Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Student–Staff Partnerships in Higher Education as Process and Approach

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Enhancing Student-Centred Teaching in Higher Education

Abstract

This chapter discusses some of the challenges of student–staff partnerships in higher education. Drawing on a framework of process-product/activity-approach (Healey, Flint, & Harrington, 2014; Marquis, Black, & Healey, 2017), and our own experiences of writing this chapter, we explore some of the claims made in the literature. Firstly, we consider the plurality of definitions of partnership, and the effect of this diversity on “doing” student–staff partnerships. A second key area is how identities are (co-)constructed through partnership work. Thirdly, we examine how power structures are enacted and how different stakeholders manage hostility and resistance. A further theme is inclusivity and we discuss how, despite the fact that student agency is fundamental to student–staff partnerships, this key principle can be manifested in a variety of ways. We present a case for using a framework of process-product/activity-approach as a way to inform, develop and evaluate partnership work.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Allin, L. (2014). Collaboration between staff and students in the scholarship of teaching and learning: The potential and the problems. Teaching & Learning Inquiry: the ISSOTL Journal, 2(1), 95–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bovill, C. (2014). An investigation of co-created curricula within higher education in the UK, Ireland and the USA. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 51(1), 15–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bovill, C. (2017). Breaking down student-staff barriers: Moving towards pedagogic flexibility. In I. M. Kinchin & N. E. Winstone (Eds.), Pedagogic frailty and resilience in the university (pp. 151–161). Rotterdam: Sense.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carey, P. (2013). Student as co-producer in a marketised higher education system: A case study of students’ experience of participation in curriculum design. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 50(3), 250–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cook-Sather, A. (2015). Dialogue across differences of position, perspective, and identity: Reflective practice in/on a student-faculty pedagogical partnership program. Teachers College Record, 117(2), 1–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diaz, A., Jenkins, R., Kay, A., Pye, A., Morley, D., & Garavito, N. (2015). A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) evaluation of university student-staff partnerships in co-creating educational resources, peer support and research within STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects. Journal of Scientific Research & Reports, 5(2), 161–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Felten, P., Bagg, J., Bumbry, M., Hill, J., Hornsby, K., Pratt, M., & Weller, S. (2013). A call for expanding inclusive student engagement in SoTL. Teaching and Learning Inquiry, 1(2), 63–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fielding, M. (2004). Transformative approaches to student voice: Theoretical underpinnings, recalcitrant realities. British Educational Research Journal, 30(2), 295–311.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flint, A. (2016). Moving from the fringe to the mainstream: Opportunities for embedding student engagement through partnership. Student Engagement in Higher Education Journal, 1(1), 1–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guilbault, M. (2016). Students as customers in higher education: Reframing the debate. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 26(2), 132–142.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Healey, M., Flint, A., & Harrington, K. (2014). Engagement through partnership: Students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education. Available from: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/resources/engagement_through_partnership.pdf.

  • Heron, M., & Palfreyman, D. M. (2019). Developing oracy skills for student voice work. In S. Lygo-Baker, N. Winstone, & I. Kinchin (Eds.), Engaging student voices in higher education (pp. 89–105). London: Palgrave.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kehler, A., Verwoord, R., & Smith, H. (2017). We are the process: Reflections on the underestimation of power in students as partners in practice. International Journal for Students as Partners, 1(1), 1–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kinchin, I. M., & Winstone, N. E. (2017). Pedagogic frailty: Opportunities and challenges. In I. M. Kinchin & N. E Winstone (Eds.), Pedagogic frailty and resilience in the university (pp. 211–226). Rotterdam: Sense.

