At Research–Practice Partnership Edges: Expanding Boundaries, Co-Creating Knowledge, and Supporting Racial Equity Joint Work

This study examines how racialized boundary work unfolds within a racial equity-centered research–practice partnership (RPP) and how such work shapes learning, knowledge co-construction, and justice-oriented change. Drawing on participatory design research and Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, we analyze collaborative interactions among our racially diverse partnership. Findings reveal that RPPs are not inherently transformative; their potential depends on how partners engage tensions at the boundaries of race, role, power, and knowledge systems. We identify three features—epistemic stretching, productive dissonance, and equity essentialism—that shape whether partnerships reproduce or disrupt inequities. Productive dissonance can deepen sensemaking, while epistemic stretching can expand dominant understandings. In contrast, equity essentialism risks flattening racial specificity and diluting anti-racist work. We argue that boundaries are generative spaces where power is negotiated and knowledge is co-constructed, and that intentional boundary practices, objects, and crossings are necessary to surface and address harm, redistribute interpretive power, and support justice-centered transformation in RPPs.