Enacting student partnership as though we really mean it: Some Freirean principles for a pedagogy of partnership
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v2i2.3509Keywords:
students as partners, pedagogy of partnership, Paulo Freire, critical pedagogy, higher educationAbstract
The idea of student-staff partnership working is becoming increasingly popular in higher education. However, there is a risk that, as the idea spreads, the radical nature of partnership working can be diluted and domesticated by established power structures. This article explores the theoretical and practical implications of adopting approaches to partnership working informed by the ideas of Paulo Freire. This is partnership working with a political point—consciously seeking to resist the forces of neoliberalism and any attempts to domesticate partnership to that paradigm. Instead, a pedagogy of partnership, informed by Freire, is juxtaposed with neoliberal domesticated partnership, and six principles are offered for enacting partnership as though we really mean it.
Downloads
References
Antonucci, L. (2016). Student lives in crisis: deepening inequality in times of austerity. Bristol: Policy Press.
Arendt, H. (2006). Between past and future: eight exercises in political thought. London: Penguin.
hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: education as the practice of freedom. London: Routledge.
Bengtson, C., Ahlkvist, M., Ekeroth, W., Nilsen-Moe, A., Proos Vedin, N., Rodiuchkina, K., Ye, S., & Lundberg, M. (2017). Working as partners: course development by a student–teacher team. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 11(2), 1-9. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2017.110206
Bovill, C. (2013). Students and staff co-creating curricula—a new trend or an old idea we never got round to implementing? In C. Rust, Improving student learning through research and scholarship: 20 years of ISL. (pp. 96-108) Oxford: OCSLD.
Bovill, C., Cook-Sather, A., Felten, P., Millard, L., & Moore-Cherry, N. (2016). Addressing potential challenges in co-creating learning and teaching: overcoming resistance, navigating institutional norms and ensuring inclusivity in student-staff partnerships. Higher Education, 71(2), 195-208. Retrieved from: https://doi:10.1007/s10734-015-9896-4
Bovill, C., & Felten, P. (2016). Cultivating student–staff partnerships through research and practice. International Journal for Academic Development, 21(1), 1-3. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2016.1124965
Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: priorities of the professoriate. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Cahill, D. (2012). The embedded neoliberal economy. In D. Cahill, L. Edwards, & F. Stilwell. Neoliberalism: beyond the free market. (pp. 110-27) Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
Callender, C., & Scott, P. (2013) ‘Browne and Beyond: Modernizing English Higher Education’. Bedford Way Papers. London: IOE Press Retrieved from: http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10017608
Campbell, E., & Lassiter, L. (2010). From collaborative ethnography to collaborative pedagogy: Reflections on the other side of Middletown project and community–university research partnerships. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 41(4), 370-385. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1492.2010.01098.x
Cliffe, A., Cook-Sather, A., Healey, M., Healey, R., Marquis, E., Matthews, K. E., Mercer-Mapstone, L., Ntem, A., Puri, V., & Woolmer, C. (2017). Launching a journal about and through Students as Partners. International Journal for Students as Partners, 1(1) 1-9 Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v1i1.3194
Coates, H. (2007). A model of online and general campus‐based student engagement. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 32(2), 121-141. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930600801878
Cockell, J. McArthur-Blair, J., with Schiller, M. (2013). Appreciative inquiry in Higher Education: a transformative force. London: Wiley.
Collini, S. (2012). What are universities for? London: Penguin.
Cook-Sather, A. (2007). Resisting the impositional potential of student voice work: Lessons for liberatory educational research from poststructuralist feminist critiques of critical pedagogy. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 28(3), 389-403. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1080/01596300701458962
Cooperrider, D., & Whitney, D. (2005). Appreciative inquiry: A positive revolution in change. Oakland: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Davis, A. (2013, February 13). A lecture delivered at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s8QCucFADc
Dwyer, A. (2018). Toward the formation of genuine partnership spaces. International Journal for Students as Partners, 2(1), 11-15. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v2i1.3503
Farndale, N. (2010, July 6). Noam Chomsky interview. The Telegraph. Retrieved from: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/7865508/Noam-Chomsky-interview.html
Fairfield, P. (2009). Education after Dewey. London: Bloomsbury.
Felten, P. (2017). Emotions and partnerships. International Journal for Students as Partners, 1(2), 1-5. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v1i2.3070
Furedi, F. (2011). Introduction. In M. Molesworth, E. Nixon, & R. Scullion. The marketization of Higher Education and the student as consumer. London: Routledge. (pp.1-8)
Furedi, F. (2015). Academic authority in Higher Education. In J. Lea. Enhancing learning and teaching in Higher Education. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press. (pp.165-167)
Fielding, M. (2011). Patterns of partnership: Student voice, intergenerational learning and democratic fellowship. In N. Mockler, & J. Sachs. Rethinking educational practice through reflexive inquiry. (pp. 61-75) Dordrecht: Springer.
Fielding, M., & Moss, P. (2011). Radical education and the common school: A democratic alternative. London: Routledge.
Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of the oppressed (revised). London: Penguin.
