We cannot do without each other. Human beings are social creatures and naturally have the need for belonging. In education, we need each other as well. In fact, the essence of education lies in working with others, including students, teachers, and other staff members.
After all, how can you teach without students? Or how can you learn without an expert? In education, we are all connected in one way or another, but the felt level of sense of belonging varies from person to person.
Connection is fundamental
The consequences of these differences in level of sense of belonging are significant. Insufficient interaction among students and between students and teachers and staff can lead to a low sense of community, feeling out of place in the program, feelings of loneliness, and consequently, a higher risk of academic drop-out, as argued by Tinto (2012). Conversely, students who feel strongly connected to the program, their teachers, and their peers tend to be more successful during their studies. Thus, connection can be seen as both a prerequisite and a predictor of academic success (Elffers, 2018). We cannot escape the need for connection in education; it is fundamental. But how can we promote connection? How can we ensure that students, teachers, and staff feel connected to each other and to the program? "Students as Partners" provides an answer to this.
Moving beyond classical ideology
'Students as Partners' is a collaboration between students and teachers. By working together, they not only enhance education but also strengthen the connection between each other and between teachers, students, and education itself. At the heart of this collaboration is the relationship between students and their peers and staff and their peers, as well as the relationship between students and staff. If we want to ensure connection among ourselves, it is essential to think beyond classical roles and divisions. This notion aligns very well with the ideology of "Students as Partners," where student-staff partnership goes beyond viewing the student as a consumer and recipient, but where the partnership is seen as a reciprocal process, with the student being seen as an equal partner (Gravett, Kinchin & Winstone 2019). A widely accepted definition of such partnership is as follows:
“A collaborative, reciprocal process through which all participants have the opportunity to contribute equally, although not necessarily in the same ways, to curricular or pedagogical conceptualization, decision-making, implementation, investigation, or analysis" (Cook-Sather, Bovill & Felten 2014, pp. 6-7).
