Slides from a session with Roselynn Verwoord, Conan Veitch, Yahlnaaw, and Heather Smith from the Symposium 2018 held on October 24, 2018 in Vancouver, B.C.
Unpacking Power Hierarchies in Students as Partners Practices
1. Unpacking Power Hierarchies in
Students as Partners Practices
Roselynn Verwoord (UBC), Conan Veitch (UNBC), Yahlnaaw
(UNBC), Heather Smith (UNBC)
BC Campus 2018 Symposium: Scholarly Teaching & Learning in Post-Secondary
Education
October 24, 2018
2. Our Team: Heather Smith
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By training, I’m a critical feminist with a PhD in Political
Science and I’m located in an interdisciplinary
department of Global and International Studies at the
University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC). My
area of ‘expertise’ is gender and Canadian foreign policy
and lately I’ve been working on questions related to how
settlers unpack their colonial training as they work to be
allies in processes of decolonization. I’m also the former
Director of the Centre for Teaching, Learning and
Technology at UNBC, a 3M National Teaching Fellow
and a BCCampus Scholarly Teaching Fellow for 2018-
2019.
3. Our Team: Yahlnaaw
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Jah! Xaaydaga ‘las! Yahlnaaw han.nuu dii kiiGa ga. HlGaagilda Xaayda
Gwaii sda.uu hll iigiing. ‘Lax Kxeen’ sda.uu hll na.uu dii gun.
Way.yad.uu ‘Nizdeh Nekeyoh Hohudel'eh Baiyoh’, Prince George
guu.uu hll naa.uu-dii ga. T’aawgiiwat han.nuu NaanGa kiiGa ga.
Jaasquan han.nuu dii awGa kiiGa ga. Bruce han.nuu dii Gung.Ga kiiGa
ga. GiidahlGuuhll.aay han.nuu dii dawGanas kiiGa ga.
“Hey! Wonderful People! My name is Yahlnaaw which broadly
translates to “leads an exceptional life”. I am from Skidegate, Haida
Gwaii. I was born and raised in Prince Rupert on Ts’msyen territory. I
am attending post-secondary education at the University of Northern
British Columbia in Prince George on Lheidli T’enneh territory. My
Grandmother’s name is T’aawgiiwat. My Mother’s name is Jaaskwan.
My father’s name is Bruce. My sister’s name is GiidahlGuuhlaay.” I am
a member of the Raven Clan and we have many crests as we are from
a Chief’s family.
4. Session Outline & Outcomes
● Welcome & Introductions
● Our Research/Inquiry Questions
● Overview of Partnership Literature
● The P.O.W.E.R. Framework
● Our Experiences
● Discussion
● Questions, Comments, Closing
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By the end of this session
participants will have…
- learned about the
P.O.W.E.R framework
- engaged in their own
reflective practice on
students as partners using
the P.O.W.E.R. framework
our team created
5. Partnership in Theory
“a specific form of student engagement, partnership is a way of doing things,
rather than an outcome in itself” (Healey et al., 2014, p. 2).
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6. Partnership in Practice
● Requires navigating the difficult terrain of power hierarchies
● Careful thought and attention needed by all partners
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7. Our Research/Inquiry Question
● How do we adopt the students as partners concept in a way that is sensitive
to embedded power hierarchies?
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8. Current Literature: Power & Partnership
● Key Themes:
○ Power differentials based on authority, institutional status and expertise” (Weller et
al., 2013, p. 11).
○ Power related to socially constructed roles of student or faculty or staff (Bovill et
al., 2016; Kehler et al., 2017)
■ Roles as dynamic, fluid, often overlapping, and context specific (Kehler et al.,
2017; Weller et al., 2013).
○ Power of non-action, misrepresentation (Weller et al., 2013) and the power of
silences (Kehler et al., 2017; Seale et al., 2015; Smith, 2017)
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9. Impetus: P.O.W.E.R Framework
- Importance of being attentive to both conscious and unconscious habits and
behaviors (Matthews, 2018, p. 2).
- Importance of ongoing and regular reflective practice, relationship building,
conversation, and dialogue (see Allin, 2014; Bovill et al., 2016; Cates et al.,
2018; Kehler et al., 2017; Matthews, 2018; Weller et al., 2013).
But what does this look like in partnerships?
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10. P.O.W.E.R. Framework
P - Positionality
O - Openness
W - Willingness
E - Ethnocentrism
R - Reflexivity
(Verwoord & Smith, in press)
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● Prompt reflection on dimensions shaping
power relations in partnership
● Emphasis on individuals - enhance
awareness of dimensions shaping power
● Includes questions to support reflection
11. Positionality
“Ability to consider one’s position and social location and to view these aspects as relational,
where context and aspects of our identities (i.e. gender, race, class, etc.) are fluid and
changing (Alcoff, 1988)”
Involves individuals taking up a position within a context (i.e. a partnership) and constructing
meaning from this position (Alcoff, 1988).
Reflective questions:
● What subject position am I taking up?
● How much power do I have in this partnership, based on the position and social
location that I occupy?
● How much power do others have in this partnership, based on their positions and social
locations? 11
12. Openness
Desire to explore what might be possible
Involves:
- Asking questions about the purpose, goals, vision, and desires that partners have for the
partnership.
