A Schools-University Research Partnership: understandings, models and complexities

Abstract

This article is based on the authors' experiences and understandings of a schools-university partnership between eight secondary schools and the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. The focus of the partnership is the development of useful practice-based research within, across and between the schools and the university. The authors explore the different views of research held by partners and examine the relationship between those understandings and conceptions of partnership. In doing so they identify some key conditions and actions necessary for useful practice-based research to take place. The complex nature of such partnerships is addressed throughout.