Practitioner research is increasingly used by and with teachers to counter discourses and policies of top-down standardisation. Growing numbers of researchers advocate benefits as the learning and empowerment of educators, and the sense of achievement for university researchers when they research with rather than about educators. We focus here on initiatives that engaged educators in planning and reflecting on their own professional learning (PL). A research project entitled Research Connections: Practitioner research engagement network for early childhood educators, combined professional learning and research through a research network of early childhood centres and university researchers working collaboratively for a year to plan and implement research projects intended to improve self-identified aspects of centre practice. We report the project model and present findings that suggest that the practitioner researchers valued learning about research processes that embedded intentional planning to construct and use their own knowledge and understanding of core curriculum concepts, increasing the likelihood of sustainable change. We argue that practitioner research proves a powerful and useful way for educators to drive improvements to their own practice. Educators have built the capacity to advocate for policy that recognises their strengths in planning their own professional learning.