From practice to policy: tracing policy conditions of research-practice partnership dynamics in two countries

Research–practice partnerships (RPPs) in education are growing increasingly popular and exist in a wide variety of national and policy contexts. In RPPs, researchers work closely with practitioners to collaborate on school improvement and bridge the long-standing divide between research and practice. As RPPs are relatively new, it is important to examine how macro (policy) and meso (organizational) contexts interplay with the micro-discursive practices within RPPs. In this paper, we analyze recorded meeting data from RPPs in Switzerland and the US to examine how researchers, teachers, administrators, and students utilize the space to achieve goals within their policy contexts. Findings reveal that in the US case there was an interest in basing school practices on evidence, supporting the legitimation of research and researchers in the RPP. Such legitimation was not present in the Swiss RPP; however, the topic addressed in the RPP received support due to another policy pressure, i.e. school law. In both cases, different actors leveraged the RPP space to push their aims. This study yields implications for understanding the dynamics in RPPs and their intersections with policy and for promoting reflective collaboration.