The International Journal for Students as Partners (IJSaP)

International Journal for Students as Partners: Call for replacement faculty and student co-editors from McMaster University

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a faculty/staff member and a student from McMaster to join the Editorial Board of the International Journal for Students as Partners (IJSaP) – the leading journal dedicated to promoting international research and discussions about student-staff partnerships.

The successful applicants will join the existing Editorial Board, which consists of five other student-staff teams in Australia, China, Hong Kong, United Kingdom and United States, plus a senior editor, editorial manager, and communications officer.

IJSaP is an open access journal published twice a year by McMaster University Press. It is supported by the MacPherson Institute at McMaster. Further details are available at: https://mulpress.mcmaster.ca/ijsap. IJSaP publishes articles, reflective essays, case studies, opinion pieces and reviews about partnership between students and others in higher education focused on explorations, practices, policies, and analyses of teaching and learning.

The journal is co-edited by students and staff/faculty and is run on partnership principles. The ethos of student-faculty/staff partnership is something that is a distinctive feature of the journal. IJSaP explores established and emerging perspectives, practices, and policies regarding how students and staff (used here and subsequently to refer to academic staff/faculty, professional staff, and other stakeholders) are working in partnership to enhance learning and teaching in higher education. The journal was founded in 2016, and the first issue was published in 2017.

Student-staff partnership describes a process in which students collaborate actively with staff in higher education to advance pedagogical activities such as curriculum design, pedagogic consultancy, subject- based research, or the scholarship of teaching and learning. The goal of such work is to disrupt traditional teacher-learner hierarchies, and to promote active student- staff collaboration on teaching and learning.

The positions We welcome and recognise the diversity of skills and experiences students and staff may bring to the role of co-editors. Applications for appointment to the EB should ideally come from a student-staff partnership (one student, one staff). However, individual applications will be accepted, and if appointed, a second appointment stage may be undertaken to identify a suitable partner. Both team members should be based at McMaster University.

The positions are for three years, though they may be renewable in agreement with the EB. We recognise that, given the transitional nature of student identity, some students may not be able to commit for more than around 18 months. Student members may remain on the EB up to two years after graduation.

Initially the pair will take responsibility for seeing research articles through the review process,

but they are likely to be asked later to support some of the other writing genres as well. The team will be expected to take a full role in developing the journal, including participation in policy decisions and EB meetings3. Mentoring support will be provided by other EB members. We are flexible about how country teams work in partnership together; each of the other teams does things slightly differently, but we expect all teams to work in partnership as demonstrated by our values.

Values of IJSaP. The aims and aspirations of IJSaP are underpinned by a series of values. These translate into principles of how we operate as an editorial board, including our commitment to:

• Work openly and collaboratively toward shared goals to develop and deliver our high aspirations for IJSaP
• Operate as student-staff partnerships in sub-editorial teams, including making decisions through dialogue; appreciating that co-editors will contribute their expertise actively, although this may look different at different times; and be driven by the values of partnership
• Embrace the tensions and contradictions of aspiring to quality while imagining new ways of considering quality of a first-choice academic journal

Aims and aspirations for IJSaP

• Provide space for researchers and practitioners to explore new perspectives, practices, and policies regarding how students and academic staff/faculty, professional staff, and other stakeholders are working in partnership to enhance learning and teaching in higher education
• Encourage high quality and diverse membership of the review panel from experienced and inexperienced students and staff from a range of countries, so as to include new voices, and extend the reach of IJSaP internationally
• Pursue and promote methodological pluralism and multiple approaches to discussing, writing and evidencing students as partners scholarship
• Give high levels of support to our authors, reviewers, members of the editorial board and international advisory group, and guest editors
• Operate sustainably and inclusively via an incremental change approach
• Develop practices for publishing that others will aspire to emulate
• Promote wide awareness and readership of the journal

Selection criteria

All applicants should:

• Demonstrate how they can contribute to the aims, aspirations, and values of IJSaP
• Demonstrate knowledge/understanding of field of students as partners, for example, through participation in partnerships (or developing them) and/or through publishing/presenting in this area.
• Be committed to working closely in partnership with their team member and the other members of the EB
• Be willing to contribute the required effort (additional time) to publishing a journal running as a partnership between students and staff
• Have sensitivity/flexibility to differing workloads throughout the year (within and across teams) and for engagement in meetings across different time zones
• Be based at McMaster University

The student-staff team should between them:

• Have experience of practicing, researching, and publishing in the students as partners area
• Ideally be recognised as contributors to the students as partners field beyond McMaster
• Ideally have editing experience

The student team member should:

• Be registered as a current undergraduate or graduate student at McMaster University

The staff team member should:

• Have significant experience of working in a postsecondary education institution(s) and negotiating the practical experience of teaching and/or supporting student learning

IJSaP is committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion, and seeks editorial team members who share this commitment. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply, and we particularly welcome applications from those who identify as members of equity-seeking groups.

Selection process Applications, and any queries, should be directed to ijsap@mcmaster.ca. The application should consist of a letter outlining how you as a student or member of staff in combination or individually meet the selection criteria, along with a maximum two-page CV each.

Further information Potential applicants are encouraged to contact Prof Mick Healey, Senior Editor (mhealey@glos.ac.uk), or Antonio Dos Santos, Editorial Manager (ijsap@mcmaster.ca), for an informal discussion about the role.

Please address any queries about the application process to the Editorial Manager (ijsap@mcmaster.ca).

Timeframe

• Announce call for applications – Nov 11, 2021
• Deadline for applications – Dec 3, 2021
• Notification of decision on applications – Dec 22, 2021
• Start date – to commence ASAP in Winter 2022 (preference for start around Jan 3, 2022

Notes

1. Staff is defined broadly to include faculty, academics, professional staff and educational developers who have responsibilities for teaching and/or supporting learning of students in higher education. Post- doctoral fellows are normally included as staff.
2. Students are defined as registered to study at undergraduate or postgraduate level in a higher education institution. Once appointed students may, where appropriate, continue as co-editors for up to two years after graduating.
3. In order to accommodate several different time zones editorial board meetings may take place outside of normal working hours. Applicants should be prepared to participate in such meetings on average once every couple of months.

Please pass these details on to any colleagues whom you think may be interested.