<p>This article presents a Participatory Action Research (PAR) journey conducted through reciprocal university-school partnership principles in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. The study aimed to address challenges in early grade literacy and numeracy by implementing a continuous, participatory process that fostered teachers’ professional agency and collective inquiry. Guided by social constructivist theory and the iterative cycles of PAR, the project transitioned from traditional training models toward co-designed interventions, sustained in-classroom coaching, and the cultivation of professional learning communities. The findings reveal encouraging outcomes: a strengthened university-school partnership, enhanced professional competence among teachers, and measurable improvements in student achievement. Furthermore, the project demonstrates that such collaborations offer a vital two-way dialogical space, providing university faculty with situated learning opportunities that grounded academic theory in the lived realities of the primary school classroom. The study concludes that the PAR model offers a resilient and sustainable blueprint for driving local educational reform, serving as a compelling case for an engaged, reciprocal form of academic–community collaboration that moves beyond extractive research toward mutual flourishing.</p>