Möjligheter och begränsningar vid samverkan om undervisningsnära skolutveckling och forskning i yrkesutbildning

School development and practice-based research is now established as a type of collaboration to strengthen the scientific base of education, and to ensure that research addresses the needs of education. The example of collaboration in this study consists of teacher leaders in the role of leading teacher groups, and researchers. The purpose of the study is to identify opportunities and limitations in connection with teachers’ and researchers’ own initiatives for collaboration in teaching-related improvement work and practice-related studies in vocational education. The context is vocational education in upper secondary school. The study is practice-based, where data consists of researchers’ field notes, observations, as well as data from teacher leaders’ maps and analyses. The analytical tool is the theory of practice architectures. The results describe a culture and collaboration that promote school development, where teacher leaders and researchers are active in their respective roles and assignments. The result also makes visible limitations regarding the possibility of practical research despite a common interest. Practice-based research poses for example a greater challenge as it requires long-term commitment and temporal conditions. The discussion raises the questions of what type of collaboration is needed to meet the scientific basis of education, and to ensure that practice-based research addresses teachers’ questions and the needs of vocational education.