Reverberations: The Enduring Effects of Pedagogical Partnership Wall by

acooksat — 2024-10-30 09:35:56 UTC

I participated in the Students as Learners and Teachers (SaLT) program during my time as an undergraduate at Bryn Mawr College. I had the opportunity not only to work in partnership with faculty members. I was also invited to speak in 2017 at a Students-as-Partners Summer Institute at McMaster University (that’s me in the photo above, alongside Lucy Mercer-Mapstone) to celebrate the launch of a new journal focused on student-faculty partnership, International Journal for Students as Partners, for which I served as a co-editor for several years. I also wrote a chapter for The Power of Partnership, co-edited by Lucy Mercer-Mapstone and Sophia Abbot, called “Personal Growth through Traditional and Radical Partnerships,” and I co-authored Pedagogical Partnerships: A How-to Guide for Faculty, Students, and Academic Developers in Higher Education. These experiences shape my work every day as Deputy Chief of Staff at Democracy Prep Public Schools.
~ Anita Ntem Thomas

acooksat — 2024-10-30 10:17:22 UTC

The article above, published in 2014, was my first foray into the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). The invitation to co-author this article, focused on an approach I developed as a SaLT student consultant, was extended to me by Alison Cook-Sather when I was an undergraduate at Bryn Mawr College. As I write about in "SoTL Citizen: A Memoir of Home and Exile in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning," that invitation constituted the first in a series of moments in my development as a student SoTL scholar. A decade later, I hold the role of Faculty Development Specialist in SoTL at University of Rhode Island, where I can extend such invitations to other students. As Alison and I discussed in a presentation at ISSOTL '24, such invitations affirm students' perspectives, voices, and selves. They also inspire reverberations in the lives and work of many students who have engaged in pedagogical partnership through the SaLT program and in other contexts, resonating through multiple publications and presentations and, in my case, resounding fully in my choice of career.

~ Sophia Abbot

fcheung3 — 2024-11-02 19:04:12 UTC

Thanks to mentoring from Alison Cook-Sather, Smith College launched its Student-Faculty Pedagogical Partnership program in 2016 under the leadership of Floyd Cheung.

Publications by Smith partners include the following:

Audley, Shannon (2018). Partners as Scaffolds: Teaching in the Zone of Proximal Development.Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education: Iss. 24, https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss24/4

Halliday, Simon. (2019). Promoting an ethical economics classroom through partnership. International Journal for Students As Partners, 3(1), 182-189. https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v3i1.3623.

Wildhagen, T., & Jenkins, D. (2020). The will to collaborate across difference: Mining difference as a rich resource in a student-faculty pedagogical partnership. In A. Cook-Sather & C. Wilson (Eds.). Building courage, confidence, and capacity in learning and teaching through student-faculty partnership: Stories from across contexts and arenas of practice (pp. 1-9). Lexington Books.

2024-11-04 06:15:14 UTC

Alison Cook-Sather’s Students as Learners and Teachers (SaLT) program at Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges inspired me to replicate the model in Asian contexts. I undertook one pedagogic consultancy project with my postgraduate students at a Malaysian public university and later replicated this project at a Sino-American university in China. Both of these meaningful pedagogical consultancy projects were published as book chapters with my student partners, Toh Bing ( Malaysia) and Yusheng Tang ( I Sar).

The replications of students as pedagogical consultants in Asian settings yielded results similar to those in Western contexts. Both my students and I gained immensely from this approach to improving classroom instruction and student learning. However, I found that the role of student consultants in Asian settings required adaptations to fit local cultural and social norms. My experiences with these two projects reinforced my belief in the power of partnership.

Kaur, A., & Tang, Y. (2023). Listening to students’ voices through pedagogical partnerships in higher education: Insights from China. In J. Conner, R. Raaper, C. Guzmán-Valenzuela, & L. Gauthier (Eds.), The Bloomsbury handbook of student voice in higher education. Bloomsbury.

Kaur, A., & Yong Bing, T. (2020). Untangling the power dynamics in forging student-faculty collaboration. pp.63-72. In A. Cook-Sather & C. Wilson (Eds.), Building Courage, Confidence, and Capacity in Learning and Teaching through Student-Faculty Partnership. Lexington Books.

