Summer Institute: Developing a Student-Faculty Partnership Program
May 22-23, 2018

This institute will focus on preparing Smith College faculty members to engage in pedagogical partnerships focused on bias interrupters and inclusive curricular development. Through an intensive, two-day workshop, we will:

  • Read and discuss relevant publications on student-faculty partnerships
  • Focus on the potential of partnerships to interrupt bias, support the creation of classrooms more welcoming to a diversity of students, and contribute to the design of inclusive curricula
  • Hear from students and faculty members about their experiences of and perspectives on learning, teaching, partnership, and the development of inclusive classrooms
  • Plan for engaging students as partners in teaching and learning via formal partnership and everyday pedagogical practice

Below is an overview of the plan for the two-day institute and the list of readings and when they are to be completed. Time is scheduled during the institute itself to read these texts, but you will get more out of the texts and the institute overall of you are able to read ahead and then revisit/reread during the institute.

Preparation:

  • Read selections on student-faculty pedagogical partnerships (see Appendix I). If you have time and inclination, read essays in Appendices II and III as well.

Day 1: 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.

Focus: Exploring theories and experiences of student-faculty partnerships

  1.  Introductions (9:00-9:15)
    • Name, department/program, why you applied/wanted to participate
  2.  What are student-faculty partnerships? (9:15-9:40)
    • Discussion of ways you already partner with students
    • Discussion of definitions, examples and other issues from the readings
    • How do you anticipate that your experiences of student-faculty pedagogical partnerships will be similar to and different from the ways you already partner with students?
  3.  Your hopes and hesitations (Take 1) (9:40-10:00)
    • Write briefly in response to these two questions
      • What particular hopes do you have for engaging student-faculty partnership through Smith’s pedagogical partnership program?
      • What trepidation or concerns do you have?
    • Talk as a group
  4.  Read general essays on partnership (10:00-10:45)
    • Each faculty member read one or more and be responsible for sharing key ideas and insights with others (see Appendix I)

Break (10:45-11:00)

  1. Read student essays (11:00-12:00)
    • Each faculty member read one or more and be responsible for sharing key ideas and insights with others (see Appendix II)

 Lunch (12:00-1:00)

 Focusing on the potential of partnerships to interrupt bias, support the creation of classrooms more welcoming to a diversity of students, and contribute to the design of inclusive curricula (1:00-3:00)

  1.  Reading Essays (1:00-1:30)
    • Each faculty member read one or more and be responsible for sharing key ideas and insights with others (see Appendix III)
  2. Discuss Essays (1:30-2:00)
    • What insights did you gain from the articles regarding the potential of partnership to interrupt bias and to create curricula and classrooms that are more inclusive?
    • What particular frames and practices highlighted in the readings did you find most promising?
    • How did what you read intersect with what students said? 
  3. Individual reflection/writing (2:00-2:15)
    • Jot initial ideas about possible foci for partnerships
  4. Discuss Ideas (2:15-3:00)

Recommended: Read as many as possible of the texts in Appendices I, II, and III before tomorrow’s sessions

Day 2: 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.

Focus: Gaining perspective on faculty as well as student experiences and making plans for partnership

  1. What ideas floated to the top over night? (9:00-9:15)
    • Were there particular insights, ideas, questions, etc. from yesterday’s readings and discussions that stuck with you and feel especially relevant/important/exciting?
  2. Read about faculty experiences (9:15-10:00)
    • Choose one or more selections and prepare to share key ideas and insights with others (Appendix IV)

Break (10:00-10:15)

  1. Read about logistics of partnership (10:15-11:00)
    • Each faculty member read one or more and be responsible for sharing key ideas and insights with others (see Appendix V)
    • Discuss insights from essays
    • Formulate questions for students and faculty
  2. Conversation with experienced student and faculty partners (11:00-12:00)

Lunch (12:00-1:00)

  1. Debriefing conversation with experienced partners (1:00-1:45)
  2. Planning next steps for 2018-2019 academic year (1:45-2:45)
    • Supports and constraints (1:45-2:15)
    • Selecting student consultants (2:15-2:30)
    • Strengths and challenges (2:30-2:45)
  3. Takeaways (2:45-3:00)

Appendix I: What are Student-Faculty Pedagogical Partnerships?

