Document Type

Research Paper

Publication Date

2026

Abstract

Student-faculty partnerships, such as instructional partnerships, have been shown to benefit both students and faculty members who engage in them. This form of collaboration does not commonly occur at public, comprehensive universities, especially in the field of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD). The purpose of this study was to understand the perspectives of CSD faculty on collaborating with students as instructional partners (IP), as there is limited research on it. IPs are students who have successfully taken a class in the recent past, attend the course in a subsequent semester, and meet after each class with the professor to discuss what went well and what improvements to make for the future (Hemmerich et al., 2015). Since IPs work alongside the professor and not for a grade, power differentials are deconstructed, offering the opportunity for genuine, honest feedback (Bovill et al., 2011). The researcher conducted one-on-one qualitative interviews with CSD faculty at universities in the Midwest to collect data on their perspectives on IPs. Results showed that most CSD faculty see many benefits of having an IP for themselves and for the student. However, they expressed other concerns regarding IPs that they potentially foresee. Many concluded that incorporating IPs into their university would be logistically difficult and may require creative solutions if they were to attempt something such as IPs. The findings of this research may encourage other CSD faculty members to collaborate with students in partnership to create a more effective teaching and learning environment for themselves and for their students.

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