New issue (5.1) of the International Journal for Students as Partners published

Read issue 5.1 here: https://mulpress.mcmaster.ca/ijsap/issue/view/425

The International Journal for Students as Partners (IJSaP) is a journal operating from the MacPherson Institute at McMaster University. It is focused on students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education. This may involve students working with a wide variety of potential partners (referred to as staff) including academic staff/faculty, professional staff, other students, and other stakeholders (including librarians, alumni, industry, and the community).

The practice of engaging with students as partners is ultimately about sharing power and responsibility through relational and dialogic processes. Partnership approaches include students and staff as active collaborators in initiatives where those involved have co-responsibility for the development, practice, analysis, affirmation, and revision of practices related to learning and teaching.

About this issue

Published in May 2021, this issue asks readers to consider a range of questions and topics related to students as partners. Some of these include: risk-taking in student partnership; diversity and expansiveness in academic writing and publishing in SoTL and students as partners; partnership as a tool to increase diversity and inclusion; cultivating student agency through partnership; and diversification within students as partners.

This issue includes contributions from McMaster authors, the addition of a new, exciting section called “Voices from the Field”. This section aimed to push beyond traditional boundaries and norms in academic publishing, and invited authors to contribute to a collective piece about diversifying students as partners participants and practices. “Voices from the Field” provided a low-barrier way for contributors to get involved in publication, as they were invited to contribute via an open call. Rather than going through the traditional steps of submission, review, and revision, authors and editors worked collaboratively to produce a final collective manuscript, which is creative, engaging, and accessible for readers.

Check out some quotes from this issue:

“Through reflexive approaches, like the cultural interface, appreciating holistic ways of knowledge, there is greater hope that partnership praxis becomes more inclusive by valuing indigenous ways of knowing.” Semos & Matthews, “Cross-cultural communication, exploration, and interpretation”, in “Diversifying students-as-partners participants and practices”, edited by Cook-Sather & Slates

“Some colleagues and policymakers felt that predetermined decisions (made by teachers) were necessary to move student-teacher projects forward and that relying on student volunteers was too risky. (…) For me it was important to make sense of, rather than dismiss, students’ position. (…) Through sharing responsibility for tasks and making collaborative decisions, students and teachers listened, considered and compromised.” Brennan, “The important risk-taking of advocating for student partnership practice”

“…understanding the challenges that underrepresented students face and developing a positive direction for the college’s curriculum going forward required authentic partnership and an openness to listening, learning, and collaborating.” Bunnell et al., “From protest to progress through partnership with students: Being Human in STEM (HSTEM)”