Exploring Organizational Conditions for Boundary-Spanning Agency in a Research-Practice Partnership

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 12:40 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Boundary Spanners, Bridgers, and Multistakeholder Collaboration in Partnership Work (Table 5)

Abstract

Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) rely on diverse stakeholders, such as researchers and practitioners, to engage in shared work across cultural and professional boundaries. In these collaborations, some individuals may emerge as boundary spanners. These project members help improve the flow of communication and resources, and ultimately aid in making the organizational boundaries more porous. Yet, we are just beginning to understand what organizational conditions support the ecological agency of boundary spanners. Through insights from one longitudinal case study of a multi-partner project aiming to build teacher leadership capacity in elementary science education, we explore the cases of two boundary spanners from different partner organizations and how their sense of agency evolved over the course of the project.

Authors

• Jane Charlotte Weiss, Stanford University

• Matthew Wilsey, University of Notre Dame

• Hilda Borko, Stanford University

• Coralie F. Delhaye, Université libre de Bruxelles