Cook-Sather, A. (2016).  Creating brave spaces within and through student-faculty pedagogical partnerships. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 18. https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss18/1

Cook-Sather, A., Bovill, C., & Felten, P. (2014). Chapter 1: What are student-faculty partnerships? Our guiding principles and definition and Chapter 2: Preliminary questions about student-faculty partnerships. In Engaging Students as Partners in Learning & Teaching: A Guide for Faculty. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Cook-Sather, A., & Felten, P. (2017). Ethics of academic leadership in teaching and learning. In Frank Wu and Margaret Wood (Eds.), Cosmopolitan Perspectives on Becoming an Academic Leader in Higher Education. London: Bloomsbury Series.

Matthews, K. E. (2017). Five propositions for genuine students as partners practice. International Journal of Students as Partners, 1(2).

Volk, S. (2016). Student-faculty partnerships: Collaborating to improve teaching and learning. https://steven-volk.blog/2016/05/02/student-faculty-partnerships-collaborating-to-improve-teaching-and-learning/

Recommended:

Gärdebo, J., & M. Wiggberg. (2012). Importance of student participation in future academia. In J. Gärdebo and M. Wiggberg (Eds.), Students, the university’s unspent resource: Revolutionising higher education using active student participation (pp. 7–14). Pedagogical Development Report 12. Report series from the Division for Development of Teaching and Learning. Uppsala, Sweden: Univ. of Uppsala.

Healey, M., Flint, A. & Harrington, K. (2014). Students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education. York: Higher Education Academy.

Allin, L. (2014). Collaboration between staff and students in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: The potential and the problems. Teaching and Learning Inquiry 2, 1: 95–102.

Cook-Sather, A. (2014). Student-faculty partnership in explorations of pedagogical practice: A threshold concept in academic development. International Journal for Academic Development, 19, 3, 186-198.  DOI:10.1080/1360144X.2013.805694.

Cook-Sather, A., & Luz, A. (2015). Greater engagement in and responsibility for learning: What happens when students cross the threshold of student-faculty partnership. Higher Education Research & Development, 34, 6, 1097-1109.

Crawford, K. (2012). Rethinking the student-teacher nexus: Students as consultants on teaching in higher education. In Towards teaching in public: Reshaping the modern university. Edited by M. Neary, H. Stevenson, and L. Bell, 52–67. London: Continuum.

Appendix II: Student Essays and Experiences

 Abbott, C. (2016). Leaping and landing in brave spaces. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 18. https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss18/4/

Brunson, M. (2018). The formation and power of trust: How it was created and enacted through collaboration.  Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 23.  https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss23/2

Colón García, A. (2017). Building a sense of belonging through pedagogical partnership. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 22http://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss22/2

Cunningham, E. (2012). The power of sharing the student perspective: Benefits to faculty and to student consultants. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 6. https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss6/5/

Daviduke, N. (2018). Growing into pedagogical partnerships over time and across disciplines: My experience as a non-STEM student consultant in STEM courses. International Journal for Students as Partners, 2 (2). https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v2i2.3443

Larson, M. (2012). Making gratitude explicit. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 6. https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss6/7/

McInnes, R. (2014). Reciprocal support and shared empowerment. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 11. https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss11/9/

Pallant, M. (2014). The dynamics of expertise. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 11. https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss11/2/

Robertson, A.D., Eppard, E. P., Goodhew, L. M., Maaske, E. L., Sabo, H. C., Stewart, F. C., Tuell, D. L., & Wenzinger, S. T. (2014). Being a Seattle Pacific University learning assistant: A transformative experience of listening and being heard. APS Physics.

Wolkoff, A. (2014). Teaching and learning as learning to be: Finding my place and voice as a leader. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 11. https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss11/4/

Appendix III: Toward More Inclusive and Responsive Classrooms

Cook-Sather, A. (2018b). Listening to equity-seeking perspectives: How students’ experiences of pedagogical partnership can inform wider discussions of student success. Higher Education Research and Development.

