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Leveraging strengths of a research-practice partnership to support equitable science teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic

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Abstract

This paper provides an analysis of a research-practice partnership’s approach to supporting equitable K-5 science teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors highlight the strength of the partnership and the diverse methodological and theoretical approaches that allowed for timely and effective data collection and analysis in order to design and deploy context-specific interventions. The authors focus on two specific cases as evidence that RPPs can be a source of responsive support for science education in a crisis, highlighting how the approach to research allowed for both solving urgent problems of practice and generating new knowledge. The study offers insights into the effects of partnership conditions and design features of the RPP on the measured outcomes. The paper concludes by offering implications for researchers and policy makers as it relates to organizing and leveraging research-practice partnerships to be responsive in a crisis and promote socially just science education research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for School Partnership, Washington University in St. Louis, 1 Brookings Hall, Campus Box 1137, St. Louis, MO, 63130, USA

    Rachel Ruggirello, Alison Brockhouse & Maia Elkana

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  1. Rachel Ruggirello
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  2. Alison Brockhouse
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  3. Maia Elkana
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Correspondence to Rachel Ruggirello.

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Ruggirello, R., Brockhouse, A. & Elkana, M. Leveraging strengths of a research-practice partnership to support equitable science teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cult Stud of Sci Educ 18, 1117–1148 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-023-10196-x

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