There is debate about whether and how educational research has relevance for and is accessible to teaching practitioners. Much literature highlights the value of practitioner-based research approaches as a pathway to engaging teachers more readily with and in research, however, the practitioner research approach is often viewed negatively and is criticised for being too localised and trivial. In addition, there are concerns about the ability of teaching practitioners to undertake valid research and generate new knowledge that might provide value to the wider teaching community. Nevertheless, it is widely accepted that practitioner-based research can be beneficial to teachers and teaching, and despite the criticisms and debates surrounding validity and generalisability, the benefits to practitioners of engaging in such learning can go beyond the classroom. Importantly, as identified in a small-scale study in Aotearoa/New Zealand, practitioner research was found to advance the notion of educators as professionals and knowledge producers and had the effect of reconnecting educators to their work as skilled professionals.