Connecting practice-based research and school development. Cross-professional collaboration in secondary education

Research and development (R&D) projects can increasingly be observed in secondary schools in the Netherlands. In such projects, cross-professional collaboration of school leaders and teachers with researchers, advisers, and supervisors is encouraged. These professionals have the purpose to stimulate school development that is informed by practice-based research. Traditionally, school practitioners and educational researchers do not meet each other very often and a strong linkage between research and practice is difficult to realize. The results of this dissertation provide a better understanding of how practice-based research and school development can be connected through cross-professional collaboration. There is not one single type of cross-professional collaboration in R&D projects, but professionals shaped collaboration in different ways. The project participants varied in their reasons for collaboration, divisions of roles and tasks, and communication structures in the projects. An important condition under which research results informed decisions on changes in school practice was closing the feedback loop. This was done by sharing research results with teachers and school leaders, by discussing these results with each other and reflecting on the meaning for school practice. As a consequence, many of the teachers and school leaders developed a research attitude. At the same time educational researchers developed a practice-engaged research approach, by being aware of the complexities of educational practice and thinking along with decision-making processes on teaching and learning in school. School leaders can grasp the opportunity of an R&D project to encourage research engagement in their school.