Researchers and Practitioners Collaborating to Develop and Disseminate Theory Into Practice

• In Event: "Practitioners Are Scholars Too": A Critical Conversation on the Mentorship and Mentoring Practices of Practitioner-Led Research and Scholarship as a Vehicle for a Revised Educational Research Narrative

Abstract

The idea of practitioner led research and scholarship is nothing new. This type of research and scholarship poses an opportunity to showcase scholarship from within the trenches and transform our educational settings to produce positive outcomes for a diverse population of learners and adults:
“It seems axiomatic that we should be genuinely concerned over the widening of any gap between science and practice, yet I have argued most recently that it is not actually the width of the gap that we should be overly preoccupied with, but rather, the lack of sufficient bridging mechanisms to span the two sides of any chasm” (Anderson, 2007, p. 178).
Practitioners are the gatekeepers to accessing where theory meets practice. It is incumbent upon practitioners to open gates (district administration, principals, assistant principals, counselors, teachers, and social workers) to ensure that there are safe spaces and platforms where practitioners are permitted to lead research and promote scholarship in the communities they serve. Through mentorship, how to make this a continuing practice can be discovered and planned.
According to Haseman (2006), “Practitioner led researchers construct experiential starting points from which practice follows. They tend to ‘dive in’ to see what emerges”. (p.4) Therefore, the intellectual property of the practitioner carries the same value as other researchers. “Good practitioner research, I believe, helps to develop life for others in caring, equitable, humanizing ways, be it in the microcosm of a classroom, university seminar room, hospital ward, social services project, the policed cities, oppressed communities in the first and third world” (Dadds, 1998, p. 42,). According to Furlong and Oanciea (2005):
“Traditionally it has been assumed that there is a clear distinction between the worlds of research and the worlds of policy and practice – that there are ‘two communities’. On the one hand there is the world of research, based on explicit, systematic work aimed at the growth of theoretical knowledge. Practice and policy on the other hand are seen as taking place in the ‘real world’, a world based on different forms of knowledge…” (p. 5)
The panelists in this symposium are working to close the theory and practice gap as they partner with community organizations and scholar practitioners. Mentorship through R.A.C.E Mentoring is paving a way towards that end.

Author

• Raphael Crawford, Albemarle Corporation