Political Considerations for Establishing Research-Practice Partnerships in Pursuit of Equity: Organizations, Projects, and Relationships

Abstract

If the RPP field is to bring our stated commitments to equity to life, it will require engagement with the political dimensions of RPP work, starting at the outset when a partnership is being established. In particular, prospective members must consider how the research process and products might (or might not) lead to more equitable systems. Recognizing that RPP work centering equity sits at the intersection of distinct intellectual genealogies, I argue that research and activist traditions drawing on critical and decolonial traditions—often overlooked in RPP literature—provide particularly relevant insights. Working through questions relevant to the establishment of an RPP on organizational, project-level, and relational dimensions, analyses and examples drawn from scholars, as well as journalists, organizers, educators, and young people illustrate the political considerations inherent in each. I close with implications for new and existing RPPs and directions for future research on RPPs as a methodology.

Equity-Centered Research–Practice Partnerships: An Approach for Advancing Educator Diversity in Education Systems

“…Despite these challenges, the long-term impact of RPPs resides in their potential for fostering a regenerative and liberatory culture among researchers, educators, and community members. By engaging in generative conflict and co-design, RPPs can develop more effective interventions that incorporate relational knowledge from community members, K-12 students, and teachers, ultimately yielding greater results (Anderson, 2023).…”

Politics at the Boundary: Exploring Politics in Education Research-Practice Partnerships

“…These roles and structures may be devised at the onset but they are also continuously negotiated and adjusted as RPPs evolve (Farrell et al, 2019). Anderson (2022) reviews the RPP literature and finds that the inherent political nature of educational research influences the way RPPs originate and establish in the beginning stages of development. Anderson argues that RPP partners should ask questions of themselves that might elicit tensions around values, identities, and distribution of resources because without addressing these questions, partners may not reach their equity-centered goals.…”

“…As with so many educational phenomena, opportunities for political contestations abound at each layer of partnership interaction, especially given that RPPs—and most partnerships, generally—are reliant upon relationships, communication, and trust that reinforces the partnership (Henrick et al, 2017; Tseng et al, 2017). More fundamentally, RPPs are inherently political in that they are a function of the internal politics within each partner institution, as well as the politics between the partner institutions (Anderson, 2022; Gamoran, 2022; Klein, 2022). An RPP can maintain or exacerbate inequitable distribution of power and resources, or it can mitigate inequities through intention.…”

“…These roles and structures may be devised at the onset but they are also continuously negotiated and adjusted as RPPs evolve (Farrell et al, 2019). Anderson (2022) reviews the RPP literature and finds that the inherent political nature of educational research influences the way RPPs originate and establish in the beginning stages of development.…”

“…Building the infrastructure to support these relationships requires resources-human, fiscal, temporal, spatial, material-and conflicts can emerge across all of those resource dimensions. Two articles in this issue address the politics of developing and sustaining the boundary infrastructure and relationships within RPPs, by exploring the political dimensions of launching an RPP (Anderson, 2022) and funding RPPs, from the perspective of funders (Rivera & Chun, 2022).…”