This presentation addresses the concepts of boundary, boundary crossing, boundary objects and ecology as important elements of sustainable education, and explores these metaphors and their origin. Our aim is to explore the aforementioned concepts both from an educational and from a biological perspective. We also explore different cohabitation arrangements. We discuss the similarities and differences, and argue for and against using these metaphors in an educational context. Theoretically, our approach is rooted in metaphors. Concepts from the field of natural science are used in the field of education (Cadenasso et al. 2003). Researchers within natural science have developed “A Framework for a Theory of Ecological Boundaries” and described the boundaries between the patches in the landscape. They presented a simple model showing the different patches and the boundaries and argued that the nature of the boundaries is of great importance. On the field of education, Bateson (1972) in Steps to an Ecology of Mind argues for human beings as part of systems where everything in some ways are connected, thus a traditional understanding of a biological context. On the field of education, Bateson (1972) in his Steps to an Ecology of Mind argues that human beings are parts of ecological systems. Like in biological ecosystems, all the elements of the social ecosystems are interconnected and interdependent. Bateson extended this to human communication and interaction, and established a biological basis for educational sciences. The boundaries are interesting, as a biological concept between the patches of ecological systems and as an educational concept between individual, social, cultural and educational fields. (Akkerman & Bakker, 2011; Engeström et al, 1995). Both in biological and educational systems we find energy, material, communication and organisms crossing boundaries. Within education, the term is visualizing socio-cultural differences leading to discontinuity in action or interaction. Our method is a concept analysis of the concepts ecology, boundary and sustainability in academic literature on the field of education. A database search for these concepts in an educational context in leading educational journals is done to extract the educational understanding of the metaphor and discuss this against a biological understanding. The understanding of ecology and sustainability is the starting point for further research in classrooms, on educational leadership and on mentoring teacher students in their practice. Some examples will be presented.

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