    Google Scholar 

  • Land, R., Rattray, J., & Vivian, P. (2014). Learning in the liminal space: A semiotic approach to threshold concepts. Higher Education, 67(2), 199–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lodge, C. (2005). From hearing voices to engaging in dialogue: Problematising student participation in school improvement. Journal of Educational Change, 6(2), 125–146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marie, J., & McGowan, S. (2017). Moving towards sustainable outcomes in student partnerships: Partnership values in the pilot year. International Journal for Students as Partners, 1(2), 1–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marquis, E., Black, C., & Healey, M. (2017). Responding to the challenges of student-staff partnership: The reflections of participants at an international summer institute. Teaching in Higher Education, 22(6), 720–735.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marquis, E., Jayaratnam, A., Mishra, A., & Rybkina, K. (2018). “I feel like some students are better connected”: Students’ perspectives on applying for extracurricular partnership opportunities. International Journal for Students as Partners, 2(1), 64–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matthews, K. E. (2016). Students as partners as the future of student engagement. Student Engagement in Higher Education Journal, 1(1), 1–5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matthews, K. E., Dwyer, A., Hine, L., & Turner, J. (2018). Conceptions of students as partners. Higher Education, 76(6), 957–971.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matthews, K. E., Dwyer, A., Russell, S., & Enright, E. (2018). It is a complicated thing: Leaders’ conceptions of students as partners in the neoliberal university. Studies in Higher Education, 1–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matthews, K. E., Mercer-Mapstone, L., Dvorakova, S. L., Acai, A., Cook-Sather, A., Felten, P., … Marquis, E. (2018). 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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morrison, K., & Lui, I. (2000). Ideology, linguistic capital and the medium of instruction in Hong Kong. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 21(6), 471–486.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, R., Nixon, S., Brooman, S., & Fearon, D. (2017). I am wary of giving too much power to students. Addressing the “but” in the principle of staff-student partnership. International Journal for Students as Partners, 1(1), 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Niculescu, I. O., Nagpal, S., & Rogers, R. (2020). Creating space for new expertise: Considerations for setting up student-staff partnerships. In K. Gravett, N. Yakovchuk, & I. M. Kinchin (Eds.), Enhancing student-centred teaching in higher education: The landscape of student-staff research partnerships (pp. 329–346). London: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ollis, L., & Gravett, K. (2020). The emerging landscape of student-staff partnerships. In K. Gravett, N. Yakovchuk, & I. M. Kinchin (Eds.), Enhancing student-centred teaching in higher education: The landscape of student-staff research partnerships (pp. 11–27). London: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raaper, R. (2018). Students’ unions and consumerist policy discourses in English higher education. Critical Studies in Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, C., & Taylor, C. (2007). Theorizing student voice: Values and perspectives. Improving Schools, 10(1), 5–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seale, J., Gibson, S., Haynes, J., & Potter, A. (2015). Power and resistance: Reflections on the rhetoric and reality of using participatory methods to promote student voice and engagement in higher education. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 39(4), 534–552.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Troschitz, R. (2017). Higher Education and the student: From welfare state to neoliberalism. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Usherwood, S. (2018). Politics. In I. M. Kinchin & N. E. Winstone (Eds.), Exploring pedagogic frailty and resilience: Case studies of academic narrative (pp. 91–104). Leiden: Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker, M. (2007). Widening participation in higher education: Lifelong learning as capability. In D. N. Aspin (Ed.), Philosophical perspectives on lifelong learning (pp. 131–147). Dordrecht: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Weller, S., & Mahbubul, A. (2018). The student role in quality: From data source to partner and back again. In R. Ellis & E. Hogard (Eds.), Handbook of quality assurance for university teaching (pp. 196–207). London: Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

    Ameena Khan Sullivan & Marion Heron

Authors
  1. Ameena Khan Sullivan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Marion Heron
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marion Heron .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Higher Education, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

    Karen Gravett

  2. Doctoral College, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

    Nadya Yakovchuk

  3. Department of Higher Education, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

    Ian M. Kinchin

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Sullivan, A.K., Heron, M. (2020). Student–Staff Partnerships in Higher Education as Process and Approach. In: Gravett, K., Yakovchuk, N., Kinchin, I. (eds) Enhancing Student-Centred Teaching in Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35396-4_21

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35396-4_21

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-35395-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-35396-4

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation