{"id":112,"date":"2025-02-28T10:51:28","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T10:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/ALSPD\/?p=112"},"modified":"2025-03-05T18:47:07","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T18:47:07","slug":"collaboration-and-empowerment-through-staff-student-partnerships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/ALSPD\/index.php\/2025\/02\/28\/collaboration-and-empowerment-through-staff-student-partnerships\/","title":{"rendered":"Collaboration and Empowerment through Staff-Student Partnerships\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week\u2019s blog post is bought to you by an ALSPD Intern employed on a Student -Staff internship project (Gaynor Adkins) and their line manager (Clemmie Quinn).\u00a0 Internships are jointly organised by the Faculties of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the OU, and supports students to undertake a remote, \u2018virtual\u2019 internship. In this blog post, Gaynor explores how collaboration and empowerment can transform the educational experience for both students and educators.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Empowerment through coaching: How my Internship Experience Strengthened my Growth Mindset\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a fast-paced world where challenges arise daily, true empowerment comes from having the right support, encouragement and guidance. As an intern navigating the workplace as a neurodiverse student, I have experienced first-hand how a strong coaching culture within a team can shape not just skills but confidence, mindset and resilience. My creativity and visual thinking are integral to how I process and engage with the world, and having a supportive environment that values these strengths has been truly transformative. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most powerful models for understanding empowerment is the Empowerment Triangle, <\/span>as outlined in this post by The Profit Recipe<\/span><\/a>. Unlike traditional leadership approaches that may feel directive or controlling, this model fosters a sense of ownership, capability, and initiative. My manager and team have embodied this approach – using gentle guidance, encouragement, coaching and challenge to help me step into my full potential.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Empowerment Triangle in Action\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Empowerment Triangle shifts focus from dependency to ownership, moving away from a \u2018rescuer\u2019 mentality and towards true leadership and growth. The three key roles in this model – The Coach, The Creator and The Challenger – have all played a part in my student development during this internship.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Coach: Gentle Guidance and Encouragement<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    A great coach does not solve problems for you. Instead, they help you develop the skills to solve them yourself. As someone who is neurodiverse, I often process information differently relying on visual thinking, pattern recognition and creative problem solving. My manager has been incredibly supportive, offering clarity, checking in on my understanding and encouraging me to explore solutions in ways that align with my strengths. They have recognised that my creative approach to problem-solving is an asset, not a barrier. Their encouraging support has helped me build confidence in my abilities and trust my unique way of thinking.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. The Creator: Fostering a \u2018Can-Do\u2019 Mindset<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Empowerment thrives when individuals feel capable and encouraged to take ownership of their work. Within my team, I have been given the space to create, experiment and learn through action. Instead of fearing mistakes, I have learned to see them as opportunities for growth. My neurodiversity means I visualise solutions in ways that might be different from conventional approaches. Rather than seeing this as a limitation, my team has embraced my creative thinking as a strength. Whether through sketching ideas, using mind maps, or developing visual frameworks, I have been encouraged to develop my creative problem solving, which has reinforced my can-do\u2019 mindset where I believe in my ability to overcome obstacles in my own way.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        \n
      1. The Challenger: Pushing Beyond Comfort Zones<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        While encouragement is crucial, true empowerment also comes from being challenged. My manager and colleagues have pushed me to think critically, expand my skills and step beyond my comfort zone. They have not just offered praise but have asked thoughtful questions, encouraged self-reflection, and provided constructive feedback in ways that acknowledge my neurodiversity and creative process. At times, verbal or text-heavy instructions can feel overwhelming, but instead of seeing this as problem, my team has encouraged me to adapt processes to suit my thinking style. By using visual tools, diagrams, and structured frameworks, I have been able to navigate complex tasks more effectively. This has helped me develop resilience, adaptability and a deeper sense of self-reliance whilst staying true to how I work best.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        The Impact: Confidence, Growth, and Ownership\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Through this balanced approach of coaching, encouragement and challenge, I have grown not just professionally but personally. I feel empowered to step up, contribute ideas, and lead when needed. The result is not just improved performance but a stronger sense of purpose and self-belief.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        As a neurodiverse creative student, empowerment is not about changing who I am to fit a system; it is about creating an environment where diverse ways of thinking are valued and nurtured. Through coaching, encouragement, and challenge, my manager and team have given me the confidence to take ownership of my journey, and for that, I am deeply grateful.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        If we want to build stronger, more resilient teams, we need to embrace this approach, one that moves away from dependence and towards true empowerment. After all, the greatest leaders are those who help others realise their own potential.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        The Profit Recipe, 2025. Resolving conflict with the drama and empowerment triangles. <\/span>The Profit Recipe. <\/span><\/i>(Available at: <\/span>theprofitrecipe.com\/blog\/drama-triangle-and-empowerment-dynamic<\/span><\/a> (Accessed: 16 February 2025)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        \u00a0<\/span>Reflections from Clemmie <\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        Embedding Best Practice\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

        My professional background is centred on professional development, learning development, and student support and mentoring. These experiences provide positive influence in my approach to student partnerships.\u00a0 I have also been privileged to learn from my ALSPD Senior Managers who have expertise in EDIA concerns in HE. A key commitment in our practice as a Student-Staff Project Team, has been an openness to dismantling traditional power hierarchies. Prior to the placement of our project interns, we critically reflected on our own positionality, our reflexivity and possible approaches to empower our intern students as partners in our project.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        There is much in the literature around HE student-staff partnerships and relational pedagogy to consider.\u00a0 In particular, we identified the three principles of respect, reciprocity and responsibility (Cook-Sather, Bovill and Felton, 2014) that should frame the relationships between interns and staff. We recognised the importance of operationalising these concepts in ways to sustain and ensure collaboration.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        As a project team, we carefully co-created an internship experience designed to be mutually beneficial. We have embedded reflection opportunities throughout, recognising that in any scholarly approach to teaching and learning, continuous self-examination is essential. Our focus was not just on project outcomes but on cultivating an environment where all felt valued, heard, and empowered. The \u2018internship\u2019 element of the partnership has taken centre-stage, as we ensure that tasks are leveraged to achieve a student intern\u2019s identified employability goals. It is important to remember that student-staff partnerships can be used to benefit the individual student as well as the institution (Murray, 2023) and this is an important consideration to enable a more equitable and democratic partnership.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        Moving to consider my own practice, I continue to incorporate my strengths-focused approach as a manager. I also draw on principles from mentoring and coaching which are key elements of my practice as an educational developer supporting tutors on work-based learning programmes.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        The Empowerment Dynamic\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Student-staff partnerships can be deeply rewarding relationships, but also require intentional effort to navigate effectively. Haywood and Darko (2021), observe that \u201cto achieve a nuanced level of partnership with a student is time consuming; it requires an often unquantifiable commitment\u201d. I\u2019m personally prepared to commit whatever it takes to ensure an effective partnership, but I did find myself wondering what practical solutions in our settings there might be outside of the existing literature on relational pedagogy (Bovill 2020; Hickey and Riddle 2022).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        Fortuitously, I came across\u202f<\/span>The Empowerment Dynamic<\/span><\/i>\u202f(TED),<\/span><\/a> leading to Gaynor (intern project partner) and I discussing excitedly how there were parallels in our own student-staff project. This alternative model to <\/span>Karpman\u2019s Drama Triangle<\/span><\/a> offers a framework to use in workplace relationships (and others) that enhances growth and collaboration rather than reinforcing cycles of dysfunction. It therefore provides an alternative lens through which to operationalise the complex dynamics inherent in student-staff partnerships.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        TED reimagines relational roles whilst traditional hierarchical structures (such as Student\/Educator) often position individuals in static roles.\u00a0 Utilising this model may help those in staff-student partnerships enable an empowered environment and provide a pragmatic way to operationalise the previously mentioned values of respect, reciprocity and responsibility.