In this article, the authors address some of the scientific challenges associated with using observation as a research method. The authors ask how researchers contextualise and understand observation in terms of its theoretical underpinnings and how it is conducted. Using a vignette in the kindergarten context, the authors explore how observation…

Background: Academic researchers are occupying more varied roles as both knowledge producers and knowledge brokers in policymaking spaces beyond the national level. As the local arena presents different dimensions to the knowledge-policy-practice nexus, an assessment of the interaction of evidence and policy at this scale is warranted. Aims and…

Cultural brokers play a critical role of helping researchers navigate cultural and language barriers to gain insight into communities. This paper focuses on one cultural broker who helped facilitate community-based research among the refugee community. Her professionalism, expertise and knowledge of the community made her a valuable resource for…

Purpose: This paper aims to explore how an academic researcher and a practitioner experience scepticism for their qualitative research. Design/methodology/approach: The study applies Olt and Teman's new conceptual phenomenological polyethnography (2019) methodology, a hybrid of phenomenology and duoethnography. Findings: For the…

In this paper two foundation program officers describe their experiences as funders engaged in supporting research practice partnerships in two very distinct settings. The authors set the context for their experiences and walk through the challenges and opportunities in supporting research practice partnerships. They also discuss how supporting…

In this study, we explore the identity development of PhD graduates transitioning into non-researcher roles. Through the conceptual lens of identity-trajectory theory and based on interviews with 26 PhD graduates from three leading research universities in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, we analyse their identity-trajectory development after their…

This article is an effort to unveil how colonialism gets inscribed in research education initiatives during peace-building. To this end, we look behind the scenes of an education development project that sought to support a rural school in consolidating high-quality education during Colombia's recent peace process. We examine how, in our roles as…

Purpose: This article presents fieldwork perspectives and research reflexivity gained from the cross-national research team, with the aim of promoting better qualitative research practices in transnational research. It focuses on how the team incorporates diverse cultural perspectives and insider and outsider roles to enhance the research in the…

This article outlines a stakeholder-created research agenda to guide future early intervention research for autistic children. We collaborated with 10 autism service providers, 10 parents of individuals with autism, and 10 autistic people across a total of 18 small group and 2 inter-group meetings occurring over 2 years. Together, we synthesized…

In this paper, we draw upon Rosenblatt's transactional theory of reading to frame six readings of a picture book. The picture book, "There's a Ghost in This House" by Oliver Jeffers, was selected for a children's literature reading group which brought together literacy researchers and teacher educators to share their encounters with the…

There is an increasing movement in education towards closer collaboration between researchers and practitioners and research-practice partnerships (RPPs) are seen as one promising approach. However, some challenges still exist. To work in a new collaborative context such as RPPs, researchers and practitioners must adjust their roles in relation to…

Ethics committees have an important role to play in ensuring ethical standards (e.g. BERA, ESRC, RCUK recommendations) are met by educational researchers. Balancing obligations to participants, society, institutions and the researchers themselves is not, however, easy. Researchers often experience the ethics committee as unsympathetic to their…

Addressing the bridge between theory and practice in the field of inclusive education in Spain involves searching for strategies of knowledge mobilisation, and action research (AR) is one of them. This study explores how its practical development questions the roles that researchers adopt throughout the process. A content analysis of several focus…

The COVID-19 pandemic posed many ethical and practical challenges for academic research. Some of these have been documented, particularly in relation to health research, but less attention has been paid to the dilemmas encountered by educational and social science research. Given that pandemics are predicted to be more frequent, it is vital to…

The research-practice gap in music education has been discussed for decades. Many attempts have been made to explain the gap and offer recommendations for bridging it. However, few systematic examinations of the gap have been undertaken. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how a model of brokerage structures can be applied to guide…