Partnership Principles and Mechanisms Grace Barker Newcastle University grace.barker@ncl.ac.uk Introduction to me Introduction to RAISE What is partnership? What levels are you operating at? Difficulties and Victories

What is Partnership? “Student engagement is about what a student brings to Higher Education in terms of goals, aspirations, values and beliefs and how these are shaped and mediated by their experience whilst a student. SE is constructed and reconstructed through the lenses of the perceptions and identities held by students and the meaning and sense a student makes of their experiences and interactions. As players in and shapers of the educational context, educators need to foster educationally purposeful SE to support and enable students to learn in constructive and powerful ways and realise their potential in education and society (RAISE 2010)” Most people have come across the term ‘Student Engagement’, with varying degrees of understanding about the term, and even more variations of practice! ‘Partnership’ is becoming more prevalent in the discourse around Engagement as it is seen as a way of actualising many of the aims of Student Engagement, and as people have tried to initiate and lead student engagement projects, many have naturally moved towards this relational stance. RAISE defines student engagement as: “Student engagement is about what a student brings to Higher Education in terms of goals, aspirations, values and beliefs and how these are shaped and mediated by their experience whilst a student. SE is constructed and reconstructed through the lenses of the perceptions and identities held by students and the meaning and sense a student makes of their experiences and interactions. As players in and shapers of the educational context, educators need to foster educationally purposeful SE to support and enable students to learn in constructive and powerful ways and realise their potential in education and society (RAISE 2010)” This is very much about processes – not outcomes. The outcome is students realising their potential – not just getting involved in your project or system. Partnership is a way of students and staff realising their potential within a framework of mutual trust and co-responsibility. The marks of Partnership are more precise then Student Engagement. Partnership = Student Engagement, but S.E. does not necessarily = Partnership. To boil down the essence of Partnership, it is power-sharing between all parties – in each sphere of participation: within a degree, a module, a project, an institution. This is not easy to achieve for many reasons that we’ll look in to together over the next hour. Let’s unpack that a bit.

Ladder of Participation Cathy Bovill’s Ladder of Participation: As I go through these, think about where on the ladder you, your Union and your Institution are. (substitute “tutors” for “staff” and “curriculum” for “project”) Jot down your thoughts against each heading. We’ll discuss them together shortly so just jot them down for now. Ideas generation – where did your project come from? The Agenda – who owns the agenda for change? Delivering project outcomes – who is working on the ground? Critique – Who gets to mould that process? Decision Making – Who makes things actually happen? Who speaks to implement change? Ideally Partnership would be the principle within which the whole project functions. But sometimes this is not possible, usually for cultural reasons and systems that are slower to change. So let’s take your notes and have a group discussion….

Difficulties? Why do some of these areas seem like “pie in the sky” for seeing progress towards Partnership? (we’re going to discuss success shortly so it won’t all be negative!) This is where we can be honest with each other and say where we are not pushing forward. Maybe that’s because this is the first time you’ve considered Partnership as an important aspect of your work, or because you have a adversarial relationship with your institution; “they don’t understand” “they won’t cooperate”! Perhaps students are slow to get on board with what you want to do? Share discussion around the table using the areas you jotted notes on – pick one of these areas to share your difficulty with that aspect. Give everyone an opportunity to share. [feedback main concerns to room, address a few main areas discussed]

Victories? Hopefully there are areas of your project where you think Partnership is coming to the fore! Where there are strong collaborative relationships with good trust relationships; where there is power-sharing and co-determination of the agenda? What small victories have been won? Share discussion around the table using the areas you jotted notes on – pick one of these areas to share your successes with that aspect. Give everyone an opportunity to share. Why have you been able to operate in this capacity? [feedback main points to room, dissect why they worked]

Staff, Students, Community “Why would I get involved? What’s in it for me?” Staff want to get involved when there is a subject connection or something can be tied in to the curriculum. Encouraging enthusiasm for their subject area – ticking the employability box for their graduates. Students wanting to give back in a way that isn’t traditionally available as an ‘engagement’ opportunity. Wanting experience in something that makes them stand out – needs to be significant! Communities want to be involved, not surveyed, Careful not to create a ‘charity case’ mentality but one of Partnership – power-sharing, co-determining, co-responsibility. All the same principles apply. I don’t know a great deal about community engagement and I’m sure I could learn a lot from you all! Build on existing mechanisms – representative systems, work already going on in Schools that can be dovetailed or supported. ‘initiative-fatigue’ is real, but at the same time Student Engagement needs to be constantly reinvigorated for students to feel that they co-own a current agenda, set by them, not 4 years ago in a board room. Walking that line is difficult! Articulate benefits clearly and choose your message for your audience. It needs to be attractive for all parties to meet at the table. They don’t need to all have the same motivations, but sharing these honestly and coming to a shared agenda that means all parties can work towards achieving these aims is important. There is a need for ground swell. As we all know – grassroots is powerful. Encourage all parties to share what they think will get in the way – and then to construct bridges to overcome those things. This is especially an issue in Student Representation – student aren’t supported to be problem solvers and initiate solutions.

Time for Questions