The Same, But Different: Teacher and student experiences of partnership
Keywords:
Partnership, Uncertainty, Shared Experiences, Co-creation, University Teaching and LearningAbstract
Norwegian Higher Education institutions are increasingly adopting partnership and co-creation approaches, in common with other universities internationally. The Centres for Teaching Excellence (SFU) initiative supports Norwegian Higher Education in embedding these approaches in different disciplines. We explore common experiences shared by students and teachers involved in partnership work in the iEarth network (an SFU). Through reflexive thematic analysis of surveys and interviews, we identify five shared themes: the value of relationship building; voice, agency, and power; the importance of positive past experiences for engaging in partnerships, multiple understandings of partnership; and uncertainty. The ‘uncertainty’ theme, whilst appearing briefly in some previous studies, is particularly interesting in this study, as our data suggests that students’ and teachers’ experience uncertainty in partnership differently. Teachers reported reduced uncertainty due to partnership, owing to enhanced relationships with students. Students found partnership increases uncertainty as it challenges their ideas about learning in higher education. We also found participants shared a practical, ‘down to earth’ approach to partnerships’ benefits and challenges, and suggest this is related to the context in which partnership was introduced. Additionally, this study suggests that staff and students who have no positive past experiences in partnership may be a group who find partnership challenging and may need further support. With increasing emphasis on partnership in higher education, it is important to understand and explore shared partnership experiences to align participants’ goals and expectations and potentially unlock new benefits.
Downloads
References
Abegglen, S., Burns, T., Maier, S., & Sinfield, S. (2020). Supercomplexity: Acknowledging Students’ Lives in the 21st Century University. 4.
Ali, X., Tatam, J., Gravett, K., & Kinchin, I. M. (2021). Partnership values: An evaluation of student-staff research projects at a UK higher education institution. International Journal for Students as Partners, 5(1), 12–25. https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v5i1.4354
Barnett, R. (2021). Being a student: A committed uncertainty. In The Philosophy of Higher Education: A Critical Introduction (1st ed., pp. 131–141). Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781003102939
Barrineau, S., Engstrom, A., & Schnaas, U. (2019). An Active Student Participation Companion. Uppsala University.
Biggs, J. (2012). What the student does: Teaching for enhanced learning. Higher Education Research & Development, 31(1), 39–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2012.642839
Bonnet, A., & Glazier, J. (2023). The conflicted role of uncertainty in teaching and teacher education. Teachers and Teaching, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2023.2272650
Bovill, C. (2020). Co-creating Learning and Teaching: Towards Relational Pedagogy in Higher Education. Critical Publishing.
Bovill, C., & Bulley, C. J. (2011). A model of active student participation in curriculum design: Exploring desirability and possibility. In C. Rust (Ed.), Global theories and local practices: Institutional, disciplinary and cultural variations (Vol. 18, pp. 176–188). The Oxford Centre for Staff and Educational Development.
Bovill, C., Cook‐Sather, A., & Felten, P. (2011). Students as co‐creators of teaching approaches, course design, and curricula: Implications for academic developers. International Journal for Academic Development, 16(2), 133–145. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2011.568690
Bovill, C., Cook-Sather, A., Felten, P., Millard, L., & Moore-Cherry, N. (2016). Addressing potential challenges in co-creating learning and teaching: Overcoming resistance, navigating institutional norms and ensuring inclusivity in student–staff partnerships. Higher Education, 71(2), 195–208. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-015-9896-4
Boyle, A., Maguire, S., Martin, A., Milsom, C., Nash, R., Rawlinson, S., Turner, A., Wurthmann, S., & Conchie, S. (2007). Fieldwork is Good: The Student Perception and the Affective Domain. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 31(2), 299–317. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098260601063628
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021). One size fits all? What counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis? Qualitative Research in Psychology, 18(3), 328–352. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2020.1769238
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2022). Thematic Analysis: A Practical Guide (A. Maher, Ed.). SAGE Publications Ltd.
Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. AAHE Bulletin, March, 3–7.
Cook-Sather, A., Bovill, C., & Felten, P. (2014). Engaging Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching: A Guide for Faculty (M. Weimer, Ed.; First Edition). Jossey-Bass - A Wiley Brand.
Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and Education (2nd ed.). The Macmillan Company.
Freire, P. (1973). Education for Critical Consciousness (English translation 2nd edition). The Seabury Press.
Gravett, K. (2023). Relational Pedagogies: Connections and Mattering in Higher Education. Bloomsbury Academic.
Hartner-Tiefenthaler, M., Roetzer, K., Bottaro, G., & Peschl, M. F. (2018). When relational and epistemological uncertainty act as driving forces in collaborative knowledge creation processes among university students. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 28, 21–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2018.02.013
Healey, M., Flint, A., & Harrington, K. (2014). Engagement through partnership: Students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education. International Journal for Academic Development, 21(1), 84–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2016.1124966
Helseth, I. A., Alveberg, C., Ashwin, P., Bråten, H., Duffy, C., Marshall, S., Oftedal, T., & Reece, R. J. (2019). DEVELOPING EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION: Lessons learned from the establishment and evaluation of the Norwegian Centres for Excellence in Education (SFU) initiative. Nasjonalt organ for kvalitet i utdanningen (NOKUT).
