Value creation through teacher–researcher collaboration in action research: engagement, agency and knowledge co-production

This study is part of a larger action research (AR) project aimed at improving students’ engagement with fiction and reading skills in Swedish and Swedish as a second language. In this paper, a theoretical framework of value creation in social learning spaces is used to critically explore teachers’ professional learning and experienced value in AR in literature teaching. In total, 15 teachers from primary, secondary and upper secondary schools participated. Data included written teacher reflections and recorded focus group conversations. Reflections were collected at the start and end of the project. Focus group conversations were carried out once a month for three terms. The findings reveal that value was created through collaborative engagement of teachers and researchers, expanding teachers’ professional knowledge on challenges, practice-informed adaptation of teaching and collective learning and shared knowledge. The study emphasises value creation in educational AR through sustained teacher-researcher collaboration, mutual engagement, agency and knowledge co-production. It highlights the role of long-term partnerships and calls for future research to challenge consensus, to include both quantitative and qualitative measures of learning and knowledge, and to engage with scientific texts as well as systematically explore professional learning throughout.