~ Amrita (Nikki) Kaur

acooksat — 2024-11-04 12:39:17 UTC

Though we have been thinking about the issue of students as partners for a while here in Singapore, it was in large part due to Alison Cook-Sather’s kind invitations (yes, she included us in her project calls more than once) that we began to put thought to paper that resulted subsequently in a number of SaP contributions from the National University of Singapore, including “Living and learning in radical spaces: Trust, affect, and needs in the student-faculty dyad” (Toh & Chng, 2024), “The possibility of pedagogical partnership: Co-creating teaching and learning through a Singapore cultural lens” (Toh & Chng 2022), and “The possibilities of students as partners: A perspective from Singapore" (Chng 2019). Writing these few papers have helped us to achieve better clarity in our own minds about the challenges that confront us as educators in the Singapore context, where our desire for partnership and collaboration is not always easily achievable due in large part to a set of cultural issues and mindset that is prevalent in our teaching and learning context. We believe that by reflecting on these issues, we can only make progress as we strive to overcome existing mindsets, build trust, and co-create new ways of teaching and learning. We are deeply grateful to Alison for giving us the reason to reflect and work through these issues here in Singapore.

~ Chng Huang Hoon & Toh Tai Chong, National University of Singapore

2024-11-05 00:27:49 UTC

Alison Cook-Sather and the many lessons learned from SaLT participants have been essential to the co-creation of the Pedagogical Partnership Program at Amherst College, co-designed by Dr. Riley Caldwell-O'Keefe and Sarah Bunnell. Alison has been a tireless resource for shaping and supporting cohorts of faculty and student cohorts in the program, and the reverberations of the program have been far reaching within and beyond the campus. For instance, this work has lead to expanded SoTL partnerships exploring the impact of pedagogical partnership on faculty and student development, leadership, and institutional change. Thank you, and congratulations, on 20 years of important and transformative work!

ctl29 — 2024-11-06 17:50:01 UTC

The SaLT program has impacted me in two ways. As a faculty member at Claremont McKenna College, I participated in our CTL's Learning Experience Observer (LEO) program, which was designed with the SaLT program as a model. My LEO helped me see things about my classes that I couldn't see on my own. I'd thought I was committed to transparent teaching, but that experience gave me a new appreciation for what transparency can mean.

I've since become an educational developer at University of the Pacific, where I've had the opportunity to design and facilitate our own Student Observational Partnership program. Supporting students and faculty as they figure out their own partnerships is among the most rewarding parts of my role.

~ Cory Davia

2024-11-08 15:48:34 UTC

Because of the SaLT program as a model and Alison Cook-Sather's tremendous generosity of mentoring us to start our own program, Yale's Pedagogical Partners is in its fifth year. Close to 100 different faculty partners have participated. Just last week, a faculty partner told me that this program should be available to every faculty member every semester. Our student partners tell us that this program is the most formative experience they have had at Yale.

Pictured: our faculty and student partners working together to consider ways for teaching to be more equitable across the university. We so appreciate Alison and SaLT!

2024-11-12 22:13:27 UTC

So grateful to have had the chance to work with Alison Cook-Sather and engage in pedagogical partnership work as an undergrad at Vassar. It was truly a highlight at college. Coordinating Vassar's program, STEPP, supporting the establishment of programs at other universities, creating additional fora to foster intercollegiate conversations, and supporting publications has facilitated my growth on so many levels. To have my voice not only heard but highlighted while supporting organizational change was so empowering as a student and as a recent grad. While building valuable relationships with both staff and students in the creation of partnership programs, I learned the importance of embracing partnership as a process, something I strive to bring to all collaborations I engage in. Out of passion for the work, I developed skills that translated to both current personal and professional relationships: soft skills such as how to facilitate conversations and share constructive feedback, and technical skills including managing spreadsheets and building websites. Pedagogical partnership offered me a unique opportunity to integrate interdisciplinary interests and has shaped how I approach my working relationships: as exploratory collaboration rather than unidirectional commands. I'm deeply thankful to everyone who guided the SaLT approach; I can’t recommend it enough to current staff and students.

