Students as Partners
Students as Partners is a collaborative pedagogical approach that pairs faculty and students to improve teaching and learning. Bovill, Cook-Sather and Felten define student-faculty partnership as a 鈥渞eciprocal process through which all participants have the opportunity to contribute equally, although not necessarily in the same ways, to curricular or pedagogical conceptualization, decision-making, implementation, investigation, or analysis鈥 (2014, p. 6-7). This kind of partnership repositions students and faculty as teachers and learners and ultimately redefines their traditional roles in relation to one another and to the institution (Mercer-Mapstone, 2017). Matthews describes a 鈥榮tudent鈥 and 鈥榩artner鈥 metaphor that, 鈥榠magines and makes way for respectful, mutually beneficial learning partnerships where students and staff work together on all aspects of educational endeavours鈥 (2017).聽
Students as Pedagogical Partners Initiative
In Fall 2023, the Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL), formerly known as ASSETT, piloted the Students as Pedagogical Partners initiative. As part of this pilot, CTL hired three equity-seeking undergraduate students鈥擩ustin Dasher, Abi Horton, and Aneesh Waikar鈥攖o serve as Pedagogical Consultants. These students collaborated with Student Services Manager Jacie Moriyama to develop curricula for a formal Students as Partners program. The resulting curricula are designed to guide student-faculty pairs through a semester-long seminar that introduces the foundational concepts of the Students as Partners framework.
In Spring 2024, CTL officially launched the inaugural Students as Pedagogical Partners program. The program supported a small cohort of student-faculty pairs working collaboratively on projects related to curricular design, assessment strategies, and project-based learning.
The goals of the program are to:
- Improve teaching and learning through shared partnership
- Challenge traditional assumptions about the roles of teachers and learners
- Create space for equity-seeking individuals to drive meaningful improvements in teaching and learning
Those interested in learning more about the initiative are encouraged to contact Jacie Moriyama at jacie.moriyama@colorado.edu.
Current Students as Pedagogical Consultants
References
- Bie, D. A., Marquis, E., Cook-Sather, A., & 尝耻辩耻别帽辞, L. P. (2021). Promoting equity and Justice Through Pedagogical Partnership. Stylus Publishing, LLC.
- Cook-Sather, A., Bovill, C., and Felten, P. (2014). Engaging students as partners in learning and teaching: a guide for faculty. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
- Cook-Sather, A., Matthews, K. E., Ntem, A., & Leathwick, S. (2018). What we talk about when we talk about students as partners. International Journal for Students as Partners, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v2i2.3790
- Matthews, K. E. (2017). Five Propositions for Genuine Students as Partners Practice. International Journal for Students As Partners, 1(2), 1鈥9. https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v1i2.3315
- 鈥嬧赌婱别谤肠别谤-惭补辫蝉迟辞苍别, 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), 15鈥37.