“I Saw a Change”: Enhancing Classroom Equity through Student-Faculty Pedagogical Partnership

Persistent inequities in access to and experiences of learning in postsecondary education have been well documented. In line with efforts to redress these inequities and develop more just institutions, this study explores the potential for pedagogical partnerships in which students and faculty collaborate on teaching and learning initiatives to contribute to classroom equity. We investigate this issue by drawing on qualitative interviews with students who have participated in extracurricular pedagogical partnership programs in institutions in Canada and the United States, and who identify as members of marginalized groups (e.g., racialized students, 2SLGBTQ+ students, students from religious minorities, disabled students). While much existing research on equity and student-faculty partnership primarily focuses on the outcomes of partnership for participating students, we instead investigate students’ perceptions of the extent to which their partnership efforts contributed to wider impacts—such as developments in faculty thinking and teaching practice and student experiences in the classroom. We also consider challenges students noted connected to power imbalances and faculty resistance, which influence partnership’s capacity to contribute to equity and raise important considerations for those interested in partnership practice.