Back RPPs in Practice
Learn more about what RPPing looks like in practice –from getting started to going deeper to evaluating and improving RPPs– and what kind of impact partnerships are making. RPPs in Practice
Back Our Network
Meet our members and hear about their success stories, find your specialized learning community in one (or more!) of our subnetworks, and learn more about joining the NNERPP community. Our Network
Back Events
Find out about recurring events at NNERPP, including the Annual Forum and current and previous workshops and learning opportunities. Events
Back About NNERPP
Learn more about who we are, what we do, and why we do what we do. About NNERPP

Defined

Brokers, i.e., people who hang out at the intersection of research, policy, and practice, and whose primary role it is to provide connections across those spaces, are becoming increasingly critical to facilitating the work of research-practice partnerships (RPPs). Sometimes also known as “boundary spanners” or “intermediaries”, some of the primary responsibilities associated with this role include translation across research and practice contexts, connecting otherwise unconnected actors in partnership, and providing the necessary invisible infrastructure to support communications and engagement with RPP efforts. RPP brokers can come from research, practice, or community organizations; additionally, the partnering organization itself can also play a brokering role. Despite this critical connector role, brokers are often undervalued or not given the importance they deserve because their work is often “invisible.”

Key Resources

At NNERPP, we first identified RPP brokers as a distinct role at the 2017 NNERPP Annual Forum where we invited those in the NNERPP community serving in boundary spanning roles to discuss several aspects of this emerging role. Since then, we have intentionally highlighted and further examined RPP brokers in dedicated sessions at all subsequent Annual Forums, through NNERPP Extra articles, and created a number of resources, most notably the RPP Brokers Handbook. We list these resources below (you can browse a full list of brokering-related resources in our RPP Knowledge Library):

  • RPP Brokers Handbook: A Guide to Brokering in Education Research-Practice Partnerships” by Laura Wentworth, Carrie Conaway, Samantha Shewchuk, and Paula Arce-Trigatti, is a NNERPP-sourced guide for brokers in RPPs, first published by NNERPP in July of 2021, with an expanded version two published in September 2022. It represents a first-ever in-depth effort to support current and future RPP brokers in strengthening their capacity to successfully broker by codifying the work of brokers in education RPPs and illustrating what brokers do through a number of vignettes and tools contributed by members of the NNERPP community.
  • “Introducing the NNERPP RPP Brokers Handbook, V.2”: In this 2022 NNERPP Extra article, we introduce Version 2 of the RPP Brokers Handbook, providing some background information and elaborating on the “why” and “how to use” the Handbook.
  • “The Role of Brokers in Research-Practice Partnerships”: This 2019 NNERPP Extra article invited  three self-identified brokers to reflect more deeply on what makes a broker and why brokers matter in RPPs.

 

Connection Opportunities

  • RPP Brokers Subnetwork: Connect quarterly with other self-identified brokers in this smaller learning community for those in an RPP broker, intermediary, or “boundary spanning” role within their RPP that would like to network with others in similar positions.
  • RPP Brokers Workshop: We are currently offering a virtual RPP Brokers Workshop, where, over the course of four months, RPP brokers are participating in four structured 3-hour learning opportunities to work through a number of brokering scenarios using the NNERPP RPP Brokers Handbook as a key resource. Ideal participants in this workshop include an RPP broker earlier in their career that could benefit from reflection on the effectiveness of their RPP and their brokering, and scaffolded practice of new skills and knowledge in brokering within an RPP.
  • Individual RPP Brokers Coaching: In addition to the RPP Brokers Workshop outlined above, we are currently offering individual coaching for RPP brokers, whereby participants are engaging in four 60-minute one-on-one coaching sessions with an experienced RPP broker providing tailored learning opportunities.
  • Upcoming webinars: TBD
  • Brokers in NNERPP: TBD