At the threshold: A case study of a partnership between a student organization and an educational development center

Stephanie Delane Doktor,Jacob Hardin,Dorothe Bach,Sophia Abbot

doi:10.15173/ijsap.v3i1.3511

Stephanie Delane Doktor, Jacob Hardin + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v3i1.3511

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Abstract

This article offers a case study about the collaboration between a student-led organization and an academic development unit dedicated to improving teaching and learning at [Institution 2]. We describe the genesis of our collaboration, how we nurtured and developed it over time into a substantive program, and what we learned in the process. While most existing case studies focus on partnerships between students and faculty, we turn the lens inward and investigate the challenges involved in enacting an “ethic of reciprocity” (Cook-Sather and Felten, 2017) in a partnership between an academic development center and a student organization. Using the analytical framework of threshold concepts, we explore the rocky navigating of issues of trust, vulnerability, role confusion, the notion of expertise, and pre-existing power inequalities to move towards a more collaborative and equitable partnership.

Highlights

This case study describes the formation and development of Co-create UVA, a studentfaculty initiative founded by a student-led organization and an educational development unit at the University of Virginia (UVA)
Though examples of partnerships between educational developers and students have become more common, Co-create UVA is unique in the context of U.S higher education in that the initiative was originally conceived of and created through a partnership between two independent organizations: student-founded and student-led non-profit organization ReinventED and UVA’s Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE)
Radical collegiality is often challenging for educational developers who invite, hire, and train students for partnership with faculty, as we will see in the second part of this case study

Summary

Introduction

This case study describes the formation and development of Co-create UVA, a studentfaculty initiative founded by a student-led organization and an educational development unit at the University of Virginia (UVA). This article is co-authored by one former and one current staff member at UVA’s Center for Teaching Excellence (Stephanie Doktor and Dorothe Bach), a leader of ReinventED (Jacob Hardin), and an external consultant (Sophia Abbot).

Results

Conclusion