What is Binational Education Research

The purpose of this chapter is to report on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) as a “leveling device” between colleagues dispersed across the United States and México, who shared similar education research interests but came from different research traditions. The author reports on the use of various ICT tools in a process that began in 2006 with a small planning group distributed across México and the United States; grew to include additional participants who met face-to-face in Monterrey, México, in 2007; and continued afterward into 2008 through ICT-mediated mechanisms that were structured to maintain purposeful linkages among colleagues dispersed across two countries. Through this slow, deliberate process, the participants increased their capacity for achieving a broader focus on a shared problem as a research community by learning each other’s perspectives. The strategic use of ICT to support collaboration across borders—in real time and asynchronously—assisted in building a binational education research community.