Research-practice Partnerships Research Articles

Inclusion explored through student voices within the framework of formal teacher-student conversations

ABSTRACT A great deal of research has addressed the field of inclusive education. However, yet we know little about the phenomenon of inclusion explored though student voices. This qualitative study draws on data from a research-practice partnership in Norway, where the parties together developed a framework for the school’s formal teacher–student conversations to find out more about the students’ experiences of inclusion. As a result of inductive analysis of the voices of three students, we discovered a tension between each student’s current childlike lifeworld and a school system emphasising conformity and future academic achievement. Analysis revealed that there were several barriers to students expressing themselves during the conversations. Despite this, the students asserted their own capability and agency, guiding the subject of those conversations towards their own desires and needs. The findings suggests that teachers ought to be given the opportunity to increase their competency in what should be an ongoing process of listening to and acting upon student voices in inclusive education, potentially going so far as to become agents for change in the school system.

Bridging chemistry education research and practice through research-practice partnerships

This perspective article is a call to establish research-practice partnerships (RPPs) to foster collaborations between instructors and education researchers to tune into the needs of practice, share evidence-based practices, and solve modern organic chemistry education problems. I begin the article by discussing some limitations of the traditional approach of “translating” research into practice and suggest RPPs as an alternative model for “bridging” research and practice. Importantly, RPPs have been shown to address persistent problems of practice and improve educational outcomes. While more common at the secondary level, RPPs are rarely leveraged in post-secondary chemistry education. The article goes on to provide a concrete and relevant context for potential future RPP efforts to improve aspects of organic chemistry education—RPPs between education researchers and organic chemistry instructors to work toward designing, administering, and testing interventions to support learners’ representational competence (RC). RC is a set of skills that allow for the reflective use of a variety of representations to think about, communicate, and act on chemical phenomena. Current instruction often falls short of effectively supporting learners in developing RC. It is often tacitly assumed that learners will develop RC without explicit instruction that scaffolds the development of the RC skills. While it is important to improve the teaching about and with representations, implementing innovative pedagogical approaches can be challenging, particularly when instructors feel isolated in their efforts within their work environments. The RPP model could catalyze solutions to these challenges by pooling diverse expertise, thus enabling more robust and sustainable educational innovations.

Partnering with Educators to Iteratively Co-create Tools to Support Teachers’ Use of Equity-Focused Positive Behavioral Supports

AbstractIn the Maximize Project, we are engaging in a research-practice partnership to co-create implementation strategies to facilitate elementary school teachers’ use of equity-focused positive behavior supports (EF-PBS). In this paper, we describe the processes used to build an interactive, technology-based platform to enhance teachers’ use of EF-PBS via self-reflection, self-assessment, goal setting, and goal review. We describe how we established a multi-disciplinary, multi-state community advisory board to collaborate on Version 1 of platform (Phase 1). We explain how we obtained quantitative and qualitative feedback about the platform from educators in three partnering schools, and how we used those data to produce Version 2 of the platform (Phase 2). Platform use data suggested high utilization in Quarter 1 (August–October) of the school year, when there was protected time to complete activities. However, platform use was moderate in Quarter 2 (October–December) and low in Quarters 3 and 4 (January–May). Educator feedback revealed moderate acceptability, feasibility, and appropriateness of the platform and highlighted ways to improve the user experience (e.g., streamlining steps in goal setting, making resources about strategy implementation easier to find). We discuss lessons learned to inform school mental health co-creation endeavors, including strategies for supporting diverse perspectives, for enhancing advisory board members’ voices and confidence, and for creating practical and feasible methods for teachers to benefit from co-created technology-based implementation strategies. Our processes offer guidance for others engaging in research-practice partnerships, developing education technologies and/or supporting teachers’ use of equity-focused practices to improve daily school experiences for all students.

Improving Recess through Collaboration: Exploring the Facilitators and Barriers to Sustaining Positive Playground Behavior.

