Histories, Hauntings, and Hard Other Knowledges: Examining the Specters of Research Practice Partnerships Advancing Justice

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Research practice partnerships (RPPs), long-term alliances wherein practitioners and researchers collaborate to address problems of practice (Coburn et al., 2013), are increasingly leveraged to combat oppression and advance goals of racial justice (Ishimaru et al., 2022). However, these partnerships often encounter tensions (Authors & Colleagues, 2023) and can - sometimes unknowingly - reify and perpetuate inequity (Tanksley & Estrada, 2022). As a result, research requires partners to critically engage with the political dimensions of their collaborative efforts (Anderson, 2023; Yamashiro et al., 2023). Leveraging insights from four geographically diverse and institutionally varied RPPs, this symposium takes up this charge by confronting the inheritances of the past and the phantoms of the present to chart new directions for future action and systems transformation.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Division G - Section 1: Education and Place, Space, Time

Chair

• Alex Corbitt, SUNY Cortland

Papers

• Listening to the Friendly Ghosts: Embracing the past to move within the present in RPPs - Elizabeth Dutro, University of Colorado - Boulder; Erica Caasi, Denver Public Schools

• Advancing Community-Centered, Just Methods for Research-Practice Partnerships - Olga Pagan, New York University; Dana Conlin, Rice University; Adriana Villavicencio, New York University

• Whiteness as a historical actor in community-centered RPPs - Kerry H. Alexander, University of Maryland; Melissa Wetzel, University of Texas at Austin

• Makings Futures from the Past? Racialized Spectres Disrupting Anti-bias, Antiracist Pedagogy in a University-School RPP - Jon M. Wargo, University of Michigan; Kierstin M. Giunco, Boston College; Kyle P. Smith, University of Michigan

Discussant

• Conra D. Gist, University of Houston