When engaging students as partners fails: the ease of maintaining the status quo.
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| Title: | When engaging students as partners fails: the ease of maintaining the status quo. |
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| Authors: | Zhang, Meng (AUTHOR), Matthews, Kelly E. (AUTHOR), Liu, Shuang (AUTHOR) |
| Source: | Studies in Higher Education. Sep2026, Vol. 51 Issue 9, p1985-1997. 13p. |
| Subjects: | Higher education, Power (Social sciences), Collaborative learning, Organizational structure, Partnerships in education, Social theory, Bourdieu, Pierre, 1930-2002 |
| Abstract: | Responding to the rising scholarly call to investigate and report the challenges and risks of engaging students as partners (SaP), this article investigates an instance of failure to shift the traditional power relationship between students and teachers in partnership practices. Data were collected through individual interviews, focus groups, documents, and observations of the partnership project group meetings over one semester (16 weeks). Drawing on Bourdieu's social field theory, we found that teachers and students unconsciously reproduced their established habitus and reinforced existing rules in the higher education (HE) field. The institutional hierarchical structure and teachers' precarious employment status constrained the ability to enact a collaborative, dialogic student–teacher relationship in partnership. The constraints of the neoliberal HE landscape and culture are made more visible through Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, capital, and field. Our analysis reveals that the reproduction of hierarchical relationship in partnership might not happen by chance but reflected tensions between the logic of practice in HE field and partnership values. The challenge of SaP lies in negotiating the cross-field tensions and preventing the reproduction of positions during the shift to a field. We argue that new possibilities emerge for SaP scholarship when the logic of HE is considered as a lens for analysis, shifting the dominant focus away from individual experiences. Future research can better capture and name the constraints and obstacles that impact student–teacher partnership beyond individual practices and aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: | Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection |
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| Abstract: | Responding to the rising scholarly call to investigate and report the challenges and risks of engaging students as partners (SaP), this article investigates an instance of failure to shift the traditional power relationship between students and teachers in partnership practices. Data were collected through individual interviews, focus groups, documents, and observations of the partnership project group meetings over one semester (16 weeks). Drawing on Bourdieu's social field theory, we found that teachers and students unconsciously reproduced their established habitus and reinforced existing rules in the higher education (HE) field. The institutional hierarchical structure and teachers' precarious employment status constrained the ability to enact a collaborative, dialogic student–teacher relationship in partnership. The constraints of the neoliberal HE landscape and culture are made more visible through Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, capital, and field. Our analysis reveals that the reproduction of hierarchical relationship in partnership might not happen by chance but reflected tensions between the logic of practice in HE field and partnership values. The challenge of SaP lies in negotiating the cross-field tensions and preventing the reproduction of positions during the shift to a field. We argue that new possibilities emerge for SaP scholarship when the logic of HE is considered as a lens for analysis, shifting the dominant focus away from individual experiences. Future research can better capture and name the constraints and obstacles that impact student–teacher partnership beyond individual practices and aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| ISSN: | 03075079 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/03075079.2025.2552826 |
