Rethinking the problem of faculty resistance to engaging with students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education

Abstract

Engaging students as partners in the scholarship of learning and teaching (SoTL) is a principle guiding good practice. Enthusiasm for student-faculty partnerships in learning and teaching continues to grow. In this essay, I want to invite readers to reflect with me about concerns of resistance to partnership practices. I interweave stories from my experiences with selected literature that is shifting the conversation about the 'challenge of resistance' in partnership work in learning and teaching. Positioning students as partners work as a valuesbased practice and in the context of 'scaling-up' partnership programs, I argue that our preoccupation with resistance is problematic. Instead, we should accept resistance as part of a natural sense-making process that allows us to think together about the complexity of genuine pedagogical partnership.

Resistance to (Digital) Change

“…However, neither the literature on resistance to change nor Illeris are very outspoken about possible forms this resistance can take. For the time being, we can assume that, related to the desired transformative learning taking place, resistances here might show as active oppositions – for example, by questioning proposed measures – which can serve as starting points for integrative and transformative conversations (e.g., Matthews 2019 ).…”

The important risk-taking of advocating for student partnership practice

“…• By introducing student partnership into the teaching and learning vernacular we have to acknowledge that we are asking people to think differently, to approach practice differently (Matthews, 2019). Teachers who may be slower to adapt need support from advocates to ask questions, voice concerns, and seek help to adapt their practice.…”

Writing about Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

“…The essay was accepted following the second round of reviews (Matthews 2019a), yet the process was frustrating, even though Kelly had the experience, peer support networks, and agency to persist (see chapters 26 and 28). As Ronald Barnett (personal communication, July 28, 2019) suggests: "It is incumbent upon authors, especially those who submit papers that are on the fringes of a journal's editorial range, to make it crystal clear at the outset of a paper what it is and what it is not.…”