Belonging to a research-practice partnership: Lessons from 15 think-pieces about the COVID-19 pandemic and a call for action

ABSTRACT

Research-Practice Partnerships (RPPs) in education have been gaining increasing currency and support since well before the advent of COVID-19. This article reflects on what the pandemic experience has meant for some RPPs so far, and imagines what other RPPs might look like in the near future. The authors share a collection of fifteen think-pieces written by individuals working in or around, or funding RPPs during the COVID crisis. These contributions include reflections on how the pandemic affected existing RPPs and how teams responded to the disruptions, how the larger context in which RPPs operate matters, as well as how RPPs can help us build a more just and united society. The authors identify lessons to be drawn from across these think-pieces and implications for the field, and close with a call for action about learning scientists’ possibilities for belonging to RPPs. Through a somewhat unconventional form of scholarship, this article intends to spark and enrich conversations about tensions and choices facing RPPs and learning sciences scholarship broadly in the coming years.

Acknowledgments

We five authors are grateful for the contributions of the following individuals, who all gave kindly and willingly of their time to write a think-piece for this article: Bronwyn Bevan, Manuelito Biag, Stephanie L. Brown, Marisa Cannata, Elizabeth Farley-Ripple, Caitlin C. Farrell, Alounso Gilzene, Emily Green, Erin Henrick, Todd LaPace, Meghan McCormick, Annastasia Puriton, Stacey Rutledge, Anne Taylor, Vivian Tseng, Christina Weiland, and Laura Wentworth.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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Additional information

Funding

This material is based upon work supported by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture under [Grant No. 303529], and by the National Science Foundation under [Grant No. 1923606].