Pracademia: an answer but not the answer to an enduring question

Abstract

Purpose

The pracademia movement is gaining increasing traction in education, particularly in educational leadership. Offered as a means to bridge practice and academia, questions remain as to whether it resolves or perpetuates the theory–practice divide. This paper systematically approaches this problem.

Design/methodology/approach

Theoretically informed by the relational approach, this conceptual paper articulates the preliminaries and underlying assumptions of pracademia before exploring the implications for the field of educational leadership.

Findings

Having established the underlying assumptions, this paper offers three standards – description, explanation and alternative – for assessing knowledge claims in the field that does not default to distinct knowledge worlds (e.g. academic, practice) or categories of knowledge generators (e.g. academics, practitioners, pracademics).

Originality/value

Through a relational approach, this work breaks down the boundaries of theory and practice to offer a new way of thinking about knowledge claims. The new approach is consistent with the intent of bridging theory and practice without the need to assume them to be separate in the first place.

Citation

Eacott, S. (2022), "Pracademia: an answer but not the answer to an enduring question", Journal of Professional Capital and Community, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 57-70. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPCC-12-2020-0100