Boundary-work

Definition

Boundary-work refers to the active process through which students negotiate, define, and maintain the boundaries between human and AI contributions in collaborative knowledge construction. It encompasses the decisions students make about:

What tasks to delegate to AI vs. complete themselves
Where to draw lines of authority and responsibility
How to integrate, modify, or reject AI outputs
When to intervene in or override AI suggestions

Theoretical Foundation

The concept of boundary-work in this research draws from:

Gieryn's (1983) boundary-work in science studies - How actors demarcate legitimate from illegitimate knowledge
Human-AI collaboration literature - Particularly around maintaining "human in the loop" principles
Mollick & Mollick (2023) - The imperative that students must remain the human in the loop and actively oversee AI outputs

Evidence of Boundary-work in This Study

Boundary-work manifests in observable student actions:

Types of Boundary-work Actions

Action	Description	Evidence of
Restriction	Limiting what the AI can do through prompt constraints	High boundary awareness
Correction	Identifying and fixing AI errors or bias	Critical evaluation
Refusal	Rejecting AI output entirely	Strong epistemic stance
Modification	Transforming AI text before use	Active authorship
Attribution	Explicitly marking AI vs. human contributions	Ethical transparency

Relationship to Framework Components

Boundary-work appears throughout the analytic framework:

Co-Constructing AI Boundaries Framework Component - Inputs - Boundaries set through source curation
Co-Constructing AI Boundaries Framework Component - Prompts - Boundaries enacted through prompt constraints
Co-Constructing AI Boundaries Framework Component - Outputs - Boundaries triggered by output quality assessment
Co-Constructing AI Boundaries Framework Component - Integration - Boundaries made visible in modification/rejection
Co-Constructing AI Boundaries Framework Component - Reflection - Boundaries articulated through metacognition

Connection to Other Concepts

Agency - Boundary-work is an expression of student agency
Epistemic Stance - The boundaries students draw reveal their stance on knowledge authority

Key Quotes from Data

[Add relevant quotes from student reflections showing boundary-work]

Implications

Strong boundary-work practices indicate:

Critical engagement with AI tools
Maintenance of intellectual responsibility
Ethical awareness of AI limitations
Resistance to automation bias