Between Transaction and Collaboration: Developmental Struggles in a "Young" and Fizzled-Out Research-Practice Partnership

• In Event: Organizing Systemic Change in Education: Leveraging Partnerships, Networks, and Teacher Collaboration

Abstract

A movement for research-practice partnerships (RPPs) in education envisions researchers and practitioners involved in sustained collaboration. Yet, given the prevalence of transactional research arrangements, how researchers and practitioners initially embark upon such collaborative work is not well understood. Existing RPP research tends to rely upon well-established ‘mature’ partnerships. This paper arises from one year of efforts to establish a design-based RPP between an urban school district and a university. Analyzing interviews with partners and transcripts of partnership meetings, we found a set of core developmental struggles entailed in collaborative partnering: coherence, mutuality, time for collaborative learning, leadership, and responsiveness. While our aspiring RPP fizzled out, our findings may help RPP researchers and initiators anticipate and navigate early developmental challenges.

Authors

• Elizabeth Zumpe, University of Oklahoma

• Peter Piazza, University of Massachusetts - Amherst

• Katherine Ashton, University of Oklahoma