Partnership work as practice of and preparation for navigating complexity, uncertainty, and precarity

This iteration of Voices from the Field explores the numerous ways that faculty, staff, and students see partnership work as both a practice of and a preparation for navigating an increasingly complex, uncertain, and precarious world.Sustaining its commitment to offering a venue for a wide range of contributors to address important questions of students-as-partners work without going through the intensive submission, peer-review, and revision processes, this section of the journal offers glimpses into how those in higher education already enact or call for students-as-partners work that both constitutes and contributes to building capacity, resilience, and more connected and sustainable ways of being in the present and in the future.The invitation we extended for this iteration of Voices from the Field was to consider UNESCO's (2020) assertion that we live in a world of "increasing complexity, uncertainty and precarity" characterized by "persistent inequalities, social fragmentation and political extremism" (p.11).The specific prompt we offered was: "In what ways does students-as-partners work develop capacity to work under conditions of-and prepare for-complexity, uncertainty, and precarity?"We received responses from 32 contributors.These included 16 faculty members, eight staff or administrators, and seven students from 18 universities in the UK, four universities in Canada, two universities in the US, and one each from Australia and Pakistan.These contributors occupy a range of roles in higher education: undergraduate, master's, and Ph.D. students; faculty in disciplines from nursing through theater; staff in various campus offices; and administrative leaders.Across all contributions we found adamant assertions regarding the potential of studentsas-partners work as both a practice of and preparation for navigating an increasingly complex, uncertain, and precarious world.Some contributors reflected on what needs to be unlearned to embrace such an orientation.Others offered examples of institutional efforts and individual Vol. 9,

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Publication Details

Journal
International Journal for Students as Partners
Published
2025-10-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v9i2.6856
Primary Topic
Complex Systems and Decision Making
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Partnership work as practice of and preparation for navigating complexity, uncertainty, and precarity

Stephen Wheeler, Martyn Polkinghorne, Will Atkinson, Rachel Parker-Strak et al.
International Journal for Students as Partners
Complex Systems and Decision Making
article

Partnership work as practice of and preparation for navigating complexity, uncertainty, and precarity

Stephen Wheeler, Martyn Polkinghorne, Will Atkinson, Rachel Parker-Strak, Stephany Veuger, Michael Wong, Hibo Asad, Brian Kane, Lisa M. Porter, Edward Loveman, Claire V. S. Pike, Mary Watkins, Moonisah Usman, Steve Briggs, Zoë Allman, W. Victoria Lee, Ian Fellows, L.E. Bauman, Linda Dyer, Alison Cook‐Sather, James Derounian, Kirsty Hemsworth, K. M. Black, Yonghuan Guo, H. W. Wade, Aasiya Satia, Chukwuemeka Oti, Thomas Chavira, Anna Wardle, Nicola Morrell-Scott, Senem Karaceper, Sara Wysocka, Andy Benoit, Paul Gratrick
article en

Abstract

This iteration of Voices from the Field explores the numerous ways that faculty, staff, and students see partnership work as both a practice of and a preparation for navigating an increasingly complex, uncertain, and precarious world.Sustaining its commitment to offering a venue for a wide range of contributors to address important questions of students-as-partners work without going through the intensive submission, peer-review, and revision processes, this section of the journal offers glimpses into how those in higher education already enact or call for students-as-partners work that both constitutes and contributes to building capacity, resilience, and more connected and sustainable ways of being in the present and in the future.The invitation we extended for this iteration of Voices from the Field was to consider UNESCO's (2020) assertion that we live in a world of "increasing complexity, uncertainty and precarity" characterized by "persistent inequalities, social fragmentation and political extremism" (p.11).The specific prompt we offered was: "In what ways does students-as-partners work develop capacity to work under conditions of-and prepare for-complexity, uncertainty, and precarity?"We received responses from 32 contributors.These included 16 faculty members, eight staff or administrators, and seven students from 18 universities in the UK, four universities in Canada, two universities in the US, and one each from Australia and Pakistan.These contributors occupy a range of roles in higher education: undergraduate, master's, and Ph.D. students; faculty in disciplines from nursing through theater; staff in various campus offices; and administrative leaders.Across all contributions we found adamant assertions regarding the potential of studentsas-partners work as both a practice of and preparation for navigating an increasingly complex, uncertain, and precarious world.Some contributors reflected on what needs to be unlearned to embrace such an orientation.Others offered examples of institutional efforts and individual Vol. 9,

International Journal for Students as PartnersVol. 9(2)
Bryn Mawr College (US), Canterbury Christ Church University (GB), University of Leeds (GB), University of Huddersfield (GB), University of Liverpool (GB), University of Bedfordshire (GB), Queensland University of Technology (AU), Duke University (US), York University (CA), Queen's University (CA), Lahore University of Management Sciences (PK), University of Derby (GB), University of Manchester (GB), Northumbria University (GB), University of Saskatchewan (CA), University of Warwick (GB), Council of Scientific Society Presidents (US), Anglia Ruskin University (GB), University of Portsmouth (GB), De Montfort University (GB), Sheffield Hallam University (GB), University of Worcester (GB), University of Oklahoma (US), Bournemouth University (GB), University of Westminster (GB), McMaster University (CA), University of Edinburgh (GB)
Openalex Percentile: Top 66%
Complex Systems and Decision Making
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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