Student-staff Partnership Research Articles

Mind the gap: Teachers’ conceptions of student-staff partnership and its potential to enhance educational quality

Introduction: Student-staff partnerships as a concept to improve medical education have received a growing amount of attention. Such partnerships are collaborations in which students and teachers seek to improve education by each adding their unique contribution to decision-making and implementation processes. Although previous research has demonstrated that students are favourable to this concept, teachers remain hesitant. The present study investigated teachers’ conceptions of student-staff partnerships and of the prerequisites that are necessary to render such partnerships successful and enhance educational quality.Method: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 course coordinators who lead course design teams and also teach in 4 bachelor health programmes, using Bovill and Bulley’s levels of student participation as sensitising concepts during data analysis.Results: The results pointed to three different conceptions of student-staff partnerships existing among teachers: Teachers teach and students study; teachers teach and value students’ feedback; and teachers and students co-create. The prerequisites for effective co-creation teachers identified were: Teachers must be open to involve students and create dialogues; students must be motivated and have good communication skills; the organisation must be supportive; and teachers should have the final say.Conclusion: We conclude that teachers’ conceptions are consistent with Bovill and Bulley’s levels of student participation. Under certain conditions, teachers are willing to co-create and reach the highest levels of student participation.

4. That Which Is Worthy of Love: A Philosophical Framework for Reflection on Staff-Student Partnerships for the Future University

<?page nr="71"?>Abstract In this article we develop a philosophical understanding of student-staff partnership through a novel interpretation and development of Aristotle’s friendship arguments. In contributing to an emerging critical field of study of student-staff partnership, we begin by explaining the current state of being a student in the neoliberal university. In light of the polylithic changes neo-liberalism impresses on student being and becoming, and how partnerships are proposed paradoxically as both a counterculture and serving this agenda, we develop a typology of partnership that helps those working in, and proposing to work in partnership, to discuss their ethical basis. For Aristotle, “What is worthy of love?” in the relationship, is a salient question. Is it utility? Is it pleasure? Is it virtue and flourishing? In the typology we propose an additional form of partnership—where creativity is a central activity worthy of time, energy, and love. It is reasonable to suggest that student-staff partnerships are likely to remain, if not grow, in the future university, and are likely to have a significant impact on the being and becoming of the student. It is for this reason we develop the typology in order for participants, particularly students, to have clarity in understanding the ethical motivation and purpose of the partnership in the university. We see this clarity as enabling students to see how the partnership will contribute to their notion of the flourishing life.

The other side of a magic mirror: exploring collegiality in student and staff partnership work

ABSTRACT This article adds to the corpus of writing that examines collegiality's idealistic yet elusive nature in Higher Education by focusing specifically on how collegiality can be enacted in student–staff partnership work. An innovative initiative, ‘Students as Colleagues in the Review of Teaching Practices’, provides a case to qualitatively explore the collegial characteristics. Here, students reviewed a paired staff member's teaching practice over one semester, as a peer review exercise. This shift in social roles troubles the understanding of ‘peer’ and asks if authentic collegiality is possible. The study is conceptually framed by Fielding's notion of ‘radical collegiality’ and draws on standpoint theory and dialogic education to raise issues of power, mutual support and productive tensions. The findings have implications for how Higher Education institutions can support student and staff to actively engage in authentic collegial partnerships by developing relational and dialogic spaces, rather than just abstract institutional infrastructures.

A student–staff partnership approach to course enhancement: Principles for enabling dialogue through repurposing subject-specific materials and metaphors

ABSTRACT Mechanisms for listening and responding to students need to offer space for diverse voices and meaningful dialogue for greater student–staff partnership. This study explores the beneficial impacts and challenges of using creative pedagogical methods to support rich dialogue for module evaluation. A variety of evaluation activities were embedded throughout a postgraduate module, using creative materials and metaphorical reflective questions. Whilst there are logistical and perceptive barriers to adopting creative approaches, this paper demonstrates the beneficial impacts on both students’ and staffs’ experiences of learning and teaching, and the culture of partnership it develops. Deeper reflection and evaluation from students enabled inclusive student–staff dialogue. More nuanced and richer feedback allowed staff a responsive approach to module design, empowering the students and cultivating trusting student–staff relationships. Supporting the transferability of this practice across non-arts disciplines, principles for using discipline-specific materials and metaphors, for triggering reflection and evaluation are proposed.