School recess quality is vital to children's social and emotional skill development. However, there is a research-to-practice gap where academic findings are ineffectively translated back to schools. The aims of this study were to examine how a co-designed intervention would impact negative behaviors observed during recess and to explore the facilitators and barriers to recess implementation over the course of a school year. Utilizing a research-practice partnership, the authors collaborated with staff at an elementary school to design, implement, and assess an intervention focused on improving recess quality. The intervention offered training in research-supported recess practices through professional development training and teaching students transitions and games. The school's recess behavioral report log of negative playground behaviors across the academic year and notes from recess staff meetings were analyzed. Quantitative results pointed to a stable decrease in negative playground behaviors post-intervention compared to pre-intervention. Qualitative analyses suggest school leadership and practitioners should focus on "reculturing" recess prior to making structural changes, and empowering recess staff to sustain change. Prior to considering interventions at recess, there is a need to assess both school and recess culture. In doing so, reculturing around the importance of recess during the school day and the roles of adults in the process is needed to ensure the sustainability of any changes made.

Facilitating trauma-informed SEL with refugee youth in Uganda via an international research-practice partnership: Lessons learned from The Wellbeing Club

In this article, we introduce a research-practice partnership (RPP) between the University of California San Diego and the non-governmental organization (NGO), Africa Education and Leadership Initiative (Africa ELI), and we share the lessons we learned as we adapted and facilitated The Wellbeing Club, a trauma-informed social and emotional learning (TI-SEL) curriculum, for refugee youth in Uganda. First, we describe our RPP and the goals of our work together. Then, we describe The Wellbeing Club, including its theoretical foundations and curriculum. In the sections that follow, we reflect on lessons learned for effective TI-SEL implementation from the facilitation of The Wellbeing Club with 48 primarily South Sudanese refugee youth: adapting the curriculum to the cultural context, sharing stories of resilience, developing environmental and contextual awareness, developing self-awareness, modeling caring practice, involving youth in changemaking processes, identifying and addressing underlying trauma, and supporting one another in research and practice. In each section, we provide specific examples from practice to illustrate the themes. We conclude with key takeaways and next steps.

Creating Apps for Community and Social Good: Preliminary Learning Outcomes from a Middle School Computer Science Curriculum

This study examined student learning outcomes from a middle school computer science (CS) curriculum developed through a researcher-practitioner partnership (RPP) project. The curriculum is based on students creating mobile apps that serve community and social good. We collected two sets of data from 294 students in three urban districts: (1) pre- and post- survey responses on their learning experiences and attitudes toward learning CS and creating community-serving apps; (2) the apps created by those students. The analysis of student apps indicated that students were able to create basic apps that connected with their personal interests, life experiences, school community, and the larger society. Students were significantly more confident in coding and creating community-focused apps after completing the course, regardless of gender, race/ethnicity, and grade. However, their interest in solving coding problems and continuing to learn CS decreased afterward. Analyses of students’ attitudes by gender, grade, and race/ethnicity showed significant differences among students in some groups. Seventh grade students rated more positively on their attitudes than eighth graders. Students identifying with different race/ethnicity groups indicated significantly different attitudes, especially students identifying as Southeast Asian, Black/African American, and Hispanic/Latino. Self-identified male students also reported stronger interest and more positive attitudes overall than self-identified female students. Students also reported positive experiences in learning how to create real apps serving their community, while there were disparities in their experiences with coding in general and some of the instructional tools used in the class.

