Fifteen Years of Research Production and Use Involving a Teacher and School Leader Survey (Poster 8)

• In Event: Bridging the Gap: Enhancing Research Use in Research-Practice Partnerships Based Across the Globe

Abstract

Objective / Purpose: With more efforts encouraging school districts in the United States to use research in decision-making, the field will need models for how district leaders work with researchers in research-practice partnerships (RPPs). While there is research on the characteristics of RPPs in the United States, like Farrell et al.’s (2021) five principles of RPPs, there is less documentation of how RPPs support research production and use. This case study advances the literature by describing the partnership between a university and large U.S.-based urban school district and the partnership’s 15 years of work on research production and use involving a teacher and school leader survey. The study examines what conditions influenced the research production and use involving the survey. Implications are discussed for other RPPs in the United States or other contexts interested in supporting longitudinal research production and use.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework: Our study uses two frameworks to guide the data collection for this study. We use Arce-Trigatti and colleagues (2024) framework of RPPs demonstrating responsiveness - that is responding to the needs of their partners in a timely manner. Also, we rely on Farrell and colleagues definition of organization learning outcomes to examine how the RPP support for the district leaders’ use of research resulted in: a) “shifts in collective knowledge,” b) “shifts in organizational policies when they result from the joint work of RPPs,” c) “shifts in organizational routines, the patterned ways actors in an organization interact with one another” (p. 201).

Methods and Data Sources: Our study documents a longitudinal case study (Yin, 2018) that relies on a document analysis of public and internal reports produced in relation to the 15 year survey of teachers and leaders. The study also relies on participant observation (Merriam and Tisdell, 2015) as the authors were engaged in the majority of studies conducted using the survey and the operations and use of the research. The lead author analyzed the documents for how the work demonstrated the principles of an RPP, how the research was responsive (Arce-Trigatti, et al. 2023), and evidence of organizational learning outcomes resulting from the research (Farrell et al., 2023). The other authors reviewed the analysis and made adjustments based on their review.

Results: Preliminary findings suggest researchers’ timing and communication and district leaders planning for integration of research supported organizational learning and subsequent school district decisions. The case finds three instances where the results from the survey supported organizational learning that shifted policies and less instances where it shifted collective knowledge.

Significance: This study will contribute to some initial studies of the benefits from the longitudinal nature of RPP research (e.g., Blazar and Kraft, 2019). This study adds to this body of literature by examining the nature of the research produced (e.g., its responsiveness) and the subsequent influence this has on the district leaders’ ability to use research to advance organizational learning.

Authors

• Laura P. Wentworth, California Education Partners

• Ritu Khanna, San Francisco Unified School District

• Moonhawk Kim, University of California - Berkeley

• Monica G. Lee, Stanford University

• Susanna Loeb, Stanford University