challenges and the rewards come into being through working together in gaining new insights.