Creating Transformative Research–Practice Partnership in Collaboration with School, City, and University Actors

Traditional educational research has been criticized for the gap between the research and practice communities, meaning that outcomes do not transfer to educational praxis. To meet this challenge, policymakers, funders, and researchers are developing research–practice partnerships (RPPs). The purpose of this research is to study the research–practice partnership as a strategy for educational transformation in the Finnish educational context. This study highlights the multifaceted perspectives of key RPP stakeholders: teachers, principals, municipality administrators, and researchers. Their experiences were explored through semi-structured interviews. The data were examined through content analysis and categorized into themes depicting the goals and goal-setting process in RPPs, the experiences of RPP activities, and the factors facilitating and challenging RPPs. The results show that stakeholders viewed the goals through the perspectives of professional development; supporting the growth and learning of students; and developing school, municipality, and research practices. Regular participation solidified the commitment to the RPP process. Horizontal interaction worked well between stakeholders, but challenges arose with vertical interaction. We found multiple roles for researchers and municipality administrators. Researchers found that they take on a new role in RPPs as change agents and facilitators. Regarding the facilitating or challenging aspects of RPPs, an open and flexible attitude and atmosphere and readiness for change are demanded on all actor levels. Mutual appreciation and sensitivity facilitate RPP activities. We propose taking all stakeholder perspectives into account when designing RPPs aimed at systemic change and that RPP processes should facilitate both horizontal and vertical interaction.

"I Missed School to Take Care of Someone Else": Middle and High School Students' Caregiving Responsibilities as a Reason for Absenteeism.

Middle and high school students who are involved in caregiving for aging, chronically ill, and/or disabled family members report more learning challenges compared to their non-caregiving peers. However, little is known about how many students miss school to take care of someone else, and which students are most likely to have this experience. Such knowledge could reveal an important, largely unrecognized reason for school absences and educational disparities. Our research-practice partnership surveyed middle-and-high schoolers across Rhode Island public schools in 2022. Among 55,746 students (45% White non-Latinx; 21% Latinx; 45% girls), 13.80% reported they had missed school to take care of someone else, with up to 35% in some districts. Students who missed school for caregiving were disproportionately girls, non-binary, transgender, or preferred not to report gender, older youth, and from historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups, and from urban districts. Children's experiences caregiving for others may be an important and overlooked contributor to absenteeism and achievement gaps, especially in urban areas. We suggest school policies to better serve these students.

Exploring roles in teacher–researcher collaboration: examples from a Swedish research–practice partnership in education

ABSTRACT Research – practice partnerships (RPPs) engage the diverse perspectives of researchers and teachers, transforming both educational research and practice. However, an increased understanding of the day-to-day activities of research conducted within RPPs, and of the role of teachers and researchers in this research, is needed. In this study, teachers and researchers involved in research projects framed by a Swedish RPP between a university and thirteen municipalities were interviewed. In total, we interviewed twelve teachers and researchers in a selection of four research projects in this RPP. We studied how teachers’ and researchers’ roles evolved over the phases of the research process and found that collaboration was more extensive during the data collection phase than during project initiation and data analysis and reporting. We also found that characteristics of the project’s initialising phase were consequential to the evolution of teachers’ and researchers’ roles in later phases. This study contributes to the literature on collaborative research by elaborating on teacher and researcher roles across the research process. This knowledge will assist the development of strategies for conducting collaborative research in education.

Engineering research‐practice partnerships for social justice

AbstractOur current systems for producing and using research are mired—as are all U.S. institutions—in a long history of racism, xenophobia, and a culture of paternalism. Fortunately, we are not beholden to maintaining those systems, and we can re‐imagine and re‐engineer the ways we approach research and what we seek to accomplish with it. Research–practice partnerships (RPPs) can play a unique and meaningful role in bringing research to bear on social justice for children and families, but the partnerships must be intentionally designed for those goals. In this essay, I discuss three design principles for RPPs: centering children marginalized by oppression, embracing historical perspectives, and contending with power asymmetries.

Let’s make a game! A case of co-designing with teachers from a research-practice partnership to integrate a virtual reality-enhanced digital game-based learning science unit

This case study analyzed the co-design process of a digital game-based learning (DGBL) unit using a research-practice partnership between a university and a middle school. The study found that the design team paid equal attention to the learning, engagement, and context of the game during the design meetings. The teacher’s role in the game design process was crucial in addressing contextual factors. The R-PP relationship fostered an effective game design process, with both teachers and researchers contributing to the game and DGBL curriculum design. The equal contribution of all team members increased curricular alignment and feasibility in the unit design while providing teachers with a professional development opportunity in DGBL concepts and the design of the DGBL unit itself.