 Cook-Sather, A., & Des-Ogugua, C. (2018). Lessons we still need to learn on creating more inclusive and responsive classrooms: Recommendations from one student-faculty partnership program. International Journal of Inclusive Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2018.1441912

Cook-Sather, A., & P. Agu. (2013). Students of color and faculty members working together toward culturally sustaining pedagogy. In To Improve the academy: Resources for faculty, instructional, and organizational development. Vol. 32. Edited by J. E. Groccia and L. Cruz, 271–285. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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.

Martinez-Cola, M., with English, R., Min, J., Peraza, J., Tambah, J. (2018). When pedagogy is painful: Teaching in tumultuous times. Teaching Sociology, 46, 2, 97–111.

Perez, K. (2016). Striving toward a space for equity and inclusion in physics classrooms. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 18.

Tanner, K. (2013). Structure matters: Twenty-one teaching strategies to promote student engagement and cultivate classroom equityLife Sciences Education.

“Teaching in Racially Diverse Classrooms” (from Harvard’s Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning)

“Creating an Identity-Safe Classroom” (advice from University of Michigan’s Center for Research on Learning and Teaching)

Cheung, F. (2015). Valuing half-formed thoughts in class discussions. (from Bellarmine University Teaching Tip Archive)

Online only

Appendix IV: Faculty Essays and Experiences

 Abbott, C., & Been, L. E.  (2017). Strategies for transforming a classroom into a brave and trusting learning community: A dialogic approach. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 22. https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss22/3  [psychology]

Binder, C. (2016). Practicing virtue in teaching and learning. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 18.  https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss18/5  [economics]

Conner, J. (2012). Steps in walking the talk: How working with a student consultant helped me integrate student voice more fully into my pedagogical planning and practice. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 6. https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss6/6/  [education]

Luker, M., & Morris, B. (2016). Five things I learned from working with the student-consultants for teaching and learning program. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 17. https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss17/2/ [music]

Mulligan, B. (2011). Meditations on a “taut but happy” class. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 2. https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss2/4/ [classics]

Reckson, L. V. (2014). The weather in Hemingway. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 11. https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss11/6/  [literary studies]

Rose, E., & Taylor, C. (2016). Using a Student Consultant in a Computer Science Course: An Experience Report. Proceedings of the upcoming Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE 16)

Schlosser, J. & Sweeney, A. (2015). One year of collaboration: Reflections on student-faculty partnershipTeaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 15. https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss15/2/   [political science]

Wagner-McCoy, S., & Schwartz, E. (2016).  Gaining new perspectives on discussion-based classes in English and the humanities. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 17https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss17/3

Appendix V: Approaches and Artifacts

Overview of Pedagogical Approaches

Cook-Sather, A., Bahti, M., & Ntem, A. (2019). Pedagogical Partnerships: A How-To Guide for Faculty, Students, and Academic Developers in Higher Education. Elon, NC: Elon University Center for Engaged Learning. https://www.CenterforEngagedLearning.org/books/pedagogical-partnerships.

Guidelines

Smith College Faculty Guidelines for Working with Student Consultants

Summary of student consultants’ approaches

Cook-Sather, A., & Motz-Storey, D. (2016). Viewing teaching and learning from a new angle: Student consultants’ perspectives on classroom practice. College Teaching.

Midsemester feedback

Cook-Sather, A. (2009). From traditional accountability to shared responsibility: The benefits and challenges of student consultants gathering midcourse feedback in college classrooms. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 34, 2: 231–241.

Walker, A. (2012). The mid-semester challenge: Filtering the flow of student feedback. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 6.

Mapping classroom interactions

Abbot, S., Cook-Sather, A., & Hein, C. (2014). Mapping classroom interactions: A spatial approach to analyzing patterns of student participation. To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development 33, 2.

Corbin, K. A. (2014). Get out the map: The use of participation mapping in planning and assessment. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 11.