ABSTRACT
Kewman Lee developed the concept of border-crossing discourse (BCD) from Gee’s critical theory of Big “D” Discourse; it is a way to think about students interacting and collaborating online across time, space, and culture. Gee asserts that Big “D” Discourse is defined by the ways in which students behave, interact, read, write, and speak, based on the identities of particular groups. BCD exists within digital online social groups, where people from different cultures communicate around a particular topic. This chapter offers an analysis of Project-Based Inquiry (PBI) Global as a signature pedagogy for global literacies and demonstrates how dimensions of BCD (i.e., linguistic, social, cultural, and physical) were enacted in practice as students collaborated to address enduring global challenges across time, space, and culture. Challenges are framed through the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The example draws from a collaboration among students and teachers from China and the United States as they engaged in the PBI Global process to address the theme “A World on the Move: Refugees and Migrants.” Additionally, critical discourse questions are shared in which teachers can support students to take critical stances while engaging in each phase of the PBI Global process. By applying these questions throughout the process, teachers and students can begin to cultivate border crossing mindsets with a critical perspective.
