Since the millennium, the emergent discipline of Educational Neuroscience has grown rapidly. This transdiscipline aims to bridge the gap between the neurosciences and educational practices, not only to let the neurosciences inform educational practices but also for educational practices to provide new relevant questions for the neurosciences (Fischer et al, 2007). The joint aim is to improve educational practices for future generations. As a researcher in Early Childhood Education with an interest in how knowledge practices are material-discursively produced, I was triggered to do something about this lack of knowledge. What would emerge if brain research became part of the literacy theories and practices of Swedish preschool teachers? Would it be possible to enact a reciprocal and collaborative research methodology together with the practitioners, based on a joint matter of concern? I felt an urge to explore this and in this presentation, I will highlight some methodological implications in this project.

Researching a problem that ultimately concerns the possibilities, difficulties and problems which emerge in the encounters of two different practices – scientific research practices and educational practices – demands a methodology that engages in the practice of research practices and the problem of how to overcome divisions between humanities, social science and natural sciences (Sismondo, 2004) Hence, the research questions concern how the different disciplines’ power production is negotiated and re-negotiated in the encounter, and what the consequences are for teachers constituted and re-constituted beliefs, theories and practices (Callard & Fitzgerald, 2015). Questions on how this encounter is received, resisted, and in what ways this kind of knowing transforms meaning-making and practices concerning the literacy work performed was an urgent issue in the participating preschools as well. Hence, based on shared matters of concern of the researcher and the participants is a methodology needed that is characterized by reciprocity and collaboration.