Belong with, not to: cultivation of student belonging through student-staff partnership

Sibbett, Lorna and Bhandari, Renu (2024). Belong with, not to: cultivation of student belonging through student-staff partnership. In: 2024 SRHE International Research Conference, 2 Dec 2024, Online.

URL: https://virtual.oxfordabstracts.com/event/public/4...

Abstract

Students-as-partners (SaP) approach provides a powerful means to cultivate student sense of belonging with fellow students and staff. This counters a consumerist delivery-focused culture that has developed in modern higher education. In the context of distance learning, at the Open University, virtual internships for students provide opportunities to engage as scholarship partners with staff. Here we report on a SAP project in which two students from under represented groups engaged in scholarship of inclusive practice in distance learning. The project findings suggest that, when power dynamics are explicitly addressed within student-staff teams, students develop agency, identity and a sense of belonging ‘with’ rather than passively belonging ‘to’.

Viewing alternatives

No digital document available to download for this item

Item Actions

Export

About