Teacher Sense-Making in an Early Education Research-Practice Partnership

• In Event: From Partnerships to Sustainable Change in Education

Abstract

High quality early education, preschool through third grade, has received attention as a vehicle for addressing academic disparities. Research-practice partnerships (RPP) offer promise for improving early education and closing the gap between research and practice. However, RPPs, and how teachers experience them in the early learning context, are understudied. Drawing on sensemaking theory and research on teachers’ beliefs, this paper uses qualitative data to examine how teachers make sense of information in the context of an RPP and their own professional wisdom. RPP involvement inspired teachers to reflect upon or shift classroom practice, but challenges with respect to the availability and timeliness of data limited its utility. These findings yield important implications for RPPs and educational change.

Authors

• Amanda L. Datnow, University of California - San Diego

• Alison G. Wishard Guerra, University of California - San Diego

• Shana R. Cohen, University of California - San Diego

• Benjamin C. Kennedy, University of California - San Diego

• Joseph Lee, University of California - San Diego