Reimagining the place of students in academic development

ABSTRACT

As calls for student-staff partnership proliferate across higher education, academic development must re-examine and reimagine its relationship to students. Students generally occupy roles with limited agency in academic development. We argue that this needs to change. We propose re-articulating the purpose of academic development toward the creation of conditions that liberate everyone involved in teaching and learning in higher education. We offer four vignettes that illustrate what is possible when students have the opportunity to embrace their essential roles. We conclude by reflecting on the human implications of student agency in academic development and higher education more broadly.

KEYWORDS:

• Students as partners
• student positionality
• agency
• cultural change
• critical pedagogy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Peter Felten

Peter Felten is a professor of History, Assistant Provost for Teaching and Learning, and Executive Director of the Center for Engaged Learning at Elon University in the USA. His current research focuses on the influence of human relationships, and on individual and institutional change, in undergraduate education.

Sophia Abbot

Sophia Abbot is a masters student in Higher Education at Elon University, and a graduate apprentice in the Center for Engaged Learning. Her current practice and research focuses on developing curricular student-faculty partnerships and expanding the ethos of partnership to other practices in higher education.

Jordan Kirkwood

Jordan Kirkwood is an Apprentice Higher Education Manager at Aston University in Birmingham, UK. He developed an interest in academic development and student experience as Education and Welfare Officer at Aston Students’ Union. He has continued his work in this area at Aston, as well as during his secondments with the University of Birmingham, Elon University, and Warwick University.

Aaron Long

Aaron Long is a Ph.D. candidate in the English Department at the University of Kansas, USA. His dissertation research focuses on mechanical animal bodies in nineteenth-century literature and his teaching research focuses on how games enhance learning and enrich classroom culture.

Tanya Lubicz-Nawrocka

Tanya Lubicz-Nawrocka is a PhD Candidate at the Moray House School of Education at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Her research focuses on the ways in which student engagement and co-creation of the curriculum advance students’ and staff members’ aims in higher education.

Lucy Mercer-Mapstone

Lucy Mercer-Mapstone is a Lecturer in Higher Education Learning Design at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Her research and practice focuses on student engagement and student-staff partnership in higher education.

Roselynn Verwoord

Roselynn Verwoord is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada. She works as a Curriculum Consultant at the UBC Centre for Teaching Learning and Technology and as an instructor in teacher education, adult education, and early-childhood education. Her research interests include student engagement, teacher inquiry, and comparative and international education.