While We Are Here: Resisting Hegemony and Fostering Inclusion through Rhizomatic Growth via Student–Faculty Pedagogical Partnership

Abstract

Postsecondary educational institutions often struggle to enact their espoused commitments to inclusion. Faculty on temporary appointments and students traditionally underrepresented in and underserved by colleges and universities, in particular, can feel excluded. In this article, we argue that student–faculty pedagogical partnership can help postsecondary institutions better enact their espoused commitments to inclusion by nurturing rhizomatic development for human sustainability. We describe how a student–faculty pedagogical partnership program provides a brave space within which rhizomatic growth can unfold by offering an autoethnographic case study of one faculty–student pair who worked in a semester-long pedagogical partnership through this program. Their work aimed to affirm and extend inclusive practices in the faculty member’s STEM course, and the unexpected intertwining of their paths also served to foster a sense of inclusion for both partners. After an introductory discussion of the partnership program, definition of rhizomatic growth as we use it, and an explanation of our method, the faculty and student partners present their autoethnographic case study by alternating their voices. We focus our discussion and recommendations on how partnership supports rhizomatic growth, inclusion, resistance to hegemony, and human sustainability. Finally, we propose possible directions for future research in each of these areas.

Engineering Students’ Human Values as Rhizomatic Lines of Sustainability

“…Further research should place individual values shared by students in correlation with the university values and with the professional (engineering values) embedded in the curricula, thus completing the map of values in which students evolve and engage in their becoming. Also, we resonate with the recommendation formulated by Cook-Sather, Becker, and Giron that "placing human sustainability at the center of education and educational development" is paramount for universities [9]. New realities in society (and of course in education) require new narratives and new approaches to support the rhizomatic growth of the people-to-come.…”

“…Education for sustainability starts with designing faculty-student relations as partnerships for the transformational journey that helps learners to become professionals. Only in such a manner, students' "feelings of inclusion and belonging while nurturing others' growth and experiencing one's own growth are what constitute (in the present) and contribute to (future) human sustainability" [9]. Studies on the topic show that "though many engineering schools are trying to develop their sustainability related curriculum, most are still struggling" and tend to produce "technically competent barbarians," instead of integrated citizens capable of emotional and professional interaction with the social environment where they exercise their profession [10].…”