Challenges and Learning Potentials at the Boundary: Encounters of Educational Research and School Practice

• In Event: 72.048 - Roundtable Session 33
  In Roundtable Session: 72.048-14 - School-University-Community Partnerships: Building Capacity

Abstract

This paper relates to the ongoing debate on “evidence-based practice” in education. Our interview study aims to illustrate what kind of challenges researchers and teachers face when they communicate with each other. Second, we identify learning potentials that can stem from cooperative efforts between educational research and school practice, relating to the concept of boundary crossing (e.g., Akkerman & Bakker, 2011). 10 educational researchers and 10 school teachers from Germany participated in the study. We identified three categories of challenges, being 1) a lack of individual resources, 2) emotional/ motivational challenges, and 3) challenges regarding the differences between the systems of research and practice. We also found four learning potentials in our interview data, being Identification, Coordination, Reflection, and Transformation.

Authors

• Ulrike Hartmann, University of Wuppertal

• Jasmin Decristan, University of Wuppertal