Research-Practice Partnership (RPP) is not yet a widely established practice in the Swiss educational context; however, there are high expectations for the use of scientific research in practice. The authors of this paper attempted to establish an RPP with four secondary schools within a three-year (2021–2024) project funded by the Mercator Foundation, focusing on the topic of student voice (Mitra, 2018). The collaboration was defined as design-based research (Euler, 2014), meaning that researchers and practitioners worked together to address school improvement issues related to this topic. In each of the four schools, a core team was formed, consisting of 2–3 researchers and one teacher. The teachers, one from each school, were funded at 10% to coordinate within the school and with the researchers, and they participated in meetings. They acted as the link to the principal, team colleagues, and students in everyday communication. The core team was tasked with preparing all school events and activities related to student participation. Research activities were initiated by researchers only when they aligned with the school improvement work and when the partners agreed that they would contribute to the improvement process. Results show numerous successful moments of student involvement in school improvement activities. Teachers and researchers co-planned and co-moderated processes and special events. Furthermore, students participated in research activities. However, we found that two principles of Farrell et al. (2021) posed significant challenges in this RPP. First, by analyzing core team meetings (focusing on the amount of time participants spoke, or a topic was discussed), we showed (Zala-Mezö & Datnow, 2024) that engagement with research was not always a central activity. Second, we observed that researchers were slightly or even significantly dominant in the discussions compared to teachers. Interviews conducted at the end of the project revealed the difficulties educators faced in balancing team processes with the project itself. At the end of the presentation, there will be an outlook on the future development of the partnership under new structural conditions, which is connected to the long-term characteristic of RPPs.

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