Practitioners at the Center: Catalyzing Research on Problems of Practice in Realistic Settings

SEERNet’s goal is to enable alignment of research on digital learning platforms to the Institute of Education Sciences’ Standards for Excellence in Education Research (SEER) and thereby make research more rigorous, transparent, actionable, inclusive, and focused on consequential impacts. While researchers have long aspired to study problems of value to the field, the conception of research questions rarely is in partnership with practitioners. Without voices from the field, researchers do not have the deep understanding of educator, student, and system needs that are essential for ensuring research will impact decision-making. This paper will discuss a national call for involving practitioners in research question design, strategies for partnerships with practitioners, and SEERNet’s guiding principles for practitioner engagement. It will also introduce how needs and research question ideas were developed through SEERNet’s Office Hours.