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        One might assume that a Project Lead, Intern, and Intern Manager naturally align with the roles of\u202f<\/span>Challenger<\/span><\/i>,\u202f<\/span>Creator<\/span><\/i>, and\u202f<\/span>Coach<\/span><\/i> respectively. However, within a project team setting, we might fluidly move between different positions on The Empowerment Dynamic triangulation.\u00a0 For example, in a mature, established partnership there might be discussion of lived experience with a neurodivergent student. They may communicate how their institutional relationship has been impacted, and their identified solution. This student becomes ‘the challenger’ advocating for their personal values, communicating their truth and trusting in solutions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        Practical Applications?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

        It is one thing to conceptually engage with academic literature and models; it is another to consciously integrate them into our work. Due to marketisation, and the increased scrutiny on the relationship between universities and students (and society) we will undoubtedly see student-staff partnerships increase in our sector.\u00a0 We need to ensure that there are effective and efficient ways to implement these in our settings, whilst simultaneously ensuring \u201ca meaningful dispersal of power from the traditional top-down approach\u201d (Thomas, 2021).\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        Perhaps those practical relational frameworks (like TED), that exist outside of the pedagogical literature can offer us something? I invite others preparing to engage in a student partnership to consider TED alongside other relationship based\/interaction models (e.g. servant leadership? developmental model of trust?) that may provide effective ways of working for student-staff partnerships in HE.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        References\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Cook-Sather, A., Bovill, C. and Felten, P. (2014) <\/span>Engaging Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching : a Guide for Faculty<\/span><\/i>. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Available at: <\/span>https:\/\/ebookcentral.proquest.com\/lib\/open\/detail.action?docID=1650837<\/span><\/a> (Accessed: 27 February 2025).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        Bovill, C. (2020) \u2018Co-creation in Learning and teaching: the Case for a whole-class Approach in Higher Education\u2019, <\/span>Higher Education<\/span><\/i>, 79(6), pp. 1023\u20131037. Available at: <\/span>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s10734-019-00453-w<\/span><\/a>. (Accessed: 27 February 2025).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        Haywood, M.-M. and Darko, A. (2021) \u2018Breaking barriers: using mentoring to transform representation, identity and marginalisation in black higher education students\u2019, <\/span>The Journal of Educational Innovation, Partnership and Change<\/span><\/i>, 7(1). Available at: <\/span>https:\/\/journals.studentengagement.org.uk\/index.php\/studentchangeagents\/article\/view\/1026<\/span><\/a> (Accessed: 27 February 2025).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        Hickey, A. and Riddle, S. (2021) \u2018Relational Pedagogy and the Role of Informality in Renegotiating Learning and Teaching Encounters\u2019, <\/span>Pedagogy, Culture & Society<\/span><\/i>, pp. 1\u201313. Available at: <\/span>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/14681366.2021.1875261<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        Murray, R. (2023) \u2018The Capability Approach, Pedagogic Rights and Course Design: Developing Autonomy and Reflection through Student-Led, Individually Created Courses\u2019, <\/span>Journal of Human Development and Capabilities<\/span><\/i>, 25(1), pp. 131\u2013150. Available at: <\/span>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/19452829.2023.2261856<\/span><\/a>. (Accessed: 27 February 2025).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

        Thomas, L. (2021) \u2018#Ibelong: Towards a Sense of Belonging in an Inclusive Learning Environment\u2019, <\/span>Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning<\/span><\/i>, 23(3), pp. 68\u201379. Available at: <\/span>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5456\/wpll.23.3.68<\/span><\/a>. (Accessed: 27 February 2025).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        This week\u2019s blog post is bought to you by an ALSPD Intern employed on a Student -Staff internship project (Gaynor Adkins) and their line manager (Clemmie Quinn).\u00a0 Internships are jointly organised by the Faculties of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/ALSPD\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/ALSPD\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/ALSPD\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/ALSPD\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/ALSPD\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/ALSPD\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/ALSPD\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions\/117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/ALSPD\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/ALSPD\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/ALSPD\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}