Breaking Down 'Borders' - Documentary

Fiona Margaret MacKellar

Abstract

This documentary video tracks the development and evolution of the Education With/Out Borders Symposium in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. This gathering began as a one-time event intended to build a sense of community and bridge the departmental and hierarchical borders that can often obstruct the free flow of ideas within the faculty. Now more than six years later, the symposium is still going strong. However, it would appear that as the organizational baton has been passed, year to year, from one planning committee to the next, the symposium has begun to drift away from the intent of its progenitors. While it is still going strong, and has become something of an institution in the Faculty of Education at SFU, one is compelled to ask, is Education With/Out Borders helping individuals in the faculty to find ways of tearing down or bridging academic borders and if not, then how might it be steered back on this path?