Conceptualising the boundary infrastructure of research-practice partnerships

Abstract: The overarching aim of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of research-practice partnerships (RPPs). Specifically, focus is on the infrastructure that is set in place to facilitate organisational learning. It has been argued that RPPs are particularly promising in addressing the research-practice gap and achieving educational improvement. However, there are several challenges in structuring RPPs. Hence, there is a need for more knowledge concerning how this can be done. To respond to this call and address the aim of the thesis, I explore the dynamics of engaging in RPPs in two major ways. Firstly, I investigate a large-scale Swedish RPP with over 300 participants across three universities, eight municipalities and one private school authority. This provides an opportunity to address calls for research that is conducted from an external position by collecting video-recorded observations. Secondly, the thesis includes data from two systematic literature reviews mapping the field in relation to participant roles and research use. These reviews provide information on RPPs from an increasing amount of research describing the dynamics of RPPs which facilitates conclusions on the synthesised material. The result of this thesis maps the intricacy of RPP dynamics. These frameworks respectively map the intricacies of (1) boundaries, (2) discourses and positioning of actors, (3) roles and (4) research use as related to RPPs. These results are then used to extend our understanding of RPPs by contributing to an RPP framework proposed by Farrell et al. (2022). In summary, this thesis contributes (1) useful frameworks for reflecting on RPP structures and work and (2) extensive categorisations of different dimensions of RPPs, extending our understanding.