In this paper I argue from a comparative didactics standpoint (Ligozat, Amade-Escot & Östman, 2015) that the concept of 'gender positioning' is a 'boundary object': first, among subject didactics and the studying of gender in teaching and learning specific contents; and second, among feminist communities of researchers, teacher educators and schoolteachers seeking gender justice in Education. Star and Griesemer (1989, p. 393) define the notion of 'boundary object' as 'those scientific objects, which both inhabit several intersecting social worlds (…) and satisfy the informational requirements of each of them'. Trompette and Vinck (2009) argue that a boundary object facilitates discussions among actors coming from different social worlds, who must find ways to coordinate activities despite maintaining their differences. In other words, boundary objects are vehicles for conversations across disciplinary boundaries (like subject didactics) and across research and practitioner communities. In the first part, I will discuss, within the French didactique tradition, the relevance of refining the concept of gender positioning to enhance interdisciplinary work across subject didactics. The major purpose of any subject didactics is generating knowledge designed to help educators tackle various inequalities when teaching specific knowledge. Nevertheless didactic research has for a long time been gender-blind (Amade-Escot, forthcoming). With the purpose of investigating students' knowledge constructions in classrooms, recent work has used the concept of 'positioning' to describe how gendered contents are enacted through didactical transactions. Positioning theory emerged in the 1980s in the field of social psychology and the area of gender studies (Davies & Harré, 1990). Extending the term to the teaching and learning of subject knowledge, the French didactique approach highlights that gendered learning is a by-product of teacher and students' joint action with regard to particular pieces of knowledge (Amade-Escot, forthcoming; Ligozat, 2011). Within this conceptual framework, 'gender positioning' should be understood as a knowledge-specific concept having generic potential across subject didactics. In the second part of the paper, I present some of the practical implications through examples of participatory action research and in initial teacher education. Drawing upon the notions of boundary crossing and boundary object in educational research (Akkerman & Bakker, 2011) I demonstrate that gender positioning is a fruitful means that facilitates the coordination of activities between researchers, teacher educators and schoolteachers. I argue that analysing the co-construction of knowledge and gender together through a positioning lens helps in developing inclusive pedagogies that promote gender sensitive classroom practices.

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