Passing the Torch: A Reflection of Graduate Student Turnover in Research-Practice Partnership Work

• In Event: Advancing Research-Practice Partnerships: Leveraging the Positionality of Graduate Student Researchers

Abstract

Purpose:

Coburn and Penuel (2016) describe an RPP in part as “long-term…[whereby] researchers and system leaders share an open-ended commitment to build and sustain a working collaboration over multiple projects.” In their discussion of the particularities of RPPs, Coburn and Penuel consider the notion of staff and leadership turnover within districts. From this perspective, my hope with this poster is to delve into the work of RPPs not solely over “multiple projects” but over multiple generations of graduate student researchers.

This poster chronicles how multiple generations of graduate students influence (and are influenced by) the trajectory of a single project within a K-12 university-affiliated school, documents how individual graduate student expertise shapes this trajectory, and establishes the ways in which the “passing of the torch” of graduate student researchers advance the goal of developing a successful K-12 dual language program.

Theoretical Framework:

Literature on RPPs addresses elements such as collaboration, hierarchy, and communication, all key components of a successful RPP (Reback, Cohen, Freese, & Shoptaw, 2002). Yet there is a gap in understanding how these relationships are affected by changes in graduate students who bring and leave with them their knowledge and skills upon graduation. Since graduate students make up core members of the research, documenting their change over time, and how this change affects the RPP, is imperative.

Methods and Data Sources:

The cross-generational document is achieved as a self-reflection from the perspective of one graduate students’ “inheritance” of the work of two previous students. Data collection was conducted through close collaboration with graduate students previously involved in the project, through documenting meetings and trainings with staff and other stakeholders, and collection and analysis of student data pertaining to the growth of the program.

Data used include meeting minutes, interviews, formative and summative student biliteracy and bicultural assessments and documents from the programmatic work already completed.

Findings:

Graduate students met extensively to review and explain documentation, databases and reports published from previous years. This created a shared history between students. Thorough documentation of procedures, and sub-projects was kept and served as the “learning materials” for the project. Inclusion in project meetings as well as finding a natural shift in the project direction served as a way to change the roles of the students.

Significance:

While the single project referenced in this poster is the creation and maintenance of a dual language program, it serves as an example of the potential for RPPs to grow and sustain programs which require years, decades even, of work. In these types of projects, graduate students will come and go. This poster provides information on how cross-generational relationships are maintained to foster successful growth of projects.

Author

• Clemence Darriet, University of California - Los Angeles