Solution:

Students are “expertise in being a student.” Students have different yet valuable knowledge of and perspectives on teaching and learning that most staff no longer have. They can help educators understand how they and their peers learn and experience the teaching as legitimate informants.

Solution:

Student partners’ contribution is not necessarily discipline-oriented, but more about their insights on teaching and learning drawn on their backgrounds and perspectives.

Here are some examples of what student partners can contribute on:

• Course and assessment design
• Developing learning content
• Providing feedback to help staff to reflect on their courses or pedagogical design
• Assist in creating and maintaining an inclusive learning environment which respects and welcomes diversity
• Assist in conducting research
• Engaging in a shared dialogue to explore pedagogical questions

Solution:

Students are reluctant to partnership due to several reasons:

1. Unaccustomed to the role of a student partner which seems to against their traditional position as a “recipient/consumer”
2. Unconfident about what to offer in a partnership
3. Worries about the labour and time required for a partnership

Steps to invite students to partnership:

1. Pay attention to potential sources of student resistance at the outset
2. Actively listen and respond to student concerns
3. Clearly outline and clarify the roles and duties
4. Reflect on the benefits of taking greater ownership of their learning
5. Offer incentives or any other tangible recognition to students

Solution:

• Communicate with students often to show your support and encouragement
• Recognize students’ “expertise in being a student” – the knowledge or the complementary forms of knowledge and experience students bring
• Acknowledge students’ affirmation on any good or essential practices you have done
• Create spaces for dialogue – to share, to explore, and to experiment

Solution:

The time investment in establishing partnership is substantial for building trust, student engagement and accountability. It can be offset in a longer run, as students assume more active role and responsibilities in the process. Time can be saved on clarification and review with students.

Solution:

Partnership is about sharing power, not one taking over the others.

• Power is shared among staff and students who bring differing yet equally important expertise and perspectives, to take joint responsibility for the enhancement of learning and teaching through partnership.
• Different areas of work may be more heavily led and controlled by different partners when the partnership unfolds.

Solution:

Partnership is about “power with” rather than “power over”, and search for a more effective source of authority – a form of shared/mutual authority.

Steps to adapt the power shift in partnership:

1. Take time to discuss the power relationships with your student partner
2. Recognize and reflect on any existing/possible hurdles or discomfort you and your student partner might experience in partnership working
3. Considering framing power as expertise that partners bring based on their experiences and positions
4. Identify means for effective communication on each other’s perspectives and concerns
5. Take a step back to refocus on the partnership work itself when tension arises from very different perspectives

Solution:

Partnership does not mean blindly or directly follow students’ suggestion, nor simply dismiss students’ opinion.

• Be responsive and serious to students’ diverse perspectives
• Encourage dialogue and reflection
• Build consensus through shared decision-making

Solution:

You may consider the following items before recruiting student partners:

• The scale of your partnership project and the number of student partner involved, whether collaborating with the individual or groups of students
• Whose voices are heard and whose are not, and whether there are structural or cultural barriers to certain groups of students engaging
• The implications of inclusion for your partnership project
• Any active steps to include students who have traditionally marginalized or have been less engaged.

Solution:

To address the issue of selection and equality, you may consider the following steps to prepare the recruitment:

1. Formulate transparent and open recruitment criteria by opening dialogue with students about inclusivity
2. Seek their input and choice contribute to criteria
3. Provide diverse ways to engage
4. Avoid restricted membership or approaches which could increase inequality among students