BOOK CHAPTER • May 2025 • by Maia Elkana, Rachel Ruggirello, Nikki Doughty and Jay Hartman
This book chapter co-authored by Elkana, Ruggirello, Doughty and Hartman, is featured in the book Navigating Issues of Equity in Schools Through Research-Practice Partnerships: Stories From the Field, edited by Jesse Senechal, David Naff, Hillary Parkhouse and published May 20, 2025 by Routledge.
This book provides a wealth of rich cases describing how research-practice partnerships (RPPs) in K-12 schools navigate equity in the design and implementation of their projects and shares insightful recommendations for both research-side and practice-side RPP leaders engaged in this work. Chapter authors from both researcher and practitioner communities unpack real examples that illustrate how RPPs conceptualized, conducted, and shared research related to prominent equity challenges in K-12 schools.
In Chapter 13, co-authors examine how one research-practice partnership (RPP) navigated and impacted complex PK-12 systems. Through a case study focused on a school leadership and cultural transformation partnership between an urban school district, university researchers, and community non-profit organizations, authors illustrate the ways that RPPs can support participants grappling with PK12 system factors.
This chapter will examine how RPPs can blur boundaries within PK12 systems to create change levers and sustain both the ongoing RPP work and the use of practice-centered knowledge created within RPP projects.
A key feature of this project was the initial decision to build equitable, working relationships at multiple levels of the research, PK12, and community systems. The RPST research team participated as a thought-partners, collected and analyzed data, conducted literature reviews, and supported fundraising efforts in addition to considering larger research questions around the theory of action and community resilience.
Throughout the project, major outcomes included:
- Developing and implementing science and social studies PBL curriculum materials
- Increasing teacher collaboration and cohesion within and across the two schools
- Creating meaningful teacher leadership roles and structures, and
- Increasing student achievement on state standardized tests.