Freire, P. (1997). Pedagogy of the heart. New York: Continuum.
Freire, P. (2007). Daring to dream: Toward a pedagogy of the unfinished. Boulder, USA: Paradigm Publishers.
Freire, P. (2014). Pedagogy of hope. London: Bloomsbury.
Frison, D., & Melacarne, C. (2017). Students-faculty partnership in Italy: Approaches, practices, and perspectives. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 20 (Special Issue). Retrieved from: https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss20/
Giroux, H. (2009). Critical theory and educational practice. In A. Darder, M. Baltodano, & R. Torres. (Ed) The critical pedagogy reader. (pp. 27-51) New York: Routledge.
Healey, M. (2018). Students as Partners and Change Agents: A selected bibliography. Retrieved from: www.mickhealey.co.uk/resources
Healey, M., Flint, A., & Harrington, K. (2014). Developing Students as Partners in learning and teaching in Higher Education. York: Higher Education Academy.
Higher Education Academy. (2016). Framework for student engagement through partnership. York: HEA. Retrieved from https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/downloads/student-enagagement-through-partnership.pdf
Hodgson, N., Vlieghe, J., & Zamojski, P. (2018) Education and the love for the world: articulating a post-critical educational philosophy. Foro de Educación, 16(24), 7-20. Retrieved from: http://dx.doi.org/10.14516/fde.576
Hughes, K. (1998). Liberation? Domestication? Freire and feminism in the university. Convergence,31(1), 137-146.
Kadi-Hanifi, K., Dagman, O., Peters, J., Snell, E., Tutton, C., & Wright, T. (2014). Engaging students and staff with educational development through appreciative inquiry. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 51(6), 584-594. Retrived from: https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2013.796719
Kahu, E. (2013). Framing student engagement in higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 38(5), 758-773. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2011.598505
Kehler, A., Verwoord, R., & Smith, H. (2017). We are the process: Reflections on the underestimation of power in Students as Partners in practice. International Journal for Students as Partners, 1(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v1i1.3176
Kuh, G. D. (2009). The national survey of student engagement: Conceptual and empirical foundations. New Directions for Institutional Research, 141, 5-20. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1002/ir.283
Le Grange, L. (2016). Decolonising the university curriculum. South African Journal of Higher Education, 30(2), 1-12. Retrieved from: https://doi:10.20853/30-2-709
Levitas, R. (2007). The imaginary reconstitution of society: Utopia as a method. In T. Moylan, and R. Baccolini. Utopia method vision: The use value of social dreaming. (pp. 47-68) Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang.
Levy, P., Little, S., & Whelan, N. (2011). Perspectives on staff-student partnership in learning, research and educational enhancement. In S. Little (Ed.). Staff-student partnerships in higher education (pp. 1-15) London: Continuum.
Locke, D. (2015). On Higher Education as transformative. In J. Lea. Enhancing learning and teaching in higher education (p. 178) Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Ludema, J., Cooperrider, D., & Barrett, F. (2001). Appreciative inquiry: The power of the unconditional positive question. In P. Reason & H. Bradbury. Handbook of action research. (pp. 189-199) London: Sage.
McLean, M. (2006). Pedagogy and the university: Critical theory and practice. London: Bloomsbury.
McWilliams, E. (2009). Teaching for creativity: from sage to guide to meddler. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 29(3), 281-293. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1080/02188790903092787
Matthews, K. E. (2016). Students as Partners as the future of student engagement. Student Engagement in Higher Education Journal, 1(1), 1-5. Retrieved from: https://journals.gre.ac.uk/index.php/raise
Matthews, K. E. (2017). Five propositions for genuine Students as Partners practice. International Journal for Students as Partners, 1(2) p.1-9. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v1i2.3315
Matthews, K. E., Dwyer, A., Hine, L., & Turner, J. (2018a). Conceptions of Students as Partners. Higher Education, 1-15. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-018-0257-y
Matthews, K. E., Dwyer, A., Russell, S., & Enright, E. (2018b). It is a complicated thing: Leaders’ conceptions of Students as Partners in the neoliberal university. Studies in Higher Education. Retrieved from: https://doi:10.1080/03075079.2018.1482268
Maxwell, N. (2014). How universities can help create a wiser world: the urgent need for an academic revolution. Exeter, UK: Imprint Academic.
Mercer-Mapstone, L., Dvorakova, S. L., Matthews, K. E., Abbot, S., Cheng, B., Felten, P., Knorr, K., Marquis, E., Shammas, R., & Swaim, K. (2017). A systematic literature review of Students as Partners in higher education. International Journal for Students as Partners, 1(1), 1-23. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v1i1.3119
Molesworth, M., Nixon, E., & Scullion, R. (2009). Having, being and higher education: The marketisation of the university and the transformation of the student into consumer. Teaching in Higher Education, 14(3), 277-287. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1080/13562510902898841
Molesworth, M., Scullion, R., & Nixon, E. (2010). The marketisation of higher education and the student as consumer. London: Routledge.
