Toward theories of partnership praxis: an analysis of interpretive framing in literature on students as partners in teaching and learning

ABSTRACT

A body of literature on students as partners (SaP) in higher education has emerged over the last decade that documents, shares, and evaluates SaP approaches. As is typical in emerging fields of inquiry, scholars differ regarding how they see the relationship between the developments in SaP practices and the theoretical explanations that guide, illuminate, and situate such practices. In this article we explore the relationship between theory and practice in SaP work through an analysis of interpretive framing employed in scholarship of SaP in teaching and learning in higher education. Through a conceptual review of selected publications, we describe three ways of framing partnership that represent distinct but related analytical approaches: building on concepts; drawing on constructs; and imagining through metaphors. We both affirm the expansive and creative theorising in scholarship of SaP in university teaching and learning and encourage further deliberate use and thoughtful development of interpretive framings that take seriously the disruptive ethos and messy human relational processes of partnership. We argue that these developmental processes move us toward formulating theories of partnership praxis.

KEYWORDS:

• Students as partners
• student-staff partnerships
• theory
• theorising
• construct
• metaphor

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Sophia Abbot, Christine Black, Breagh Cheng, Mick Healey, Ruth Healey, Gali Katznelson, Sabrina Kirby, Kris Knorr, Alex Lerczak, Mythili Nair, Rafaella Shammas, Kelly Swaim, and Jarred Turner for their partnership in this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Kelly E. Matthews http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6563-4405

Elizabeth Marquis http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7362-678X