Kincheloe, J. L. (2008). Knowledge and critical pedagogy: An Introduction (Vol. 1). Springer.
Kolb, D. A. (2015). Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development (Second). Pearson Education, Inc.
Kugel, P. (1993). How professors develop as teachers. Studies in Higher Education, 18(3), 315–328. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079312331382241
Lamport, M. A. (1993). Student-faculty informal interaction and the effect on college student outcomes: A review of... Adolescence, 28(112), 971–991.
Liang, Y., Dai, K., & Matthews, K. E. (2020). Students as Partners: A New Ethos for the Transformation of Teacher and Student Identities in Chinese Higher Education. International Journal of Chinese Education, 9(2), 131–150. https://doi.org/10.1163/22125868-12340124
Lubicz-Nawrocka, T., & Bovill, C. (2021). Do students experience transformation through co-creating curriculum in higher education? Teaching in Higher Education, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2021.1928060
Malm, R. H., Madsen, L. M., & Lundmark, A. M. (2020). Students’ negotiations of belonging in geoscience: Experiences of faculty–student interactions when entering university. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 44(4), 532–549. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098265.2020.1771683
Malterud, K., Siersma, V. D., & Guassora, A. D. (2016). Sample Size in Qualitative Interview Studies: Guided by Information Power. Qualitative Health Research, 26(13), 1753–1760. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732315617444
Mangione, D., & Norton, L. (2023). Problematising the notion of ‘the excellent teacher’: Daring to be vulnerable in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 28(2), 373–388. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2020.1812565
Martens, S. E., Spruijt, A., Wolfhagen, I. H. A. P., Whittingham, J. R. D., & Dolmans, D. H. J. M. (2019). A students’ take on student–staff partnerships: Experiences and preferences. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 44(6), 910–919. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1546374
Matthews, K. E. (2017a). Five Propositions for Genuine Students as Partners Practice. International Journal for Students as Partners, 1(2). https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v1i2.3315
Matthews, K. E. (2017b). Students and Staff as Partners in Australian Higher Education: Introducing Our Stories of Partnership. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 1(21), 1–3. https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss21/1
Matthews, K. E., Cook-Sather, A., Acai, A., Dvorakova, S. L., Felten, P., Marquis, E., & Mercer-Mapstone, L. (2019). Toward theories of partnership praxis: An analysis of interpretive framing in literature on students as partners in teaching and learning. Higher Education Research & Development, 38(2), 280–293. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2018.1530199
Matthews, K. E., Dwyer, A., Hine, L., & Turner, J. (2018). Conceptions of students as partners. Higher Education, 76(6), 957–971. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-018-0257-y
Matthews, K. E., Mercer-Mapstone, L., Dvorakova, S. L., Acai, A., Cook-Sather, A., Felten, P., Healey, M., Healey, R. L., & Marquis, E. (2019). Enhancing outcomes and reducing inhibitors to the engagement of students and staff in learning and teaching partnerships: Implications for academic development. International Journal for Academic Development, 24(3), 246–259. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2018.1545233
Mercer-Mapstone, L., Dvorakova, L. S., Groenendijk, L. J., & Matthews, K. E. (2017). Idealism, Conflict, Leadership, and Labels: Reflections on Co-facilitation as Partnership Practice. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 21, 9.
Mercer-Mapstone, L., Dvorakova, S. L., Matthews, K. E., Abbot, S., Cheng, B., Felten, P., Knorr, K., Marquis, E., Shammas, R., & Swaim, K. (2017). A Systematic Literature Review of Students as Partners in Higher Education. International Journal for Students as Partners, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v1i1.3119
Munevar-Pelton, I., Olsen-Neill, A., Yahlnaaw, De Wet-Billings, N., Hellemans, K., Hornsby, D., Laher, S., Mullally, M., Osman, R., & Smith, H. (2022). Partnership in fostering socially just pedagogies. International Journal for Students as Partners, 6(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v6i1.5129
O’Brien, K. (2021). You Matter More Than You Think: Quantum Social Change for a Thriving World. Change Press.
Penuel, W. R. (2017). Research–practice partnerships as a strategy for promoting equitable science teaching and learning through leveraging everyday science. Science Education, 101(4), 520–525. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21285
Perry Jr., W. G. (1970). Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years: A Scheme. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
Roberts, J. W. (2021). Uncertainty in Higher Education. In Risky Teaching: Harnessing the Power of Uncertainty in Higher Education (1st ed., pp. 16–35). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003029809
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society (M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman, Eds.). Harvard University Press.
Zhang, M., Matthews, K. E., & Liu, S. (2023). Engaging students as partners in intercultural partnership practices: A scoping review. Higher Education Research & Development, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2022.2157800
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:a. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
b. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
c. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
