The Learning Partnership Documentation: Final Report Summary

Summarizes MacArthur's initiative to support urban school reform through partnerships with districts and to refine a theory of systemic educational change. Outlines the conceptual framework, the role of documentation, challenges, and lessons learned

Towards Linked Data for Oceanographic Science: The R2R Eventlogger Project, Controlled Vocabularies, and Ontologies at The MBLWHOI Library

Objective: Research vessels coordinated by the United States University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (US-UNOLS) collect data which are considered important oceanographic science research products. The NSF-funded Rolling Deck to Repository (R2R) project aims to improve access to these data and diminish barriers to their use. One aspect of the R2R project has been to develop a shipboard scientific event logging system, Eventlogger, which incorporates best practice guidelines, controlled vocabularies, a cruise metadata schema, and a scientific event log. Eventlogger facilitates the eventual ingestion of datasets into oceanographic data repositories for subsequent integration and synthesis by investigators. The careful use of controlled vocabularies and ontologies is an important feature of this system, as the use of internationally-informed, consensus-driven controlled vocabularies will make data sets more interoperable, discoverable and reusable. Methods: The R2R Eventlogger project is led by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and the management of the controlled vocabularies is led by the Data Librarian in the Marine Biological Laboratory/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (MBLWHOI) Library. The first target vocabulary has been one for oceanographic instruments. Management of this vocabulary has thus far consisted of reconciling project vocabulary terms with the more widely used community vocabularies served by the NERC Vocabulary Server v2.0 (NVS2.0): terms included in the SeaDataNet Device Catalogue (L22) and the SeaDataNet Device Category vocabularies (L05). Rather than adopt existing community terms, it is more often the case that local terms are mapped by the Data Managers in the NSF-funded Biological and Chemical Oceanographic Data Management Office (BCO-DMO) to community terms, which preserves any important information and meaning investigators impart through the process of assigning these local terms, and has less impact on researchers. New terms, those that cannot be mapped to the existing community vocabularies (often custom, or modified instruments), are submitted for review to the SeaVOX governance process for addition to the community vocabularies. These vocabularies and their mappings are an important part of the aforementioned Eventlogger system. Before a research cruise, investigators configure the instruments they intend to use for their science activities. The instruments available for selection are provided by the MBLWHOI Data Librarian, who curates UNOLS ship-specific lists of standard shipboard instruments using terms for instruments from the R2R Eventlogger Project Vocabulary. Nonstandard shipboard instruments a researcher or investigator wishes to use can also be added, and these instrument terms will eventually be inducted into the R2R Eventlogger Project Vocabulary. Results: Eventlogger is currently being tested across the UNOLS fleet. A large submission of suggested instrument terms to the SeaDataNet community listserv is currently in progress. New tools for facilitating the management, mapping, and use of these controlled vocabularies are being developed, and new projects with eager partners are envisioned. Ideas for future controlled vocabularies for the ocean science community include: Cruise IDs, Persons, and Ships. Conclusions: The promotion and use of controlled vocabularies and ontologies will pave the way for linked data in oceanographic science. By mapping local terms to authoritative and community-accepted terms, links are created whereby related data sets can be better discovered, and utilized. Librarians have an established history of working with controlled vocabularies and metadata. Libraries, have and will continue to, serve as centers for information discovery as well as a natural home for the management of standards

Research-Practice Partnerships in Education: The State of the Field

Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) are an important part of the educational ecosystem that connects research, policy, practice, and community work in the United States. They are a prime example of how long-term collaborative approaches to research can address persistent challenges and systemic inequities in our schools and communities.Research-Practice Partnerships in Education: The State of the Field expands on the 2013 white paper Research-Practice Partnerships: A Strategy for Leveraging Research for Educational Improvement in School Districts by scanning the current landscape of partnerships, identifying points of variation, and outlining shared principles

Data Curation Services, Together!

November 2018 RDAP Webinar presentation.“Launching the Data curation Network: A cross-institutional staffing model for curating research data” funded 2018-2021 by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant G-2018-10072

Cynthia Coburn interview

Webcast file name: coburn_nov1_2011Date: November 1, 2011Voice of Literacy host, Dr. Betsy Baker, interviews Dr. Cynthia Coburn, Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California-Berkeley

Farrell, Caitlin C., and Cynthia E. Coburn, Absorptive Capacity: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding District Central Office Learning, Journal of Educational Change, 18(2, 2017), 135-159.

Posits a conceptualization of absorptive capacity for central office staff learning in relation to external partners; includes prior knowledge, pathways, leadership, and resources

“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 district leaders and partners. Role negotiation occurred in more than one third of leadership meetings, as evidenced by identity-referencing discourse. When roles were unclear, collaborative efforts stalled; once partners renegotiated their roles, it changed how they engaged in the work together. Several forces contributed to these dynamics, including the partner’s ambitious yet ambiguous identity and the introduction of new members to the group. This study offers implications for those engaged in partnership work and provides a foundation for future research regarding role negotiation in RPPs

Coburn, Cynthia E., William R. Penuel, and Caitlin C. Farrell, Fostering Educational Improvement with Research-Practice Partnerships, Phi Delta Kappan, 102(April, 2021), 14-19.

Points out examples of several research-practice partnerships and the various types of collaborative work they are doing; traces the development of these types of research-practice partnerships