Caitlin C Farrell
Biographic Data
| ID | 5049320 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Caitlin C Farrell |
| GIVEN NAMES | Caitlin C |
| FAMILY NAME | Farrell |
| SIGNATURE | FARRELL C C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Colorado Boulder |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7589-4921 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 46 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 23 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
From Deliberation to Policy
Background: No single course has generated as much contentious policy debate as Algebra I. It serves as a critical gatekeeper to college and career readiness, often creating obstacles for historically marginalized students. As school districts redesign mathematics policies to align with Common Core State Standards (CCSS-M), local leaders must navigate complex instructional decisions. Leaders in one urban district initiated a multiyear effort to r…
Measuring Organizational Learning Outcomes Through Big Ideas
External partnerships can play a vital role in educational change, yet few tools assess how partner ideas become embedded in school systems. This paper introduces measuring organizational learning outcomes through big ideas (MOBI), an emerging methodological approach to identify when and how external ideas take root. MOBI examines the presence, spread, alignment, attribution, and centrality of partner ideas across collective knowledge, policy doc…
From brief to boundary object
This paper introduces a framework aimed at designing equity-centered boundary infrastructure that supports learning at the intersection of research and practice. Drawing on sociocultural learning theory and influenced by a multi-district equity initiative, the framework outlines four interconnected design principles: contextual responsiveness, disruption of power dynamics, support for transformational learning, and attention to enactment. To demo…
From a niche to the norm
Educational leaders and researchers have stressed the value of centering communities in research. Yet, substantive research collaborations have remained the exception rather than the rule. Critical, organizational, and learning theories suggest the need to modify research systems, organizations, and infrastructure for the broad adoption of collaborative paradigms. We present a framework for normalizing collaborative research in the field of educa…
Practicing equity-centered improvement
Equity-centered improvement is—necessarily—deeply relational, political, and adaptive. Improvers must regularly navigate uncertainty, negotiate conflicting priorities, and make situated decisions amidst organizational, political, and interpersonal constraints. However, too often, research and guidance focus on naming what improvers should do, with less attention to how improvers actually engage in the ongoing, improvisational, judgment-filled wor…
Overcoming or overstepping? Boundary infrastructure for learning in the context of continuous improvement research-practice partnership
Introduction Under federal policy guidelines, school districts are increasingly expected to engage with research evidence to guide their efforts around instructional improvement. This article explores how a continuous improvement research-practice partnership (CI RPP) can create opportunities for educators to learn new research-based ideas and practices. Methods We present a year long case study of two rural school districts engaged in a CI RPP f…
Succession planning for community-engaged leaders
Succession planning is typically rooted in linear models of transition informed by supply-and-demand rationales about the available pool of leaders to fill positions and the efficient transfer of information to new leaders. Equity-oriented leaders with commitments to community-engagement, however, represent different logics of expertise, which elevate knowledge of context and culture and enact collectivist and collaborative practices of leadershi…
Introduction to the special issue
As scholars studying school districts, we became increasingly concerned with how research from the Global North dominates global understandings of school governance, organization, and reform—what we term coloniality in global education reform. This special issue seeks to broaden these perspectives by examining how schools might be governed and organized with a focus on power, history, local and regional contexts, multiple ways of knowing, and soc…
Balancing between collaboration and autonomy
Purpose This study examines whether the research-practice partnership (RPP) model supports preschool education leaders in navigating the new power dynamics of collaborative decision-making introduced by recent public reforms in Sweden and, if so, how it facilitates this process. It examines decision-making processes within a Swedish RPP focused on preschool improvement, with a particular emphasis on the negotiation between autonomy, control, and …
Conceptions and Practices of Equity in Research-Practice Partnerships
This framework explores the plurality of ways that research-practice partnerships (RPPs) conceptualize issues of equity, and with what consequences for what gets studied, whose voices are included in inquiry, and what knowledge is foregrounded in partnership activity. We draw on institutional theory and the perspectives of members from diverse partnerships to create a framework on the beliefs and practices of equity in RPPs. In terms of their mis…
Educational Equity and the Logics of Covid-19
The COVID-19 pandemic created numerous disruptions for schools and districts that are still being dealt with heading into year three of the pandemic. These disruptions significantly impacted approaches and initiatives that were being set in motion prior to the pandemic. However, recent political and social shifts in U.S. society have exacerbated barriers for students and have created unfavorable conditions for school leaders. In this conceptual p…
Learning at the Boundaries of Research and Practice