Developing a collaborative book project on higher education pedagogy: The institutional, organizational, and community identity dimensions of student-staff partnerships

This case study presents an ambitious student-staff partnership project at University College London (UCL) to publish a collaborative book on higher education pedagogy. Over two-and-a-half years, a total of 86 students and staff contributed to the project, which sought to provide educators with a new type of scholarly material under the unifying theme of connecting research and teaching. Multiple layers of student-staff partnership were interwoven throughout the project; this case study contextualizes these layers against three dimensions: institutional, organizational, and community identity. Central to the project was our distinctive approach to engaging with Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) and their crucial role in bringing the three dimensions together. As such, the project represents a model of enhanced student-staff partnership that has the capacity to empower students and break down educational silos to form new, multi-specialty learning communities.

Student–staff partnerships in learning and teaching: an overview of current practice and discourse

ABSTRACTStudent–staff partnerships in learning and teaching are not a new idea but have seen a growing interest and momentum in recent years. In this article, I provide an overview of the background and context of increased student–staff partnerships, a definition of partnership and some of the benefits. I highlight several examples of practice from different countries, universities and disciplines, and involving different numbers of students, which help to illustrate some of the variety of what is possible in student–staff partnerships in learning and teaching but also some of the challenges. I will focus on key ideas currently being debated in student–staff partnership work in the form of theoretical framing; contested definitions; mixed motivations and concerns about partnership being co-opted by neoliberalism; the imperative of inclusion; and the role of student–staff relationships. I conclude by considering what ways geographers might contribute to future research and practice, by offering some practical strategies for establishing and maintaining good quality partnerships in learning and teaching and with suggestions for enhancing the community and culture within which we operate.

Are we just engaging ‘the usual suspects’? Challenges in and practical strategies for supporting equity and diversity in student–staff partnership initiatives

ABSTRACT Higher education institutions have been identified as inequitable for historically marginalised student and staff populations. Student–staff partnership has recently emerged as one approach to redressing such inequities. To what extent are institutional partnership schemes considering or achieving this goal? Using two phases of qualitative data collection, we explored the perceptions of staff administering student–staff partnership schemes regarding the inclusion of diversity across eight UK higher education institutions. Results highlight conceptual and practical challenges for and strategies to striving for equity in student–staff partnership initiatives. These results are discussed by drawing on the identities of the research team to highlight intersectional approaches to inclusion in partnership.

Assessment and Feedback for Large Classes in Transnational Engineering Education: Student–Staff Partnership-Based Innovative Approach

Assessment and feedback (A&F) are two major components of any educational program and must be properly in place to ensure student learning and quality of experience. However, these important components come under severe challenges of meeting student expectations in the large class size context. When the program delivery relates to a transnational educational (TNE) scenario, the additional constraints on staff–student physical interaction, regional time differences and cultural background gaps introduce additional challenges: Conducting proper assessments and provide timely and constructive feedback to the students. In this paper, the authors propose a novel assessment and feedback framework which exploits having a large student number as a positive factor by introducing staff–student partnership to implement efficient assessment and feedback strategies. Authors propose to use students for peer-review, assessment design, evaluation rubric design and tutorial-based feedback. The students also take part in preparing feedback clusters based on which the instructor provides pseudo-personalised video feedback. Through feedback clusters, authors introduce the trade-off between individual feedback and generic feedback. The results of the study are particularly promising in terms of student satisfaction and learning enhancement.

Motivations, barriers, & understandings: how students at four universities perceive student–faculty partnership programs

ABSTRACTExtracurricular student–staff partnership activities are increasingly common in higher education institutions, but concerns have been expressed about their relative inclusivity. In order to contribute to understanding of why students do and do not take part in such initiatives, this study draws on data from a survey of students at four institutions, in three different countries, with established extracurricular partnership programs. Though the findings indicate some preliminary differences between participants at the four institutions, they also demonstrate a number of shared perceptions, including similar understandings of key features of partnership and shared perceptions of barriers to participation. Implications for partnership practice and research are discussed.

