Currently reading McConnell et al. (2025): “‘My input was actually being listened to and could lead to real change’: Developing trust through student voice in student-staff partnerships”

In this very cool project, 8 student researchers interviewed students and staff from 4 different institutions about trust and partnership under the overarching goal of exploring how to strengthen student voice.

Success of partnership, or students as partners, or co-creation, of course depends on trusting relationships between all partners, and that might not always be easy to achieve since there are unavoidably power imbalances at play as well as just humans involved. However, it is possible to build trust, and McConnell et al. (2025) develop a model that requires six interconnected components:

• Realistic expectations about how partnership can work and of the partners. This includes that job descriptions when hiring students need to accurately reflect the actually tasks they will work with, and that there still needs to be an overall direction provided from the staff despite being in partnership
• Power dynamics and power imbalances need to be acknowledged and deliberately counteracted
• Impact feels rewarding and makes work meaningful. It also strengthens trust in the institution, and reinforces commitment
• Empathy is really important to facilitate honest conversation, and that includes that teachers cannot constantly tell students how busy they are, because that can create the impression that they are not available to support students and make students not want to impose on them
• Inclusivity and a feeling of being heard also with usually underrepresented voices. Participants agree that it is the staff members’ job to create an inclusive atmosphere
• Authenticity both in that partners present themselves as who they are as a person, but also that they are open about their motives for contributing in the project.

McConnell et al. (2025) find several implication for partnership projects:

1. Staff needs preparation and possibly support to lead a partnership project and build a trusting environment
2. Expectations need to be agreed upon at the very beginning of a project, for example in partnership agreements
3. Actively work to reduce power inequalities, for example by encouraging students to lead parts of the project, meetings, etc
4. Recognize participants both within the project but also when it is reported on to the outside (and that is where I am wondering what happened to the 5 of 8 student researchers that conducted interviews but are not co-authors of this article, nor acknowledged by name here?)

Anyway, this study brings up a lot of good points to consider when working in partnership with students and is definitely a useful read for anyone starting out with this kind of work!

McConnell, C., Smith, S., Olomu, K., King, E., Ghosh, O., & Hamshire, C. (2025). ‘My input was actually being listened to and could lead to real change’: Developing trust through student voice in student-staff partnerships. Student Engagement in Higher Education Journal, 7(1), 219-236.

Featured image from a nice walk with Kirsty and Rachel during the summer. That’s how long I’ve had this draft open on my computer…