Given the rapid growth of research–practice partnerships (RPPs), we need a framework that helps the field understand how RPPs can facilitate organizational learning in service of local educational improvement and transformation. Drawing on sociocultural and organizational learning theories, we argue that learning can happen for the organizations engaged in RPPs at the boundaries of research and practice. Such learning is evident when there are ch…
Solving for X
The year students take Algebra I historically determines how far they progress in secondary mathematics, creating complex equity issues around access to this course. By examining a case study of one large, urban school district adjusting to the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSS-M), we demonstrate how district leaders' interactions, in combination with their organizational and institutional environments, led to an overhaul of the se…
What are the conditions under which research-practice partnerships succeed
Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) are long-term collaborations between researchers and practitioners aimed at educational improvement and transformation through engagement with research. Yet RPPs can be challenging to implement, and even long running RPPs experience bumps in their work together. Caitlin Farrell, Laura Wentworth, and Michelle Nayfack discuss what conditions helped school district leaders and researchers from the partnership be…
Fostering educational improvement with research-practice partnerships
Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) provide opportunities for researchers to support school districts in addressing the complex challenges they face. Cynthia E. Coburn, William R. Penuel, and Caitlin C. Farrell situate RPPs in the history of educational research and discuss the needs they were designed to address. They then describe what contemporary RPPs are and what they do and close by discussing ways that RPPs can contribute to educational …
Constraints, Values, and Information
Using over 350 hours of observational data from district-level meetings, we investigate how leaders support their interpretations of problems and proposed solutions during closed-door negotiations around three policy decisions, and how they invoke race, class, and language in the process. District leaders primarily cite constraints from stakeholders, practical realities, and policies during deliberations. They also draw on beliefs, values, and—to…
Supporting Use of Data and Evidence from Early Warning Indicator Systems in Research–Practice Partnerships
Background/Context Research on data and evidence use suggest that productive use depends on interactive processes, including sustained interactions between educators and researchers. Recent research on research-practice partnerships (RPPs) has examined conditions under which these sustained collaborations support evidence use. Findings from these studies can inform research on early warning indicators, helping interpret implementation studies of …
“What the Hell Is This, and Who the Hell Are You?” Role and Identity Negotiation in Research-Practice Partnerships
In research-practice partnerships (RPPs), the line between researcher and practitioner can be blurred, and the roles for everyone involved may be unclear. Yet little is known about how these roles are negotiated and with what consequences for collaborative efforts. Guided by organizational theory, we share findings from a multiyear case study of one RPP, drawing on observations of partnership leadership meetings and interviews with school distric…
Building and diversifying our interdisciplinary giants
Under What Conditions Do School Districts Learn From External Partners? The Role of Absorptive Capacity
School district central offices regularly engage with external partners in improvement efforts, but these partnerships are not always productive. Indeed, little is known about under what conditions partnerships are likely to lead to organizational learning outcomes. We conducted a longitudinal comparative case study of two departments in one urban school district central office, both working with the same external partner. Data included 131 inter…
Brokering research in science education policy implementation
Recent scholarship suggests that research use is an interactive, social phenomenon, and that brokers play important roles in facilitating the exchange of research evidence. We add to this body of literature by exploring the role of brokers in the exchange of research evidence among state education agency leaders involved in K–12 science education policy implementation in the United States. We focus our study on the lead professional association f…
Contributing conditions
Conceptualizing Research–Practice Partnerships as Joint Work at Boundaries
This article presents a conceptual framework for analyzing how researchers and district leaders perceive and navigate differences they encounter in the context of research–practice partnerships. Our framework contrasts with images of partnership work as facilitating the translation of research into practice. Instead, we argue that partnership activity is best viewed as a form of joint work requiring mutual engagement across multiple boundaries. D…
Learning at the Boundaries of Research and Practice
Given the rapid growth of research–practice partnerships (RPPs), we need a framework that helps the field understand how RPPs can facilitate organizational learning in service of local educational improvement and transformation. Drawing on sociocultural and organizational learning theories, we argue that learning can happen for the organizations engaged in RPPs at the boundaries of research and practice. Such learning is evident when there are ch…
Under What Conditions Do School Districts Learn From External Partners? The Role of Absorptive Capacity
School district central offices regularly engage with external partners in improvement efforts, but these partnerships are not always productive. Indeed, little is known about under what conditions partnerships are likely to lead to organizational learning outcomes. We conducted a longitudinal comparative case study of two departments in one urban school district central office, both working with the same external partner. Data included 131 inter…
