Learning together for genuine partnership: Reflections on two Students as Partners projects

Music City Center 

A Students as Partners approach to a teaching and learning project involves a "collaborative, reciprocal process through which all participants have the opportunity to contribute equally" (Cook-Sather et al., 2014) and is guided by values that require the creation of an environment where students are empowered to participate in a way that ensures this reciprocity and collective responsibility (Healey et al., 2014). Creating such an environment can be especially challenging when the project's area of focus extends beyond students' classroom experiences or addresses a sometimes-contentious matter in higher education. For the practice of Students as Partners to develop into part of our regular practice, some recent literature suggests that it is important to begin interrogating and identifying the areas in which it can be most useful (Casey, 2024). With this in mind, we'll consider two recent Students as Partners projects, one in evaluation of a new statistics program of study and the other in student evaluation of courses, and steps we took to meaningfully engage students as co-creators. Key to each of these projects was a phase of learning together to establish a common basis for our work. We'll share the scaffolded steps we took to create conditions for the faculty, staff, and student partners to collectively build their knowledge and enhance their research skills. An important outcome of this phase was the breaking down of hierarchies and development of the trust necessary for genuine partnership.