~ Nandeeta Bala

2024-11-14 02:04:10 UTC

Alison Cook-Sather was instrumental in helping us start a pedagogical partnership program at Emmanuel College, Boston. We were introduced to Alison at a pivotal time. In applying for funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, we learned about the lack of belonging our students with Historically Minoritized Identities in STEM were experiencing. With Alison's generous guidance and mentorship, we were able to rapidly channel grant funds into the creation of our own version of SaLT, the Community Learning and Inclusivity Partnership (CLIP). Alison connected us with Nandeeta Bala, an undergraduate at Vassar, to coordinate the program and mentor our first cohorts of student and faculty partners. Since its inception, CLIP has impacted 22 individual courses across 6 academic departments. A total of 23 faculty and 24 student consultants have participated. Over 83% of the CLIP student consultants identify with the BIPOC community, while the overall undergraduate student body at Emmanuel is 29 - 35% BIPOC. There is clear evidence that HMI students who participate as CLIP consultants feel that they are valued members of the Emmanuel community. We are absolutely indebted to Alison for helping us begin to address inequities in our community by creating a pathway to amplify our students' voices. Thank you for your invaluable guidance and inspiration, Alison!

~ Anu Seshan

2024-12-06 17:45:26 UTC

Reflecting on my first semester as Program Director of the Students as Partners Program at Xavier University, I am struck by the profound impact of partnership in shaping this initiative. This journey has been greatly enriched by the mentorship and support of Alison Cook-Sather and the collaboration with the University of Iowa’s Anna Flaming, Tamar Bernfeld, and Anastasia Williams, Ph.D., through the unique HHMI IE3 Science Collaborative Network.

This funded collaboration has highlighted the value of partnership, especially in co-creating SaP programs across two differently classified universities. The resources and insights developed by fellow co-creators at other institutions have been invaluable in establishing and sustaining our program at Xavier University. These shared tools, perspectives, and strategies have not only shaped our program's foundation but have also inspired us to push the boundaries of what equity and inclusivity can look like in higher education.

I am deeply grateful for the space this collaboration has created, one where diverse voices and perspectives are not only welcomed but thrive in reimagining the educational landscape. As we celebrate 20 years of SaLT and its reverberations across institutions, I’m honored to continue this work and carry forward its legacy of transformation.

Here’s to the ongoing power of partnership!

~ Nykara Brown <3

2024-12-10 19:43:37 UTC

Hello from The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.

We are a large, comprehensive research-intensive university with over 50,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students. Our Student-Staff Partnership Program (staff refers to faculty members here) was deeply inspired by the values-driven work of students and staff at Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges—particularly by individuals like Alison, Anita, Crystal, and Sophia.

While our program has engaged hundreds of students, and the scale may seem large, each partnership creates a unique space for learners and teachers to engage in meaningful pedagogical dialogue. One of the first curated collections of Australian academics sharing their experiences with engaging students as partners was even published in Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education.

Happy 20th birthday to the SaLT team, and here’s to 20 more years of inspiring collaboration!

2024-12-11 16:03:32 UTC

At McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, we’ve been running a spin-off of the SaLT program since fall 2016. In the summer of that year, Alison Cook-Sather visited McMaster and generously shared her insights on the SaLT program at Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges. She walked us through its evolution, lessons learned, and foundational principles. I remember frantically taking notes, trying to absorb all the wisdom she offered.

That fall, we launched our own version of the program, the Course Design & Delivery Consultants Program. Nearly a decade later, the program is still going strong. Over the years, we’ve conducted program evaluations and collected data to refine our approach. In 2020, we published a paper in the International Journal for Students as Partners that explored the principles of student partnership described by Healey et al. (2014). In doing so, we identified two additional principles that stood out in our context: the significance of past student experiences and the value of a well-structured program.

We’re deeply grateful for the groundbreaking work of the Students as Partners community and feel privileged to continue building on that foundation.

