Forging a purposeful partnership between classroom practice and research where the aims, methods and findings address a problem identified by the teacher, who is at the centre of their practice, can be hampered by traditional notions of what is expected from educational research. The principles of close to practice can create a third space, where professional agency and authority is returned to teachers who formulate research questions that stem from their practice and willingly engage with research to answer these.

Amber Garrod is a mathematics teacher, working with a class of Y9 students (aged 13-14 years) who collaborated with Dr. Natasha Serret, an academic at Nottingham Trent University, with a research background in teacher researcher partnerships, as part of the 2023 close to practice project, established by Kate Mawson at Nottingham Trent University. Through our collaborative activity we identified an issue, arising from Amber’s reflections of her practice, which warranted further research: ‘What responses do Y9 girls give for their oral participation in maths lessons?’

We will share our design of the comic strip that we used as part of our enhanced interviews with a class of 25 Y9 students in order to capture a more authentic student explanation for their participation in mathematics lessons. This student-informed perspective was considered alongside Amber’s analysis of observed student participation during her mathematics lessons and attainment data gathered during the one school term. The refinement of our question and this careful consideration of ensuring that evidence collected was 'close to Amber’s practice' enabled us to maintain a purposeful approach.

As our research partnership evolved, we encountered some surprising findings. This reflective conversation will explore how these pivotal points enabled us to gain a deeper, student-informed view of the problem and reach practical solutions. Our experiences of these research milestones, over the duration of this one-year research journey, offer an insight into how close to practice research partnerships navigate the traditional hierarchies and expectations associated with educational research.

Keywords: Close to practice, practitioner research, mathematics.