Empowering practitioner research

Many practitioners conduct research and engage in reflective inquiry into their practice, but the outcomes of such research are rarely shared, or often only locally. The main voice and expertise represented in the education knowledge base, therefore, tends to be an academic researcher perspective – relatively distanced from practice itself. For instance, academic research, conducted by researchers often based in universities, is frequently shared in journal articles or conferences. With recent shifts toward open-access publishing, insights from such research become widely available and cited in impacting research or practice. Indeed, academics are often commissioned to conduct research to identify recommendations and influence policy. Whilst many practitioners conduct research into their practice – as agents of change in their own contexts – insights from practitioner research and reflective inquiry are rarely engaged with or invited in this way. Likewise, research conducted at a distance from practice and published by academics in academic journals may not resonate with practitioners , . In this article we report the work of Camtree – the Cambridge Teacher Research Exchange – a global platform established to support, promote and publish practitioner research. Camtree is responding to questions about how to enable practitioners as authors and readers from diverse contexts of educational practice to engage, contribute and learn from a potentially-global practitioner community. Through this, we are seeking to shift the balance and amplify the voice and expertise of practitioner research, as an authentic body of evidence impacting practice, research and potentially policy.