The same but different:Teacher and student experiences of partnership

Norwegian Higher Education institutions are increasingly adopting partnership and co-creation approaches, in common with other universities internationally. The Centres for Teaching Excellence (SFU) initiative supports Norwegian Higher Education in embedding these approaches in different disciplines. We explore common experiences shared by students and teachers involved in partnership work in the iEarth network (an SFU). Through reflexive thematic analysis of surveys and interviews we identify five shared themes: the value of relationship building; voice, agency, and power; the importance of positive past experiences for engaging in partnerships multiple understandings of partnership; and uncertainty. The ‘uncertainty’ theme, whilst appearing briefly in some previous studies, is particularly interesting in this study, as our data suggests students’ and teachers’ experience uncertainty in partnership differently. Teachers reported reduced uncertainty due to partnership, owing to enhanced relationships with students. Students found partnership increases uncertainty as it challenges their ideas about learning in higher education. We also found participants shared a practical, ‘down to earth’ approach to partnerships’ benefits and challenges, and suggest this is related to the context in which partnership was introduced. Additionally, this study suggests that staff and students who have no positive past experiences in partnership, may be a group who find partnership challenging and may need further support. With increasing emphasis on partnership in higher education, it is important to understand and explore shared partnership experiences to align participants’ goals and expectations and potentially unlock new benefits.