Research‐practice partnerships (RPPs) have drawn a great deal of attention as promising structures for bringing educational research and practice closer together. However, promising as RPPs may be, challenges still exist and there have been calls for studies investigating how research can be used within RPPs, and how to include practitioners more in the generation of research evidence. We address these calls by conducting a systematic review of the research literature on RPPs. Our review of 57 articles shows that research is used in various ways to inform both the methods and content for facilitating school improvement in RPPs. For instance, research on effective PD can be directly applied to a Professional Development (PD) programme to inform the methods of the intervention, or research findings can be used as the content of an intervention to facilitate teacher learning. Moreover, the results suggest that the type of research used to inform RPPs affects the kinds of opportunities for research use that are presented to practitioners; ranging from applying research directly to practice (instrumental use), to using research to extend understanding (conceptual use), or using research methods and methodologies in order to increase practitioners’ capacity for improving education (process use). Based on the results, we argue that the presented opportunities for research use in interventions strongly affect teachers’ opportunities to participate in the generation of research evidence and thereby achieve a more democratised evidence system.

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In her timely paper, McGeown (2023) argues for a shift in research methodology to more collaborative approaches, such as Research-Practice Partnerships (RPPs). Through engaging a variety of stakeholders in research efforts, it is argued, we can start closing the infamous research-practice gap in education. I will respond to McGeown's (2023) paper by focusing on (1) a biased research infrastructure and (2) the importance of planning according to local conditions. In doing so, I will contribute to the picture of what needs to be changed, and possible ways to move forward.