The Initiative for Students as Partners in Research and Education (InSPiRE)

A case study of engaged scholarship of teaching and learning

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v10i1.6770

Keywords:

student success, second-year research, co-curricular learning, community engaged scholarship, sotl

Abstract

The Initiative for Students as Partners in Research and Education (InSPiRE) research team and its work on the Second-Year Experience (SYE) project at The University of Texas at Austin (UT) created new opportunities for the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) to engage in student-centered co-curricular learning and research. Prior to their involvement in the InSPiRE team, none of the undergraduate students had experience with moving from initial conceptualizations of a social science research question through the stage of making their research public. By centering community, valuing process as product, embracing methodological pluralism, and making research labor visible, InSPiRE engaged CTL staff and university leaders and shaped conversations about the SYE and student success. In this case study, we use personal narratives to excavate central characteristics of the InSPiRE research and community-building process. 

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Taharka Anderson, The University of Texas at Austin

Taharka Anderson is a doctoral candidate in African & African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. His dissertation historicizes social constructions of Black masculinity within Western schooling contexts and employs qualitative methods to retrospectively explore how Black male college students experience, make sense of, and navigate punitive and exclusionary school discipline in the U.S.   

Ibrahim Bawa, The University of Texas at Austin

Ibrahim Bawa is a 4th-year undergraduate student in International Relations and Global Studies with a focus on the African diaspora at the University of Texas at Austin. His studies center on reconciling the impact of European foreign policy on post-colonized regions, particularly in understanding how colonial disruption contributes to modern conflicts and governmental instability. 

Heather Wright, The University of Texas at Austin

Dr. Heather Wright is the Assistant Director for Assessment, Evaluation, and Research in the Center for Teaching and Learning at The University of Texas at Austin and the Director and a co-founder of the InSPiRE research team. Dr. Wright is an engaged scholar, qualitative methodologist, and a human-centered systems thinker/designer. 

alice Kurima Newberry, The University of Texas at Austin

alice Kurima Newberry is a 4th-year PhD student in Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research centers on the lessons from Ryukyuan foodways and its resiliency within education and care practices.  

Samantha Tonini, The University of Texas at Austin

Samantha Tonini is a 3rd-year undergraduate student majoring in History and Sociology and minoring in American Sign Language at the University of Texas at Austin. She is also both a History Departmental Honors and Liberal Arts Honors student.  

References

Brooms, D. R. (2025). “Every day we wake up with something to prove”: Black misandry and Black men's experiences in navigating the college environment. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 11(1), 17–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/23326492241259982

Brooms, D. R., & Druery, J. E. (2023). Between the world and us: Black men navigating antiblackness at historically white institutions. Educational Studies, 59(4), 382–402. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131946.2023.2207696

Brown, A. (2018). From subhuman to human kind: Implicit bias, racial memory, and Black males in schools and society. Peabody Journal of Education, 93(1), 52–65. https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2017.1403176

Brown, A. L. (2021). Qualitative description and Black males: On race, the body, and researching the unimaginable. Qualitative Inquiry, 27(10), 1159–1168. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004211026893

Cook-Sather, A. (2015). Dialogue across differences of position, perspective, and identity: Reflective practice in/on a student-faculty pedagogical partnership program. Teachers College Record, 117. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811511700204

Cook-Sather, A., & Luz, A. (2015). Greater engagement in and responsibility for learning: What happens when students cross the threshold of student-faculty partnership. Higher Education Research and Development, 34(6), 1097–1109. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2014.911263

Curry, T. J. (2017). The man-not: Race, class, genre and the dilemmas of Black manhood. Temple University Press.

Matthews, K. E. (2017). Five propositions for genuine students as partners practice. International Journal for Students as Partners, 1(2), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v1i2.3315

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), 15–37. https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v1i1.3119

Middendorf, J., & Shopkow, L. (2023). Overcoming student learning bottlenecks: Decode the critical thinking of your discipline. Routledge.

Mills, A. J., Durepos, G., & Wiebe, E. (Eds.). (2010). Encyclopedia of case study research. SAGE.

Pitcan, M., Park-Taylor, J., & Hayslett, J. (2018). Black men and racial microaggressions at work. The Career Development Quarterly, 66(4), 300–314. https://doi.org/10.1002/cdq.12152

Smith, W. A., Yosso, T. J., & Solórzano, D. G. (2007). Racial primes and Black misandry on historically white campuses: Toward critical race accountability in educational administration. Educational Administration Quarterly, 43(5), 559–585. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X07307793

Turner, C., & Grauerholz, L. (2017). Introducing the invisible man: Black male professionals in higher education. Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, 1(39), 212–227. https://doi.org/10.55671/0160-4341.1013

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

2026-05-21

How to Cite

Anderson, T., Bawa, I., Wright, H., Newberry, alice K., & Tonini, S. (2026). The Initiative for Students as Partners in Research and Education (InSPiRE): A case study of engaged scholarship of teaching and learning . International Journal for Students as Partners, 10(1), 332–340. https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v10i1.6770

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 1 (2026)

Section

Case Studies

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Taharka Anderson, Ibrahim Bawa, Heather Wright, alice Kurima Newberry, Samantha Tonini

Creative Commons License

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). 

Most read articles by the same author(s)

  • Sarah Slates, Alison Cook-Sather, Sima Aghakhani, Ali Al-Humuzi, Dulce Alonso, Karin Borgstrom, Fiona Boyle, Chris Cachia, Elisabeth Carlson, Jonathan Cole, Tadhg Dennehy, Marie Väfors Fritz, Marlene Gadzirayi, Loretta Goff, Petri Gudmundsoon, Yang Han, Peter Hellman, Kal Holder, Sixun Hou, Julie Hughes, Jimmy Jennings, Wiki Jegliska, Amrita Kaur, Lu Kehan, Andrew Kelly, Carrie Lee, Constance Leonard, Rachael Lewitzky, Asia Majeed, Matthea Marquart, Joshua Marsden, Lia Marshall, Florina Matu, Tsholo Molefe, Yoko Mori, Nicola Morrell-Scott, Elizabeth Mullenger, Monica Obregon, Matt Pearce, Claire Pike, Hurshal Pol, Elena Riva, Caitlin Sands, Rachel Sinanan, Kelsey Smart, Sandra Smeltzer, Abi Spence, Teresa Maggard Stephens, Maria Stollenwerk, Kiu Sum, Josephine Van-Ess, Dustin Vick, Michael Wong, Heather Wright, Jasmine Wright, Wei Zou, How can students-as-partners work address challenges to student, faculty, and staff mental health and well-being? , International Journal for Students as Partners: Vol. 7 No. 2 (2023)