Navigating power dynamics in student-staff partnerships
Applying equityXdesign principles in the co-design of a South African leadership programme
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v9i2.5961Keywords:
student-staff partnerships, higher education, South Africa, equity-oriented learning design, equityXdesign, transformationAbstract
The idea of co-creating curricula with students has gained momentum in recent years to challenge conventional power relationships within universities through amplification of student voice and advocacy for meaningful student participation in teaching, research, and service. This is a necessary response to facilitate higher education transformation through curriculum reform grounded in students’ lived experiences. This paper explores a student-led process to design a new leadership academy at a large research-intensive university in the Western Cape, South Africa, a context characterised by pronounced disparities in power. The paper brings the literature on student-staff partnerships and equity-oriented learning design into conversation. Based on feedback from the student facilitators involved in designing the creation of this student leadership academy framed by principles developed by the equityXdesign cooperative, we will reflect on how these student-led design spaces can both catalyse transformation and render students vulnerable. The study’s findings have implications for curriculum design and development in higher education, particularly in contexts characterised by significant power disparities.
Downloads
References
Acai, A., Mercer-Mapstone, L., & Guitman, R. (2022). Mind the (gender) gap: Engaging students as partners to promote gender equity in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 27(1), 18–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2019.1696296
Ameyaa, R. A., Cook-Sather, A., Ramo, K., & Tohfa, H. M. (2021). Undergraduate students partnering with staff to develop trauma-informed, anti-racist pedagogical approaches: Intersecting experiences of three student partners. The Journal of Educational Innovation, Partnership and Change, 7(1). https://journals.studentengagement.org.uk/index.php/studentchangeagents/article/view/1020
Alhadad, S. S. J., Vasco, D., Williams, J. C., Dizon, P., Kapnias, R. L., Khan, S. B., Payne, H., Simpson, B. C., & Warren, C. D. (2021). Learning, unlearning, and relearning together: Unmasking power in a students as partners program using collaborative autoethnography. Student Success, 12(2), 38–50. https://doi.org/10.5204/ssj.1934
Bhabha, H. (1994). The location of culture. Routledge.
Bovill, C., & Bulley, C. J. (2011). A model of active student participation in curriculum design: Exploring desirability and possibility. In Rust, C. (Ed.), Improving student learning (18): Global theories and local practices: Institutional, disciplinary and cultural variations (pp. 176–188). The Oxford Centre for Staff and Educational Development. Proceedings of the 2010 18th International Symposium/ISSOTL Conference, 19-22 October, Liverpool.
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, 195–208. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-015-9896-4
Bovill, C. (2019). Student–staff partnerships in learning and teaching: An overview of current practice and discourse. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 43(4), 385-398.Butler, S. M., & Diaz, C. (2016, September 14). “Third places” as community builders. The Brookings Institute. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/third-places-as-community-builders/#:~:text=Third%20places%20is%20a%20term,good%20time%2C%20and%20build%20relationships.
Calabrese Barton, A., & Tan, E. (2019). Designing for rightful presence in STEM: The role of making present practices. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 28(4-5), 616–658.
Cook-Sather, A., & Abbot, S. (2016). Translating partnerships: How faculty-student collaboration in explorations of teaching and learning can transform perceptions, terms, and selves. Teaching and Learning Inquiry, 4(2), 36–49. https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.4.2.5
Cook‐Sather, A., & Agu, P. (2013). Student consultants of color and faculty members working together toward culturally sustaining pedagogy. To improve the academy, 32(1), 271–285. http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/tia.17063888.0032.020
Cook-Sather, A., Bovill, C., & Felten, P. (2014). Engaging students as partners in learning and teaching: A guide for faculty. John Wiley & Sons.
Costanza-Chock, S. (2020). Design justice: Community-led practices to build the worlds we need. The MIT Press.
Cutting, K., & Hedenborg, E. (2019). Can Personas Speak? Biopolitics in Design Processes. Companion Publication of the 2019 on Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2019 Companion, 153–157. https://doi.org/10.1145/3301019.3323911
de Bie, A., Marquis, E., Cook-Sather, A., & Luqueño, L. P. (2021). Promoting equity and justice through pedagogical partnership. Stylus Publishing.
de Bie, A. (2022). Respectfully distrusting 'Students as Partners' practice in higher education: Applying a Mad politics of partnership. Teaching in Higher Education, 27(6), 717–737. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2020.1736023
equityXdesign (2016, November 15). Racism and inequity are products of design. They can be redesigned. Medium. https://medium.com/equity-design/racism-and-inequity-are-products-of-design-they-can-be-redesigned-12188363cc6a
Gachago, D., Bali, M., & Pallitt, N. (2022). Compassionate learning design as a critical approach to instructional. In J. Quinn, M. Burtis, S. Jhangiani, & R. DeRosa (Eds.), Towards a critical instructional design design. Pressbook. https://criticalinstructionaldesign.pressbooks.com/chapter/compassionate-learning-design-as-a-critical-approach-to-instructional-design/
Guzman, C. M. O. (2017). equityXdesign: Leveraging identity development in the creation of an anti-racist equitable design thinking process [Doctoral Dissertation, Harvard University]. DASH: Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard. https://dash.harvard.edu/entities/publication/73120379-418a-6bd4-e053-0100007fdf3b
Immenga, C., & Redelinghuys, D. P. (2023). Harnessing the student experience for inclusive online learning design. In T. Jaffer, S. Govender, & L. Czerniewicz (Eds.), Learning design voice. EdTech Books. https://doi.org/10.59668/279.10566
Jaga, A., Gachago, D., & Farista, F. (2025). Learning design process to decolonise people management. In M. K. Ralarala, S. Pillay, Z. Bock, & R. H. Kaschula (Eds.), Unlocking the chains of knowledge (pp. 33-50). AFRICAN SUN MeDIA.
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
Kumalo, S. H. (2024). Pedagogic obligations towards a decolonial and contextually responsive approach to teaching philosophy in South Africa. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 58(2-3), 242-262.Lubicz-Nawrocka, T. (2017). Co-creation of the curriculum: Challenging the status quo to embed partnership. The Journal of Educational Innovation, Partnership and Change, 3(2), 1. https://journals.studentengagement.org.uk/index.php/studentchangeagents/article/view/529
Massey, D. (2009). Concepts of space and power in theory and in political practice. Documents d'anàlisi geogràfica, 55, 15–26.
Matthews, K. E., & Dollinger, M. (2023). Student voice in higher education: The importance of distinguishing student representation and student partnership. Higher Education, 85(3), 555–570. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00851-7
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. https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v1i1.3119
Mercer-Mapstone, L., & Bovill, C. (2020). Equity and diversity in institutional approaches to student–staff partnership schemes in higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 45(12), 2541–2557. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1620721
O'Connor, M. R., Beard, K. V., van Ryn, M., Inevil, S. G., Palacios, L., Strauss, A., ... & de Castro, B. (2024). Using equityXdesign to develop nursing curricula: the implicit bias clinical teaching program case study. Nurse Educator, 49(1), 57-59.
Werder, C., & Otis, M. (Eds). (2010). Engaging student voices in the study of teaching and learning. Stylus.
Werder, C., Thibou, S., & Kaufer, B. (2012). Students as co-inquirers: A requisite threshold concept in educational development?. The Journal of Faculty Development, 26(3), 34–38.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Esai Reddy, Joe-Dean Roberts, Tefo Mosienyane, Daniela Gachago, Abigail Tshiamala, Shalom Abiodun, Christine Immenga, Charmaine January
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International 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).
