QAA Enhancement Themes Conference
Glasgow, Scotland, 12 June 2013
How Do We Engage and Take Seriously
Diverse Students in Student-Faculty Partnership Work?
Dr. Alison Cook-Sather
Mary Katharine Woodworth Professor of Education and Coordinator of The Andrew W.
Mellon Teaching and Learning Institute, Bryn Mawr College, USA
Jean Rudduck Visiting Scholar, Homerton College, Cambridge University, UK
acooksat@brynmawr.edu
Ways to show students
we are taking them seriously
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Create programs that position and name students in
ways that confer legitimacy and authority
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Students as Learners and Teachers (SaLT) at Bryn Mawr College, USA
Students Consulting on Teaching (SCoT) at Brigham Young
University , USA
Students Consulting on Teaching (SCOT), University of Lincoln, UK
Course Design Teams at Elon University, USA
Students as Change Agents, University of Exeter, UK
Student Lead Learning Programs, University of Ballarat, Australia
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For many more examples, see “Students as Change Agents” handout
at http://www.mickhealey.co.uk/resources
Ways to show students
we are taking them seriously

Design an application process that invites students
to analyze and articulate what positions them well
to be informants, consultants, partners, and/or
change agents
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Sends a clear signal to students that they are, in fact, qualified
to take on such roles
Begins the reflective, analytical process of helping them
develop awareness and language to name what they know
Legitimates their role in the minds of others
Ways to show students
we are taking them seriously

Co-construct forums for genuine listening and
dialogue
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Weekly meetings of same- and cross-constituencies in SaLT
Bi-weekly meetings of faculty, students, and staff in Western
Washington University’s Teaching-Learning Academy
Student-led focus groups through the Wabash-Provost
Scholars Program at North Carolina A&T
For many more examples, see “Students as Change Agents”
handout at http://www.mickhealey.co.uk/resources
Ways to show students
we are taking them seriously

Co-author with and quote student participants in
publications on this work
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Jointly compose articles and chapters
Include student words wherever possible
Use names, where appropriate — not just “a student said”
Quote students’ less formal statements
“Having my informal reflection used as support for a scholarly argument
means more [than authoring my own article] because the reflection was
not crafted to make a specific point but rather was a personal comment
about my own experience. It helps affirm that our unpolished,
unrehearsed thoughts are valuable to others, even beyond the college.”
Creating Redefined
“Counter-spaces”
Places where deficit notions of
difference are replaced by
explicit valuing of differences
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Student consultants in Bryn Mawr’s SaLT program experience
the program forums as redefined “counter-spaces”
“[SaLT] looks for differences; it is not looking for everybody to
be the same. The work is looking for different voices present,
so there isn’t one dominant voice. In most educational
settings, everyone is trying to come to one point, to
agreement; [SaLT] is always trying to find what others have to
say and trying to make it normal.” - Student Consultant
Students as Learners
and Teachers (SaLT)
• Partners undergraduate students and
faculty members in semester-long
partnerships to explore pedagogical issues
• Faculty participants to date: 150
• Student participants to date: 90
20 international students (China, India, Ghana, Japan, Taiwan)
30 students of color (African–American, Latina, Chinese-American)
Seeking and finding space of belonging
“It is hard for international students to find a place on
campus, a mainstream place in the campus;
participating in the SaLT program helped me find a
place on campus and identify more with Bryn Mawr
and get more involved. It built my confidence and
enthusiasm about the Bryn Mawr experience; SaLT
provided me with an opportunity to engage with faculty
and classes and also an opportunity to interact with
more students (if I didn’t participate in SaLT I wouldn’t
talk to students).” – student from China
Amplifying voice and affirming identity
“I feel like being a Student Consultant literally gave me a
voice. I started being more vocal in and outside of class.
As an African American student, I used to let people tell
me how I should think and act. I used to let them
reprimand me for not being black in the way they’d like.
Looking back on those times, I am embarrassed and vow
to never let someone have that kind of power over me
ever again. I attribute much of this sense of
empowerment to my participation in the [SaLT program].
It made me feel like who I am is more than enough—that
my identity, my thoughts, my ideas are significant and
valuable.” –African-American student
Learning is not always about comfort…