‘Every partnership [… is] an emotional experience’: Towards a model of partnership support for addressing the emotional challenges of student-staff partnerships

Abstract

The practice of student-staff partnerships is fundamentally about relationships. As new partnerships are formed, and existing power relations challenged, people experience a range of emotions. Despite their importance, there are few studies that have systematically researched the emotional challenges of student-staff partnership. Through a humanistic approach focused on analysing participants experiences of partnership we found that varying degrees of hope, pride, anxiety, and frustration, were experienced by both students and staff in a curriculum development partnership project. We argue that effective partnership practices should recognise and support the emotional wellbeing of student and staff partners. Drawing upon the effective characteristics of partnership support found in this research and the broader literature, we propose a flexible support model drawing on: 1) peer support, 2) mentoring, and 3) independent reflective writing. Partnership practice that actively supports the emotions involved in working in partnership may encourage more partnerships in the future.