Trampelpfade and Sheep Lines: The Benefits of Sustained Transnational Collaboration

For more than seven years, there has been an international sustained collaboration between researchers and experts in the teaching of writing in Germany and Australia, involving visits and ongoing discussions about our work. In this article we aim to explore what it is about these experiences that has motivated us to keep on meeting and working so enthusiastically and productively. To do this, we identify two metaphors, Trampelpfade and sheep lines, that describe informal information pathways, and ways of working as writing experts while traversing complex academic terrain. Applying these to three examples of our work as writing experts allows us to demonstrate the value of our transnational collaboration for finding pathways and gaining clearer visions of our respective contexts in ways that both sustain knowledge and enable us to instigate change in our workplaces.