The Winds of Changes: How Research Alliances Respond to and Manage Shifting Field-Level Logics

Abstract

Research alliances, like other research-practice partnerships (RPPs), aim to bridge the historic divide between educational research and practice and improve education in particular local contexts. Yet, although these demands reflect multiple and contested field-level logics, little prior research has examined the ways these logics impact the work of RPPs. This longitudinal, qualitative study explores the field-level logics that dominated the local contexts of two research alliances; how these logics shifted over time; and how research alliances responded to these shifts. Results show that field-level logics of research, practice, and community contended in both local contexts, and that alliance design, resources, and local contexts shaped research alliances’ efforts to respond to and manage shifting demands.