Working at the intersection of research and practice: The love to read project

Abstract

There is growing interest in the use of research-practice partnerships in education, in an attempt to narrow the widely recognized gap between educational research and practice. However, there is a tendency for partnership research to be weighted towards first-person accounts and the majority of literature comes from the US. This article describes the process of researcher-teacher collaboration to co-design an educational program, and teachers’ evaluation of this process, set within the context of a longer-term research-practice partnership in the UK. This paper discusses the benefits, challenges and methodological considerations associated with research-practice partnerships. Implications for future research-practice partnerships are highlighted, as are lessons learnt for those interested in working collaboratively and productively at the intersection of research and practice.