Student-Staff Partnerships: Statement of Approach

Introduction

The statement sets out a framework of key principles, acting as an invitation for staff and students to reflect on their relationships, roles, assumptions and agency in higher education at York. It is hoped this will inspire conversations about co-construction in our learning environments, and will build student-staff relationships that can be catalysts for the ongoing development of York as a mutually empowering, socially just university for public good.

Key principles

Across all aspects of learning and teaching practice, student voice, co-construction, and partnership working between staff and students are central to achieving meaningful and impactful change. Students are at the heart of the academic community and can contribute important insights into how learning and teaching practices, policies and services work for and affect their engagement, achievement and sense of belonging.

• Incorporating diverse perspectives into learning, teaching and assessment

Partnership can bring diverse perspectives together and centre students in
everything we do. Students and staff are unique individuals, with different identities, expertise, experiences and perspectives. We believe that bringing together multiple perspectives, in dialogue and collaboration, enables a much richer understanding of how we teach, how students learn and what changes might be needed at all levels of the University.

• Embedding inclusive practice which offers opportunities for all

We want to create spaces for participation and partnerships where members from diverse backgrounds and disciplines can work together, equitably, on teaching, learning and assessment. It is important to ensure partnership opportunities are reflective of our diverse student body, and that a wide range of students and staff have the opportunity to work as collaborators and partners. Fostering inclusive partnerships relies on inclusive recruitment processes and nurturing spaces where students and staff feel supported, valued and that their work is recognised.

• Creating opportunities to reflect on relationships, roles, agency and knowledge production

Our partnership ethos invites us to critically reflect on staff-defined and staff controlled spaces and ask what students can contribute, as experts in their own learning and experiences. This is not about limiting staff agency, but about creating opportunities for students and staff to learn new things, relate in diverse ways and produce something together.

• Developing partnerships that are transformational

Partnership invites us to critically reflect on how knowledge production can reproduce power hierarchies and what dominant norms shape our approaches and policies. Partnership processes should offer opportunities to do things differently. They should function to engage students and staff as co-creators, with new perspectives emerging from sustained engagement in dialogue and discussion around, and participation in student-staff partnerships.

• Valuing and promoting a range of student-staff partnerships

Partnership is an ethos, it is not a static or one-size-fits-all approach. It provides a lens through which we can reconsider the relationships at the heart of HE. We believe it is beneficial to enable a diverse range of partnership approaches at York. This requires an appreciation that partnerships are developed in specific contexts, influenced by partners’ understandings of co-construction; the emotions, identities and values of the participants; the scale, aims, roles, and the time frame of the project; and the conceptual framework adopted.

• Creating connection and collaboration in learning and teaching

Working in partnership in teaching, learning and assessment requires students and staff to embrace uncertainty through collaboration and dialogue. Vulnerability is fundamental to this way of working and means creating spaces where students and staff feel able to share their identities, uncertainties, and ideas, without fear of judgement. This mutual sharing contributes to the development of generative partnerships by helping to foster connections and trust.