~ Kris Knorr, McMaster University

2024-12-12 21:21:19 UTC

When I first learned about the SaLT program, I immediately felt called to explore the design, implementation, and assessment of a program like this at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) in collaboration with one of my former students. Since I was already engaging in conversations with her about how to improve one of the assignments in a course where she was a student, I imagined she would be receptive to exploring the development of this program at our institution. I was thrilled she agreed as I also felt our cultural and linguistic background was similar and positioned us well to reflect on what a program like this could look like at an HSI. As someone who learned English as a second language, I experienced many educational challenges and low expectations from teachers related to my potential for success. In many ways, I see my leadership of the SaLT HSI program as the opportunity I never had as a student and that is using my voice to advocate for my strengths, diverse knowledge, potential, and needs as a learner. Through this program, I am grateful to learn from and reflect with student and faculty partners about meaningful and transformative teaching and learning practices. ~Alyssa G. Cavazos, Professor, Writing and Language Studies | Director, Center for Teaching Excellence | Co-founder and Director, SaLT HSI UTRGV

As a member of SaLT at UTRGV, a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), I have found my experiences working as a student partner and researcher in this program to be eye-opening and to have increased my passion for fair and accessible education for every student. Getting the unique opportunity to listen to and collaborate with fellow faculty members has made me feel like I am part of the UTRGV community; I’ve gained insights on faculty teaching beliefs as well as a deeper understanding of the details that go into designing a classroom each lecture day. SaLT has also empowered me not only as a student, but as a future career professional, as I have grown in my communication skills, sense of self-efficacy, and collaborative research skills over the past year I’ve joined this program. ~Elianna Olivo, Senior Class of 2024, Statistics

I’ve always considered myself very outspoken and passionate about politics, diversity, and inclusion. When I first started university, I was a little disheartened at how time-consuming it was to file and address any concerns. Before I began working at SaLT, I wasn't aware that there was an outlet for me to use my voice as a student and change students’ learning. The longer I work here, the more change I see happen for Mexican American voices and the more hopeful I feel as a student for the future of the University and for students that will come after me. ~Ris Cortez, Junior Class of 2026, Visual Communications

Participating in the SaLT HSI program as a student partner was transformative, especially in advocating for undergraduate students struggling with math, which reinforced my commitment to addressing diverse learning needs. Observing and providing feedback on innovative teaching methods, including project-based learning and scaffolding, highlighted their success in higher education, a realization that was both surprising and inspiring. This experience solidified my resolve to incorporate these strategies into my future teaching practice as an educator.

~Isabel Amaro, Senior Class of 2025 Mathematics major

¡Felicidades, SaLT! We are thrilled to celebrate 20 years of SaLT, and we are grateful to Alison Cook-Sather for her efforts and dedication to this program. As a program at UTRGV, we will celebrate five years of thoughtful and critical student-faculty partnerships centered on continuous improvement of teaching through sense of belonging, self-efficacy, and agency in learning and teaching. As a result of our efforts, we have joined scholarly conversations on the impact of student voice and SaLT partnerships through presentations and publications, and we are excited to continue sharing new findings and developments on creating educational spaces in higher education where all students have opportunities and resources to succeed.

Cavazos, A.G., & Chapa, L. (2022). Honrando Voces Diversas: A Framework for Equity-Minded Teaching Partnerships. Journal of Latinos and Education, 22, 1984-1990.

Cavazos, A. G., Chapa, L. & Cavazos-Vela, J. (2023). Exploring the impact of student-faculty partnership program at a Hispanic Serving Institution. To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development 42(2): 7.

Cavazos, A. G., Vela, J. C., & Troncoso, A. (2024). Exploring Undergraduate Latine Students’ Learning Experiences in STEM Courses. Journal of Latinos and Education, 23(5), 1833–1852.

Cavazos, A.G. & McBride, R. (2024). Challenging Implicit Linguistic Biases in Teaching and Learning Across Disciplines Through Student-Faculty Partnerships. The Scholarly Teacher Challenging Implicit Linguistic Biases in Teaching and Learning Across Disciplines Through Student-Faculty Partnerships.

