Learning from one another in a research-practice partnership: Boundary spanning and boundary work

Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) aim to mediate meaningful learning among scholars and practitioners, by inviting them to collaborate. Some scholars have conceptualized the learning opportunities generated by the RPP approach as sociocultural boundary work, with RPPs leading to transformative learning that disrupts stagnant routines and upends unjust hierarchies. This chapter draws on ethnographic and discourse analysis methods to explore the types of learning mediated by boundary work in the LAB RPP, a partnership between two higher education institutions and several schools. The findings indicate this type of learning is not always transformative. At times, encounters with the other can mediate more modest forms of learning, such as reflection and coordination.