Forging a Mutually Beneficial Partnership in Service of Supports for Instructional Improvement

• In Event: Research-Practice Partnership Routines and Structures That Support Inclusive and Equitable Engagement in Improvement Research

Abstract

Objective

Mutual benefit is conceptualized as a critical component of RPPs, expected to predict the longevity of partnership activity and ultimately impact. But what does it mean in practice to negotiate a space for joint work across research and practice boundaries that promotes mutual benefit to researchers and professionals? This paper spotlights a case of collaborative engagement among researchers and school district leaders that is constructing mutual benefit in service of a sustainable partnership.

Conceptual Grounding
There is increasing consensus that successful RPPs are ones that are sustainable: tackling complex problems in education requires long term collaboration (Farrell, et al., 2021). Partnerships that produce mutual benefits for both practice and research partners are more likely to be sustainable (Penuel & Gallagher, 2017). Research points to general principles of successful RPPs such as co-development of goals, inclusive leadership, and responsive research agendas (Klein, et al., 2023). Important questions remain about the specific practices RPPs employ to produce mutually beneficial long term partnerships.

Inquiry Method
Leads representing the research and practice sides of the partnership reflected on the first two years of collaborative work, constructing a timeline of critical events and activities. The broader team reviews the timeline and writes reflections identifying moments when the benefits of the partnership felt most and least salient. Analysis of written reflections guides a facilitated conversation surfacing more nuanced information about team routines and micro-processes that contribute to a feeling of mutual benefit.

Emerging Insights
Examining the flow of partnership activities revealed that forging mutual benefit is an iterative process that requires ongoing negotiation. In our partnership, we point to the importance of an initial series of exploratory cycles of activity that enabled joint identification of a problem of practice with mutual benefit.

Over the course of our initial collaborative year, we engaged in regular meetings and research activities that enabled researchers to learn about district needs and district leaders’ goals to better understand the role researchers could play in supporting the district’s agenda. For example, we jointly conducted listening sessions in schools that helped partners better understand teachers’ instructional support needs. We engaged in conversation about research summaries prepared by researchers to construct a shared conceptualization of a coherent instructional support system.

After narrowing our focus to challenges associated with building a coherent instructional support system in the context of distributed leadership, we identified a potential routine being implemented in four high schools that had potential for supporting mutual benefits. The routine was nascent and practice partners could benefit from data-based formative feedback to refine its initial design. At the same time, the routine represented a novel practice that could contribute to the research base on collaborative continuous instructional improvement.

Scholarly significance of the work
RPPs are becoming increasingly popular in the field, but there has been insufficient attention to the micro-processes that support goals such as engagement in joint work and the generation of mutual benefit. This case study provides an in-depth look at the partnership process, deepening our understanding of practices that support mutual benefits in RPPs.

Authors

• Jennifer Lin Russell, Vanderbilt University

• David Williams, Metro Nashville Public Schools