Contributing conditions
Building and diversifying our interdisciplinary giants
Constraints, Values, and Information
Using over 350 hours of observational data from district-level meetings, we investigate how leaders support their interpretations of problems and proposed solutions during closed-door negotiations around three policy decisions, and how they invoke race, class, and language in the process. District leaders primarily cite constraints from stakeholders, practical realities, and policies during deliberations. They also draw on beliefs, values, and—to…
Brokering research in science education policy implementation
Recent scholarship suggests that research use is an interactive, social phenomenon, and that brokers play important roles in facilitating the exchange of research evidence. We add to this body of literature by exploring the role of brokers in the exchange of research evidence among state education agency leaders involved in K–12 science education policy implementation in the United States. We focus our study on the lead professional association f…
Conceptualizing Research–Practice Partnerships as Joint Work at Boundaries
This article presents a conceptual framework for analyzing how researchers and district leaders perceive and navigate differences they encounter in the context of research–practice partnerships. Our framework contrasts with images of partnership work as facilitating the translation of research into practice. Instead, we argue that partnership activity is best viewed as a form of joint work requiring mutual engagement across multiple boundaries. D…
Contributing conditions
Brokering research in science education policy implementation
Recent scholarship suggests that research use is an interactive, social phenomenon, and that brokers play important roles in facilitating the exchange of research evidence. We add to this body of literature by exploring the role of brokers in the exchange of research evidence among state education agency leaders involved in K–12 science education policy implementation in the United States. We focus our study on the lead professional association f…
“What the Hell Is This, and Who the Hell Are You?” Role and Identity Negotiation in Research-Practice Partnerships
In research-practice partnerships (RPPs), the line between researcher and practitioner can be blurred, and the roles for everyone involved may be unclear. Yet little is known about how these roles are negotiated and with what consequences for collaborative efforts. Guided by organizational theory, we share findings from a multiyear case study of one RPP, drawing on observations of partnership leadership meetings and interviews with school distric…
Building and diversifying our interdisciplinary giants
Under What Conditions Do School Districts Learn From External Partners? The Role of Absorptive Capacity
School district central offices regularly engage with external partners in improvement efforts, but these partnerships are not always productive. Indeed, little is known about under what conditions partnerships are likely to lead to organizational learning outcomes. We conducted a longitudinal comparative case study of two departments in one urban school district central office, both working with the same external partner. Data included 131 inter…
Supporting Use of Data and Evidence from Early Warning Indicator Systems in Research–Practice Partnerships
Background/Context Research on data and evidence use suggest that productive use depends on interactive processes, including sustained interactions between educators and researchers. Recent research on research-practice partnerships (RPPs) has examined conditions under which these sustained collaborations support evidence use. Findings from these studies can inform research on early warning indicators, helping interpret implementation studies of …
What are the conditions under which research-practice partnerships succeed
Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) are long-term collaborations between researchers and practitioners aimed at educational improvement and transformation through engagement with research. Yet RPPs can be challenging to implement, and even long running RPPs experience bumps in their work together. Caitlin Farrell, Laura Wentworth, and Michelle Nayfack discuss what conditions helped school district leaders and researchers from the partnership be…
Fostering educational improvement with research-practice partnerships
Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) provide opportunities for researchers to support school districts in addressing the complex challenges they face. Cynthia E. Coburn, William R. Penuel, and Caitlin C. Farrell situate RPPs in the history of educational research and discuss the needs they were designed to address. They then describe what contemporary RPPs are and what they do and close by discussing ways that RPPs can contribute to educational …
Constraints, Values, and Information
Using over 350 hours of observational data from district-level meetings, we investigate how leaders support their interpretations of problems and proposed solutions during closed-door negotiations around three policy decisions, and how they invoke race, class, and language in the process. District leaders primarily cite constraints from stakeholders, practical realities, and policies during deliberations. They also draw on beliefs, values, and—to…
Learning at the Boundaries of Research and Practice
Given the rapid growth of research–practice partnerships (RPPs), we need a framework that helps the field understand how RPPs can facilitate organizational learning in service of local educational improvement and transformation. Drawing on sociocultural and organizational learning theories, we argue that learning can happen for the organizations engaged in RPPs at the boundaries of research and practice. Such learning is evident when there are ch…
Solving for X
