In recent years, a partnership approach to teaching and learning has gained increasing currency (Healey, Flint, & Harrington, 2014). As a particular, extensive form of student engagement, partnership seeks to position faculty and students as active collaborators within pedagogical endeavours ranging from learning and teaching within the classroom, to curriculum design, co-researching, and the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). Existing scholarship suggests that partnership models have the potential to transform higher education by creating significant and empowering learning experiences (Mihans, Long & Felten, 2008), increasing student and faculty motivation (Bovill, Cook-Sather & Felten, 2011), and enriching pedagogical work through the integration of multiple perspectives (McKinney, Jarvis, Creasey, & Hermann, 2010). Nonetheless, developing effective and ethical partnerships is a challenging task (Allin, 2014). As such, systems and supports for faculty and students engaging in teaching and learning partnerships are vital (Marquis et al., 2015).
This year, the McMaster Institute for Innovation & Excellence in Teaching & Learning (MIIETL) aimed to provide such support by running an International Summer Institute on Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. Participants at this institute had the option to attend one or two 2-day workshops or a 3-day team session, each of which was facilitated collaboratively by experienced student-faculty groups from around the world. Opportunities were also provided to engage with other participants, receive feedback about developing projects, and forge new connections.
This session will engage attendees in discussing the institute model, and share preliminary results from a mixed methods study that explores participants’ understandings of partnership and experiences of taking part. Attendees will come away with an understanding of international perspectives on the challenges and benefits of student-faculty partnerships, and with ideas for further supporting such partnerships in their own contexts.
Mick Healey is an emeritus professor at the University of Gloucestershire, and the Humboldt Distinguished Scholar at the McMaster Institute for Innovation & Excellence in Teaching and Learning.
Beth Marquis is an Assistant Professor in the Arts & Science Program and the McMaster Institute for Innovation and Excellence in Teaching and Learning (MIIETL).