- Embracing the process of partnership in its myriad of forms - messy, challenging, and
exhilarating, yet also ripe with possibilities for individual and collective growth
Reflective questions:
● What are my goals and intentions for participating in this partnership?
● What are my partners’ goals and intentions?
● To what extent am I open to the process of partnership?
● To what extent are my partners open to the process of partnership?
● How will I know if I and others are being open throughout the partnership?
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13. Willingness (to invest time in the process)
Involves the concept of temporality, which can be understood as past, present, and future,
as well as space, place and one’s being.
Involves:
- Individuals determining how much time they have to participate in the partnership and
relationship building, and to what extent participating is a priority.
Reflective Questions:
● Am I/will I be an important stakeholder in this partnership?
● Does the partnership process/proposed partnership process attend to aspects that are
important to me?
● Am I/will I make the time to build the relationships so essential to this process?
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14. Ethnocentrism
Having the attitude that one’s own group is superior
Can take the form of partners making assumptions about each other, based on labels such as
Faculty member, student, staff members, etc.
Whether intentional or not, making assumptions about various groups (Faculty, student staff) can
limit what is possible in partnerships.
Reflective Questions:
● Does this partnership imply that anyone who disagrees with what is proposed is wrong?
● Does the partnership acknowledge that there are other logical ways of looking at the same
issue?
● Am I making assumptions about certain groups of people, based on a homogenized label
such as Faculty, student, or staff member?
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15. Reflexivity
“The ability to recognize how individuals are shaped by and can shape their environment
and how the self and other exist in relation”
Supports individuals to “open new ways of addressing…long-standing questions of how and
what we can legitimately take ourselves to know and what the limitations of our knowledge
are” (Davies et al., 2004, p. 364).
Reflective Questions:
● How are my interests and actions being shaped, supported, or limited by the interests
and actions of others?
● How are my actions or inactions shaping the experience of others in the partnership?
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16. Operationalizing the P.O.W.E.R Framework
● Tool to help explore the micro (i.e. the everyday) and the sometimes hidden aspects of
power in our practices.
● Tool to foster rich and provocative conversations.
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17. Activity: Individual Reflection & Small Group Discussion
● How do you currently address sites of power in your partnership processes
and practices?
● Do you have tools that you use to guide conversations about power?
● How might the P.O.W.E.R framework be helpful in your partnership
practices?
● How would you add to or expand the framework?
● How might you introduce the framework into your conversations?
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18. Concluding Thoughts
● Power is central to all of our students-as-partners relationships and practices.
● Need to move beyond acknowledging power and begin to unpack it - to work
collaboratively to identify the sites and sources of power in our own unique contexts.
“Our conversations have shown us that actively engaging in reflection about the dimensions
of power shaping partnerships helps us to navigate partnerships in ways that are thoughtful
and respectful while simultaneously building trust. We continue to learn from each other
because ‘we are the process’ (Kehler et al., 2017)”
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20. References
Alcoff, L. (1988). Cultural feminism versus post-structuralism: The identity crisis in feminist theory. Signs, 13(3), 405-436.
Allin, L. (2014). Collaboration between staff and students in the scholarship of teaching and learning: The potential and
the problems. Teaching and Learning Inquiry, 2(1), 95-102.
Bovill, C., Cook-Sather, A., Felten, P., Millard, L., & Moore-Cherry, N. (2016). Addressing potential challenges in co-
creating learning and teaching: Overcoming resistance, navigating institutional norms, and ensuring inclusivity in student-
staff partnerships. Higher Education, 71(2), 195-208.
Cates, R., Madigan M., & Reitenauer, V. (2018). Locations of possibility - Critical perspectives on partnership.
International Journal of Students as Partners, 2(1), 33-46.
Davies, B., Browne, J., Gannon, S., Honan, E., Laws, C., Mueller-Rockstroh, B., & Peterson, E. B. (2004). The
ambivalent practices of reflexivity. Qualitative Inquiry, 10(3), 360-389.
Healey, M., Flint, A., & Harrington, K. (2016). Students as partners: Reflections on a Conceptual Model. Teaching &
Learning Inquiry, 4(2). http://dx.doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.4.2.3
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21. References - Continued
Kehler, A., Verwoord, R., and Smith, H. (2017). “We are the Process: Reflections on the Underestimation of Power in
Students as Partners in Practice.” International Journal for Students as Partners 1(1): 1-15.
https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v1i1.3176
Matthews, K. (2018) Engaging students as participants and partners: an argument for partnership with students in higher
education research on student success. International Journal of Chinese Education, 7 1: 42-64. doi:10.1163/22125868-
12340089
Seale J., Gibson S., Haynes J., & Potter, A. (2015). Power and resistance: Reflections on the Rhetoric and Reality of Using
Participatory Methods to Promote Student Voice and Engagement in Higher Education, Journal of Further and Higher
Education, 39:4, 534-552, DOI: 10.1080/0309877X.2014.938264
Smith, H. (2017). Unlearning: A messy and complex journey with Canadian foreign policy. International Journal, 72(2), 203–
216.
Weller, S., Domarkaite, G. C., Joseph, L. C. L., & Metta, L. U. (2013). Student-faculty co-inquiry into student reading:
Recognising SoTL as pedagogic practice. International Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 7(2), 1-16.
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