Inclusion for STEM, the institution, or minoritized youth? Exploring how educators navigate the discourses that shape social justice in informal science learning practices

AbstractUnderstanding equitable practice is crucial for science education since science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and STEM learning practices remain significantly marked by structural inequalities. In this paper, building on theories of discourse and situated meaning developed by Foucault, Gee, and Sedgewick, we explore how educators navigated discourses about social justice in informal science learning (ISL) across four UK sites. We draw on qualitative, multimodal data across 5 years of a research–practice partnership between a university, a zoo, a social enterprise working to support girls and nonbinary youth in STEM, a community digital arts center, and a science center. We identify three key discourses that shaped social justice practices across all four practice–partner sites: (1) “inclusion” for STEM, (2) “inclusion” for the institution, and (3) “inclusion” for minoritized youth. We discuss how educators (n = 17) enacted, negotiated, resisted, and reworked these discourses to create equitable practice. We argue that while the three key discourses shaped the possible meanings and practices of equitable ISL in different ways, educators used their agency and creativity to develop more expansive visions of social justice. We discuss how the affordances, pitfalls, and contradictions that emerged within and between the three discourses were strategically navigated and disrupted by educators to support the minoritized youth they worked with, as well as to protect and promote equity in ISL. This paper contributes to research on social justice in ISL by grounding sometimes abstract questions about power and discourse in ISL educators' everyday work.

Research–Practice Partnership in a Professional Development Program: Promoting Youth at Risk

Research–Practice Partnerships (RPPs) embody enduring collaborations between practitioners and researchers that systematically address practical challenges to enhance education. This study describes research conducted within the framework of an RPP in which researchers were united with an educational association tasked with leading a professional development program (PDP) for teachers serving youth at risk. This study focuses on demonstrating a model for evaluating the implementation of the program’s educational philosophy among PDP participants. This comprehensive model comprises three interlinked components: cultivating awareness of the educational philosophy, fostering a profound comprehension of its principles, and facilitating the application of practices aligned with this philosophy. To investigate these dimensions, we drew upon data gathered through a survey administered to 140 educators and through in-depth interviews with 22 members of the educational staff. By examining these three pivotal components, we not only dissect the implementation process but also identify strengths and weaknesses, paving the way for a tailored intervention strategy. Beyond the immediate implications for program improvement, this research underscores the program’s reciprocal benefits for both researchers and practitioners. It holds the potential to influence the professional development of those involved, concurrently enriching the broader research community with invaluable insights gained from real-world educational contexts.

Teacher‐composed cases of practice as and for dissemination, reflection and data

AbstractThe need to make evidence and implications of educational research widely available has prompted a burgeoning interest in knowledge mobilisation, which is a set of strategies supporting the active and intentional dissemination of research knowledge. For this, it is important to consider who might be the intended audience and end‐users of this knowledge, as this impacts decisions throughout the research process. Researcher–teacher collaborations are effective contexts for knowledge‐building and sharing, where both partners have different but equally valuable roles and contributions to make to the conduct, analysis and dissemination of research. This paper illustrates the value and uses of teacher‐composed written and video cases of colleague coaching. The cases were generated as part of the Zooming project, a seven‐school, 3‐year research–practice partnership focused on developing teachers' data literacy and capacity to coach colleagues in this. To craft the cases, the teachers reflected on their coaching practices and relationships and identified what would be most useful for new coaches to know. The cases proved to be engaging tools for research dissemination, especially to a professional audience. In addition, the case writing challenged teachers to reflect on and analyse their coaching actions and the assumptions they brought to collegial coaching. The cases as data also provided researchers with a deeper level of insights into what teachers viewed as salient when coaching colleagues in data use. Teacher case composition offers a useful approach to knowledge co‐production and a pathway to research dissemination by and for teachers and researchers.

