Exploring initial collaboration in an intervention: Creating a meeting place between educational research and educational practice

Abstract

In the field of education, researchers have focused on the importance of achieving a common understanding of school development and change of practice in collaborations with practitioners. In an attempt to contribute to this research, a formative Change Laboratory intervention is suggested as an interface between the researcher’s world and the practitioner’s world to facilitate collaboration between the two. The case study, conducted in one mathematics class in a primary school with 27 students and two teachers, was informed by the following research question: How does initial collaboration between a researcher and practitioners create a meeting place, and what implications can be drawn from this? The teachers’ motive for joining the intervention was to expand their practice of using the digital game Minecraft. The collaboration lasted 1.5 years. The findings show that e-mail correspondence seems to play a crucial role in the continuation and expansion of dialogue towards achieving an object-oriented activity.