The year students take Algebra I historically determines how far they progress in secondary mathematics, creating complex equity issues around access to this course. By examining a case study of one large, urban school district adjusting to the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSS-M), we demonstrate how district leaders' interactions, in combination with their organizational and institutional environments, led to an overhaul of the se…
Conceptions and Practices of Equity in Research-Practice Partnerships
This framework explores the plurality of ways that research-practice partnerships (RPPs) conceptualize issues of equity, and with what consequences for what gets studied, whose voices are included in inquiry, and what knowledge is foregrounded in partnership activity. We draw on institutional theory and the perspectives of members from diverse partnerships to create a framework on the beliefs and practices of equity in RPPs. In terms of their mis…
Educational Equity and the Logics of Covid-19
The COVID-19 pandemic created numerous disruptions for schools and districts that are still being dealt with heading into year three of the pandemic. These disruptions significantly impacted approaches and initiatives that were being set in motion prior to the pandemic. However, recent political and social shifts in U.S. society have exacerbated barriers for students and have created unfavorable conditions for school leaders. In this conceptual p…
From brief to boundary object
This paper introduces a framework aimed at designing equity-centered boundary infrastructure that supports learning at the intersection of research and practice. Drawing on sociocultural learning theory and influenced by a multi-district equity initiative, the framework outlines four interconnected design principles: contextual responsiveness, disruption of power dynamics, support for transformational learning, and attention to enactment. To demo…
From a niche to the norm
Educational leaders and researchers have stressed the value of centering communities in research. Yet, substantive research collaborations have remained the exception rather than the rule. Critical, organizational, and learning theories suggest the need to modify research systems, organizations, and infrastructure for the broad adoption of collaborative paradigms. We present a framework for normalizing collaborative research in the field of educa…
Practicing equity-centered improvement
Equity-centered improvement is—necessarily—deeply relational, political, and adaptive. Improvers must regularly navigate uncertainty, negotiate conflicting priorities, and make situated decisions amidst organizational, political, and interpersonal constraints. However, too often, research and guidance focus on naming what improvers should do, with less attention to how improvers actually engage in the ongoing, improvisational, judgment-filled wor…
Overcoming or overstepping? Boundary infrastructure for learning in the context of continuous improvement research-practice partnership
Introduction Under federal policy guidelines, school districts are increasingly expected to engage with research evidence to guide their efforts around instructional improvement. This article explores how a continuous improvement research-practice partnership (CI RPP) can create opportunities for educators to learn new research-based ideas and practices. Methods We present a year long case study of two rural school districts engaged in a CI RPP f…
Succession planning for community-engaged leaders
Succession planning is typically rooted in linear models of transition informed by supply-and-demand rationales about the available pool of leaders to fill positions and the efficient transfer of information to new leaders. Equity-oriented leaders with commitments to community-engagement, however, represent different logics of expertise, which elevate knowledge of context and culture and enact collectivist and collaborative practices of leadershi…
Introduction to the special issue
As scholars studying school districts, we became increasingly concerned with how research from the Global North dominates global understandings of school governance, organization, and reform—what we term coloniality in global education reform. This special issue seeks to broaden these perspectives by examining how schools might be governed and organized with a focus on power, history, local and regional contexts, multiple ways of knowing, and soc…
Balancing between collaboration and autonomy
Purpose This study examines whether the research-practice partnership (RPP) model supports preschool education leaders in navigating the new power dynamics of collaborative decision-making introduced by recent public reforms in Sweden and, if so, how it facilitates this process. It examines decision-making processes within a Swedish RPP focused on preschool improvement, with a particular emphasis on the negotiation between autonomy, control, and …
From Deliberation to Policy
Background: No single course has generated as much contentious policy debate as Algebra I. It serves as a critical gatekeeper to college and career readiness, often creating obstacles for historically marginalized students. As school districts redesign mathematics policies to align with Common Core State Standards (CCSS-M), local leaders must navigate complex instructional decisions. Leaders in one urban district initiated a multiyear effort to r…
Measuring Organizational Learning Outcomes Through Big Ideas
External partnerships can play a vital role in educational change, yet few tools assess how partner ideas become embedded in school systems. This paper introduces measuring organizational learning outcomes through big ideas (MOBI), an emerging methodological approach to identify when and how external ideas take root. MOBI examines the presence, spread, alignment, attribution, and centrality of partner ideas across collective knowledge, policy doc…
Educational Assessment and Improvement (17 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Political science (14 works) · Evaluation and Performance Assessment (12 works) · Public relations (10 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Pedagogy (8 works) · General partnership (6 works)