Investigating interdisciplinarity in SaP programming
A 3-year retrospective study of student partnerships at McMaster University
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v8i2.5608Keywords:
Interdisciplinarity, Students as Partners, Partnered Teaching and Learning, Quantitative ResearchAbstract
In recent years, many universities across the world have been implementing students-as-partners (SaP) programs to collaborate with students on teaching and learning projects. Within these SaP programs, for the benefits that cross-disciplinary learning brings, interdisciplinary partnership has been made a priority. To assess the extent to which interdisciplinarity has occurred within a university’s SaP program, this study quantified the number of interdisciplinary partnerships that have occurred in the Student Partners program at McMaster University since 2020 and investigated the hiring practices within those partnerships. Results showed that certain faculties comparatively did not have as many interdisciplinary partnerships. Hiring practice analyses also revealed that there were faculties with a greater proportion of students applying to work with faculty/staff of the same faculty origin as themselves. This case study examines the variations in interdisciplinarity across faculties at McMaster University involved in a SaP program and explores ideas on future directions for enhancing interdisciplinarity in student partnerships.
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