The student–staff partnership movement: striving for inclusion as we push sectorial change

ABSTRACT A growing number of practitioners are re-envisioning higher education through student–staff partnership. Such a culture shift toward partnership can only be achieved through collaborative efforts among academic developers, other faculty/staff, and students. Using evidence from literature and my own reflections, I map the ways this partnership movement is unfolding across contexts. In doing so, I hope to provide a sense of camaraderie for practitioners in outlining how individual practices contribute to sectorial change, to question how we could be more inclusive in this movement, and to provide suggestions for expanding the movement in the future.

Student-staff partnerships in academic development: the course design studio as a model for sustainable course-wide impact

ABSTRACT Sector-wide research has shown the benefits of student-staff partnerships in course design whilst highlighting the complexity of this work, and the difficulties in gaining traction to create sustained ways of working. Reflections by academic developers on the roles and partnerships in course design at one Australian university reveal the critical three-way partnership among academic developers, students, and academics. The benefits brought by a Course Design Studio model in providing a liminal space to sustain positive three-way collaborations are outlined. This paper offers a conceptual argument that addresses areas of concern often encountered in traditional course design student-staff partnership relationships.

Freedom to Achieve: addressing the attainment gap through student and staff co-creation

Understanding and enhancing the experience of individuals and communities who have experienced marginalising structures and cultures have become an important area of research across higher education. This work forms an attempt to address injustice through a critical focus on inclusion and ideas of diversity. However, it also enables a reappraisal of ideas of student-staff partnership and co-creation, and student-as-producer. Building upon Kingston University’s value-added metric and Inclusive Curriculum Framework, De Montfort University has developed its own approach to engaging with differential attainment gaps, in part by embedding co-creation at the heart of its ‘Freedom to Achieve’ project. Co-creation enhances the University’s understanding of the experiences of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) students and supports all students to become agents for change. Between January and April 2018, as a pilot for later project-wide implementation, the Freedom to Achieve team facilitated a series of co-creation events at both institution and programme level. This paper presents an evaluation of the co-creation approach alongside initial findings from the events and explains how these will inform the continuing development of the Freedom the Achieve project.

Equity and diversity in institutional approaches to student–staff partnership schemes in higher education

ABSTRACT Student cohorts in higher education are rapidly diversifying. Approaches to student engagement in teaching and learning must evolve to meet the changing needs of these diverse groups of students equitably. Student–staff partnership is an approach to student engagement embracing the diverse experiences of both students and staff. Growing evidence shows significant positive outcomes for students and staff. Practice, however, is dominated by small scale initiatives, limiting opportunities for equitable engagement. In institutions where partnership has been scaled-up, little research has explored these institutional partnership schemes. Our research addresses this gap by exploring institutional approaches to partnership across 11 universities in the United Kingdom. Results provide important lessons for improving equity in access to partnership schemes and the need for broader conceptions of scaling up partnership.

By any other name? The impacts of differing assumptions, expectations, and misconceptions in bringing about resistance to student-staff partnership

Most of the existing literature on student-staff partnership explores the experiences of people who are keen to be involved and who have already bought into the ethos of Students as Partners. We explore the challenges of conducting student-staff partnership in the context of resistance. Specifically, we focus on the interpretations of partnership by students and staff who were attempting to work in partnership for the first time in a medium-sized geography department in the UK The views of participants were captured during a six-month project in which four undergraduate students were employed to work with eight academics to redesign the second-year undergraduate curriculum of one programme. Notwithstanding an introductory briefing and ongoing support, some participants showed indications of resistance. Our findings suggest that different perspectives on partnership influenced participants’ experiences. We argue that assumptions, expectations, and misconceptions around the terminology used to describe Students-as-Partners practice may hinder the process itself, as some people may not buy in to the practice. However, despite the challenges of this project, the experience of being involved in the re-design of the modules has led to reduced resistance and emerging partnership practices throughout the department.