Naidoo, R., & Williams, J. (2015). The neoliberal regime in English higher education: Charters, consumers and the erosion of the public good. Critical Studies in Education, 56(2), 208-223. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2014.939098
Neary, M. (2012). Beyond teaching public: The university as a form of social knowing. In H. Stevenson, L. Bell, & M. Neary (Ed.). Towards teaching in public: Reshaping the modern university. (pp. 148-164) London: Continuum.
NUS. (2012). A Manifesto for Partnership. Retrieved from: https://www.nus.org.uk/PageFiles/12238/A%20Manifesto%20for%20Partnership.pdf
Obama, B. (2004, July 27). Keynote Address 2004 Democratic National Convention, Fleet Center, Boston, MA. Retrieved from: http://p2004.org/demconv04/obama072704spt.html
Obama, B. (2008a). The Audacity of Hope. Canongate Books: Edinburgh.
Obama, B. (2008b, November 4). Election Night Victory Speech, Grant Park, Illinois. Retrieved from: http://obamaspeeches.com/E11-Barack-Obama-Election-Night-Victory-Speech-Grant-Park-Illinois-November-4-2008.htm
Olssen, M., & Peters, M. A. (2005). Neoliberalism, higher education and the knowledge economy: From the free market to knowledge capitalism. Journal of Education Policy, 20(3), 313-345. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1080/02680930500108718
O’Neill, G., & McMahon, S. (2012). Giving student groups a stronger voice: Using participatory research and action (PRA) to initiate change to a curriculum. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 49(2), 161-171. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2012.677656
Orr, D. (1994). Earth in mind: On education, environment and the human prospect. Washington, DC: Island Press.
Patrick, F. (2013). Neoliberalism, the knowledge economy, and the learner: Challenging the inevitability of the commodified self as an outcome of education. ISRN Education, 2013. Retrieved from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/108705
Peters, J. (2018). The pedagogies of partnership: From Blair to Freire? In A. Melling and R. Pilkington. Paulo Freire and transformative education (pp. 175-189). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Peters, J. (2016). The pedagogy of partnership: Six principles for action. Educational Developments, 17(4), 8-9 [December]. Retrieved from: https://www.seda.ac.uk/past-issues/17.4
Quality Assurance Agency. (2012). UK Quality Code for Higher Education: Part B, Assuring and enhancing academic quality; chapter 5: Student engagement. Retrieved from: https://www.qaa.ac.uk/quality-code/the-existing-uk-quality-code/part-b-assuring-and-enhancing-academic-quality
Saunders, D. B. (2010). Neoliberal ideology and public higher education in the United States. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 8(1), 41-77. Retrieved from: http://www.jceps.com/archives/626
Saunders, D. B. (2015). They do not buy it: Exploring the extent to which entering first-year students view themselves as customers. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 25(1), 5-28. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1080/08841241.2014.969798
Seale, J., Gibson, S., Haynes, J., & Potter, A. (2015). Power and resistance: Reflections on the rhetoric and reality of using participatory methods to promote student voice and engagement in higher education. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 39(4), 534-553. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2014.938264
Singh, J. K. N. (2018). Evidence and benefits of postgraduate international students-staff members partnership in extra-curricular activities: A Malaysian perspective. Higher Education Research & Development. Retrieved from: https://doi:10.1080/07294360.2018.1436527
Smith, M. K. (1997, 2002). Paulo Freire and informal education. The Encyclopaedia of Informal Education. Retrieved from: http://infed.org/mobi/paulo-freire-dialogue-praxis-and-education/
Solnit, R. (2017) Protest and persist: Why giving up hope is not an option. The Guardian, 13th March 2017. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/13/protest-persist-hope-trump-activism-anti-nuclear-movement
Springer, S., Birch, K., & MacLeavy, J. (2016). The handbook of neoliberalism. London: Routledge.
Thompson, E. P. (1968). Education and Experience. Fifth Mansbridge Memorial Lecture. Leeds: Leeds University Press.
Thompson, E. P. (2014). Warwick university ltd. Spokesman Books.
Thompson, E. P. (1991). The making of the English working class. London: Penguin.
Trowler, V. (2010) Student Engagement Literature Review York: HEA Retrieved from: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/studentengagementliteraturereview_1.pdf
Tutton, C. & Snell, E. (2013). Student researchers as educational developers: Our journey. Educational Developments, 14(1), 11-13. Retrieved from: https://www.seda.ac.uk/past-issues/14.1
White, M. (2018). Student partnership, trust and authority in universities. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 50(2), 163-173. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2016.1153451
Whitehead, J. (1989). Creating a living educational theory from questions of the kind, ‘How do I improve my practice?’ Cambridge Journal of Education, 19(1), 41-52.
Williams, J. (2006). The pedagogy of debt. College Literature, 33(4), 155-169. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25115391
Zepke, N. (2018). Student engagement in neo-liberal times: What is missing? Higher Education Research and Development, 37(2), 433-446. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2017.1370440
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process - this applies to the submitted, accepted, and published versions of the manuscript. This can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access).