Equity-Centered Research–Practice Partnerships: An Approach for Advancing Educator Diversity in Education Systems

The importance of educator diversity is becoming increasingly evident as research demonstrates the positive impact of Teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers (TOCIT) on student learning and achievement, particularly among underrepresented groups (Dee, 2004; Gershenson et al., 2018; Grissom & Redding, 2016; Shirrell et al., 2021). Despite this, progress toward diversifying the educator workforce remains slow, signaling the need to advance educator diversity through a radical reimagining of teacher development systems. The use of research–practice partnership (RPP), a research approach that facilitates collaboration between practitioners and researchers, may be a promising model for addressing this perennial challenge.

Strategies to Better Identify Student Homelessness Using Data in an Urban School District

We tested 10 data-based strategies to better identify student homelessness in Camden City School District, which has a student body from minoritized backgrounds. We operationalized strategies through a research-practice partnership, following the federal homelessness definition. Data span 5 years (2014–15 through 2018–19), including integrated education, municipal, and health records. Nine strategies indicated significant unidentified student homelessness (min: 15; max: 5,008; p-values < .001). Consistent with homelessness, six strategies produced groups with lower attendance ( p-values < .01) and seven with increased school mobility ( p-values < .05). Homelessness was 34% greater in the most conservative interpretation, though counts could be as much as 454% greater. Student homelessness is more prevalent than recognized, data-based strategies can guide proactive outreach, and cross-system partnerships are warranted.

“That's a Third Rail Issue” Using LGBTQ+ Children's Literature as Backup to Counter Pushback

AbstractOffering insights from a research–practice partnership, we examine how five pre‐K–6 teachers discussed using LGBTQ+‐inclusive children's literature as backup to counter curricular censorship and community pushback.

An interdisciplinary researcher-practitioner partnership: lessons and perspectives from researchers and problem-solving court personnel

ABSTRACT Collaborative partnerships between criminal justice agencies and universities offer several benefits for all involved. This article describes an interdisciplinary researcher-practitioner partnership between the Will County Problem-Solving Courts and the University of St. Francis’s Departments of Criminal & Social Justice and Social Work. Collaborators reflect on the mutually beneficial relationship that produced policy-informed research, new internships, and enriched classroom experiences. The collaboration also encountered challenges such as staff turnover, COVID-19, and access to data. Finally, we encourage others to engage in collaborative efforts and provide recommendations to inform future partnerships on building and sustaining researcher-practitioner collaborations.

Discourse in Research-Practice Partnership Meetings: A Comparison of Conditions Across Contexts

Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) are gaining international attention as they promise to close the gap between research and practice in education. As RPPs bring together participants with diverse expertise, how people dialogue to collectively learn and address problems of practice is critically important. Analyzing video data from RPP meetings in Switzerland and the United States, this micro-analytic study examines the extent of generative discourse in RPP meetings and the conditions under which it occurs. Since RPPs vary significantly along a number of dimensions, it is useful to compare them to see how these features influence discourse and learning. Across the Swiss and US contexts, almost half of the meeting time was generative—altering meanings and/or creating new knowledge and perspectives. Discourse patterns varied, however, reflecting the different sizes, purposes, and activity structures of the RPPs. Examining meeting discourse across conditions may help promote knowledge generation and continuous improvement in RPPs.

Negotiating Inherent Asymmetries of Co-Design: A Case of Integrative Elementary Mathematics and Computer Science Instruction

Collaborative design, or “co-design”, is a term that has gained popularity in educational research and design communities, including those working with K-12 educators. While more groups are identifying with and pursuing co-design, much remains to be understood about how to structure the work within given different constraints, circumstances, and resources available to different parties. We propose understanding co-design as having inherent asymmetries and that structuring co-design work patterns involves negotiation of those asymmetries. Through a case of an elementary computer science and math integration research-practice partnership, we share ways that those asymmetries are both intentionally softened and leveraged at different times.