2024-12-13 15:41:02 UTC

I have been transformed professionally and personally by what I have learned from Alison and her many amazing partners in SaLT since we first met in 2008. Every aspect of my teaching, scholarship, and professional identify have been productively challenged by and then infused with partnership practices and values. And I know that I am not alone.

Alison and SaLT – and the community that has emerged from this work – are making higher education more equitable, humane, and meaningful. I am honored and inspired to be part of that community, and I look forward to many more years in partnership.

~ Peter Felten, Elon U

2024-12-13 16:48:15 UTC

The SaLT program at Bryn Mawr is the reason that a Teaching & Learning Institute (TLI) was founded at Ursinus College almost 15 years ago. Our Student Consultant program was the signature program of the TLI when it was formed and remains its beating heart. I had the privilege of being the co-Director of the TLI with several different Faculty members over a 10 year period that just ended this semester. I oversaw the creation of many transformative partnerships in all disciplines as well as the development of student partners as they grew, changed by the work. My time leading the program here was absolutely formative for me in shaping how I think about teaching and learning and power dynamics in the classroom (and even across the whole campus).

Just this past semester, Fall 2024, I taught a section of Ursinus's first year course and, because I was no longer in charge of the TLI, I got to work with a student consultant partner for the first time in a long while. It was far and away one of the best sections of the class I have ever taught, in large part because my partner brought to light classroom dynamics that I could only vaguely recognize and helped me to create a truly inclusive environment that allowed my students to constructively disagree as they listened carefully to each other across all sorts of differences. My weekly meetings with my partner were absolutely a highlight of my teaching and my personal life this Fall.

The Student Consultant program continues under the co-leadership of my colleague. It has transformed the lives of both students and faculty who participate in it. And it has made the learning experience better for countless students in the classrooms in which the Student Consultants have observed. It continues to have a quietly radical power on this campus by creating meaningful teaching and learning relationships for all involved. Thus has SaLT's impact reverberated across Ursinus.

Thank you to Alison and all of the many students she has mentored and to all of the programs she has seeded all over the world! It is work I will remain committed to for my whole life.

~ Diane Skorina, Ursinus College

2024-12-18 21:22:31 UTC

Here is a short project I created to illustrate some of my feelings from my time as a SaLT Student Consultant and the enduring impact that the program has had on me and others.

2024-12-24 17:40:58 UTC

Alison and the SaLT program have profoundly impacted the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at Reed College. We opened the CTL in 2014 and our signature program from the beginning has been our Student Consultants for Teaching and Learning Program. In partnership with students, faculty members transform their teaching to be more effective, inclusive, and responsive.

Oleson, K. C. (2016). Introduction – Collaborating to develop and improve classroom teaching: Student-Consultant for Teaching and Learning Program at Reed College. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education, 1(17). 1-3.

Oleson, K. C., & Hovakimyan, K. (2017). Reflections on developing the Student Consultants for Teaching and Learning Program at Reed College, USA. International Journal for Students as Partners, 1(1), 1 – 8.

Thank you.

Kathy Oleson

bethmarquis — 2025-01-17 16:44:45 UTC

I can't overstate the effects that Alison, many student partners from Bryn Mawr and Haverford, and the SaLT program broadly have had on my thinking, teaching, and research. Others have already mentioned the very real and concrete ways in which SaLT provided a model and inspiration for some of our Student-Faculty partnership programming at McMaster University. I'll add to that the important and foundational resonance between SaLT's focus on working toward equity and justice in educational contexts and some of the underpinnings of our own partnership work at McMaster, which sought in many ways to build on and learn from SaLT's example. SaLT was a constant touchstone as we developed and researched an equity stream of our Student Partners Program (on which Alison generously collaborated), and insights and knowledge that Alison and colleagues like Anita Ntem, Crystal des Ogugua, Leslie Luqueño, and Sophia Abbot have generated and shared have echoed in my head and advanced my thinking both before and since. I remain eminently grateful for the inspiring model SaLT provides and for the brilliance, generosity, and collaboration of the people attached to it. Their individual and collective impact on the postsecondary education sector internationally is nothing short of remarkable.

-Beth Marquis, McMaster University