This paper reflects our work in a school-university partnership project that took place over a three-year period in 12 low-performing schools in a low socio-economic status (LSES) community in Queensland, Australia. National standardized testing data indicated that the literacy achievement of students in this cluster of schools was not only significantly below the national benchmark, but that the gap in achievement outcomes progressively worsened as students moved through schooling. End-of-project interview data about partnership work across boundaries were collected from regional administrators, school leaders and school based researchers. This paper aims to contribute to the international research field in two ways. First the paper, contributes to the theoretical literature on the ‘knowledge-practice’ gap between educational research and practice by theorising boundary crossing and interruptive pedagogic work drawing on the theories of Basil Bernstein and Lev Vygotsky. Second, the paper explores the methodological complexities of this type of research engagement by building on Arnetha Ball’s (2012) review of four models of ‘knowledge-practice’ work, namely: (i)The Research Development Diffusion Model; (ii)The Evidence-Based Practice Model; (iii)The Boundary-Crossing Practices Model, and (iv)The Knowledge Communities Model. It does this by engaging with theories of ‘generativity’, ‘relational care’, and ‘ways of knowing’.