Closing the loop: An evaluation of student-led module feedback at one UK higher education institution

This article describes how a Student-Led Module Feedback (SLMF) scheme was initiated at one UK University to enhance staff-student relationships and to improve student outcomes. The scheme was developed by academics in partnership with the Students Union (SU) and students. The SLMF aimed to enhance the student experience at a granular level in “real time” during 30 week-long teaching modules. The article defines the SLMF within the research context of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and describes how the theme of student-staff partnership runs across the scheme, including during the project management and evaluation phases. It critically reflects on how the scheme has been instrumental in making inroads to improving the experience of students and staff across the university. It analyses the way in which the SLMF is being used by staff and students to co-create action plans to initiate pedagogical changes and thus close the loop of the feedback cycle.

Putting student partnership and collaboration centre-stage in a research-led context

In this case study, we evaluated the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) initiative at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), an extracurricular programme that focuses on academic staff-student partnerships and collaborations. While not directly integrated into university degree programmes, SURF provides students with the opportunity to develop practical research skills related to knowledge they have acquired in class. Participating students receive an authentic research experience, which involves collaboration on research projects with academic staff. All students are required to present results of their projects at a public poster presentation event organised by the university. This case study is a partnership between Academic Enhancement Centre (AEC) staff, who organize and run SURF, SURF students, and a lecturer (M.B.N. Kouwenhoven), and it presents a reflection on their experiences of the SURF programme, and in particular on the notions of partnership and collaboration and the potential tension between those two concepts.

An institutional framework to guide the comparison of work-integrated learning

Work-based placements, site visits, field trips and embedded industry-informed curriculum are employability strategies frequently applied by universities, and clustered under the umbrella term – work-integrated learning (WIL). Referring to each of these strategies as WIL can complicate comparisons (e.g. long-term placements vs. field trips) and can lead WIL related research to diverge in multiple directions. To support comparison and help guide institutional decision-making relating to WIL, the positioning of this article aligns with a recent stream of literature that attempts to outline, contrast and differentiate between various activities aimed at enhancing graduate employability. Four distinct WIL case studies from three Australian universities are described in this article: (a) students working in teams with industry partners (n=23), (b) students co-creating learning resources (n=7), (c) a student-staff partnership (n=2), and (d) students acting as peer-learning advisors (n=5). The cases were considered across five key factors: 1) ease of implementation, 2) barriers, 3) scalability, 4) authenticity, and 5) proximity. Using empirical data, the findings within the article contribute an institutional framework that highlights the benefits and drawbacks associated with differences across WIL types, intended to support good WIL practice among administrators, teachers and staff.

Reimagining the place of students in academic development

ABSTRACTAs calls for student-staff partnership proliferate across higher education, academic development must re-examine and reimagine its relationship to students. Students generally occupy roles with limited agency in academic development. We argue that this needs to change. We propose re-articulating the purpose of academic development toward the creation of conditions that liberate everyone involved in teaching and learning in higher education. We offer four vignettes that illustrate what is possible when students have the opportunity to embrace their essential roles. We conclude by reflecting on the human implications of student agency in academic development and higher education more broadly.

Evaluating the process and product of a student-staff partnership for curriculum redesign in film studies

ABSTRACTThis paper describes a student-staff partnership to design learning activities and assessments for an undergraduate Film Studies course. Four students and three staff designed the new assessments and learning activities to develop students’ knowledge and skills to produce a video essay. The new assessments were co-developed in semester one so that students in semester two could experiment, innovate and think critically using the logics and form of film itself. We evaluated both the product (the new assessments and activities) and the process (the partnership). The evaluation of the project was positive, with students enrolled in the unit engaged in the technical and intellectual challenges of this new form of assessment. Student partners brought complementary knowledges and perspectives to the project, while extending their skills and awareness of behind-the-scenes curriculum development processes at the university. The paper provides insights into the benefits and challenges of student-staff partnerships for curriculum redesign.

Making assessment accessible: a student–staff partnership perspective

ABSTRACTStudent assessment literacy, and staff assessment practices can be enhanced through constructive dialogue, designed to help build better shared understandings, and in which both students and staff can meaningfully contribute. Such a dialogue has great potential to increase student engagement with their own learning. Focusing on a UK university law school’s staff–student partnership initiative called Getting It Right: Assessment and Feedback in Translation (GRAFT) and aimed at improving assessment feedback practices, this paper demonstrates how students and staff working as partners in this context can make a major contribution to assessment literacy and student engagement.