Engaging the Global Past through Relational Course Revision: Reflections on the Impact of Student-Faculty Partnerships

At UBC, year-long courses are not so simply the sum of two, term-length courses. How, then, might one approach the pedagogical challenge of revising a year-long course into just that—two distinct courses? This was the dilemma that our Student-Faculty partnership embraced as we came together to collaborate, redesign, and split a longstanding survey course in the History curriculum into two revised courses.

In session, you will hear from each member of our partnership as we reflect on how we navigated an institutional directive and transformed it into a transformational learning experience that built and sustained care and connection within our partnership—moving, in other words, from “surviving to sustaining.” Whether you are a faculty member, teaching assistant, undergraduate student, specialist in pedagogy, or an interested member of the UBC teaching and learning community, we intend this session to be a collaborative space to discuss a case study that has applications for future “Students as Partners” projects and other relational pedagogical initiatives.

By the end of this section, you will be able to

1. describe the “Student as Partners” approach and how it can be used to creatively address pedagogical challenges
2. identify some examples of what the “Student as Partners” approach can respectively offer faculty and student partners
3. interrogate the impact that relational pedagogies like “Students as Partners” can have in and beyond the classroom
4. begin brainstorming some ways that this approach might be applied to a current or future pedagogical challenge or initiative in your own context