ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the concept of transboundary learning culture as a new feature of academic success in public schooling. The authors suggest that as shadow education has become a major component of academic success, students’ learning culture can be characterized by their movement between mainstream and shadow education. As students move between educational settings in this transboundary learning culture, they take elements from both environments that help them achieve their individual learning goals. Drawing from postmodern and border-crossing philosophies, the authors identify four features of transboundary learning culture: (1) complexity of learning spaces, (2) consilience of learning materials, (3) fusion of the concepts of a good learner, and (4) coexistence of the two paths for academic success. Today's students are moving away from sole reliance on public schooling toward creative adoption of shadow education learning for their educational success. This new aspect of students’ learning challenges education and curriculum researchers to question not only the ways we teach students but the way we understand their learning.
