Research for policy and practice in teacher education: The case of the professional practice schools research project

Abstract

This article starts from an acknowledgement of the complexity of connecting research, policy, and practice in teacher education. Using the framework of a practice architecture, I use a case study approach to explore how researchers, policy-makers, and teacher educators experienced a research project aimed at exploring the conditions for the establishment of Professional Practice Schools in South Africa. My discussion highlights the importance of seeing policy work as action-oriented inquiry, where the experiences of those directly involved in a policy are taken into central consideration. I outline enabling and constraining factors in supporting positive interconnections in this case study. I end the article by offering a hopeful view of conditions of possibility for further engagement between different sectors in the research-policy-practice nexus.