In Engaging Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching, Cook-Sather, Bovill and Felton define student partnership as:
“a collaborative, reciprocal process through which all participants have the opportunity to contribute equally, although not necessarily in the same ways, to curricular or pedagogical conceptualisation, decision making, implementation, investigation or analysis” (p.6-7).
Instead of offering a prescriptive definition of partnership, Healey, Flint and Harrington consider partnerships to be based on the following values: authenticity, inclusivity, reciprocity, empowerment, trust, challenge, community & responsibility. They note that:
“partnership within learning and teaching is understood as highly contextual and influenced by many factors, including the experiences and expertise of partners involved, the culture and history of the setting for partnership (e.g. the course, department, institution, students’ union) and the wider social and political context of higher education” (p.14).
Staff-student partnership is part of a continuum of student engagement that encompasses a range of different ways staff and students can work together. These forms of collaboration may be appropriate for different projects, or at different stages of a project.
Partnerships can be formed between between staff and students, or between students and their peers. They can form part of specific projects, or become an approach to existing forms of student engagement. Common forms or locations of partnership include:
- Co-creation of the curriculum
- Co-creation within the curriculum
- Educational research and evaluation
- Disciplinary research
- Enhancing the wider student experience.