Borderland spaces for learning partnership: opportunities, benefits and challenges

Abstract

This paper uses case studies and secondary literature to critically examine how learning spaces inhabited by geographers might be used productively as borderland spaces for learning partnership.Borderland spaces are novel, challenging, permissive and liminal, destabilising traditional power hierarchies. In these spaces, students gain confidence in accepting agency in learning, moving towards critical thinking and reflective judgement, thereby developing self-authorship. They acquire new knowledge, skills and facets to their identity. They also feel anxiety as they take on new roles and adopt a partnership ethos. Faculty must guide students to support their successful navigation into and out of borderland spaces.

Pedagogic partnership in higher education: encountering emotion in learning and enhancing student wellbeing

“…Geographers have been both vocal advocates for, and early adopters of, pedagogic partnership (Hill et al, 2016;Moore-Cherry et al, 2016). This may be partly attributable to the breadth of the subject and the diversity of learning spaces that geographers inhabit.…”

“…By contrast, the fluid, unpredictable and boundless nature of fieldwork spaces support relational partnership working (Fuller at al., 2006;Boyle et al, 2007), which supports a collaborative and adaptive ethos, possibly rendering it less radical to negotiate emotion in these contexts (Cook, 2008;Wright & Hodge, 2012). As such, fieldwork spaces can be used as borderland spaces (Hill et al, 2016), destabilizing traditional power hierarchies and identities as students work in partnership with each other and with faculty members.…”

“…To summarise, this case study demonstrates that the social fieldwork context, supporting meaningful peer-topeer collaboration in learning, disrupts the passive inertia of the bounded classroom. The field context allows alternative expressions of identity, including emotional responses, as experienced in borderland spaces of learning partnership (Hill et al, 2016. Students' emotions are initially quite negative as they are pushed beyond their comfort zone.…”

“…Through this process, negative emotions can be important (and even powerful) precursors to enhancing motivation and learning for some students rather than being viewed as necessarily detrimental. To realise this process, faculty and students must be willing to enter into and work within the borderland spaces of partnership (Hill et al, 2016 in order to become comfortable with uncertainty and challenge, potentially changing their ideas and behaviours, and becoming more responsible and resilient in their learning. In short, transformative learning (irreversibly changing knowledge, emotions, attitudes and behaviour) is prompted through the struggles that are exposed and shared through dialogue in partnership.…”

Student–staff partnerships in learning and teaching: an overview of current practice and discourse

“…So, what can geographers bring to the debate about partnership? Already, geographers are influencing partnership debates, whether it is about defining partnership (Healey et al, 2014), inviting students to become partners in research (Healey & Jenkins 2009) exploring the spaces and processes of partnership (Hill et al, 2016), dealing with emotions positively through partnerships (Hill et al, 2019;Marvell & Simm 2018) or proposing ways of overcoming challenges to ensure partnership is inclusive (Bovill et al 2016;Moore-Cherry et al, 2015). Geographers have a good deal to offer in deepening our understanding of student-staff partnerships in learning and teaching, whether it is from the wide range of contexts within which you practice and research, the scale of your work or the different roles students adopt within your partnerships.…”