Research and Practice: One Way, Two Way, No Way, or New Way?

As learning institutions, museums have long been buffeted by currents, coming mostly out of formal education, defining what counts as learning. The field has struggled to find its way in these waters. In this article I propose a strategy for gaining a firmer footing and indeed (shifting metaphors) for beginning to shape the very landscape, in educational and cultural policy, that currently constrains how our work is perceived and understood as contributing to learning within broader educational ecosystems. Research‐practice partnerships represent a new, more equitable and perhaps more ethical, strategy for producing evidence‐based knowledge and practice. Leveraging perspectives and expertise of both researchers and museum practitioners, RPP s can help the field begin to redefine what learning looks like and how museums both support and expand it. This paper discusses the need to participate in this new approach to research and provides some strategies for getting started.