CO-CONSTRUCTING SOCIAL CHANGE: Opportunities and Considerations for Research-Policy & Practice Partnerships

In this chapter, we conceptualize how Research-Practice Partnerships (RPP) may be leveraged as vehicles for building equitable public policies by strengthening the evidentiary basis of policymaking, the participation of traditionally excluded stakeholders in educational change, and the reach of localized educational change efforts. We extend RPPs to explicitly include a public policy element, with what we are calling Research-Policy and Practice Partnerships (RPPP). RPPPs are collaborations between beneficiaries and practitioners, policy organizations, public policy makers/actors, and researchers investigating educational problems and articulating public policy solutions through research-practice partnerships. We offer four dimensions to guide the design and implementation of RPPPs.