Forming equitable partnerships with black students

Abstract

Partnerships are conceptualised as having a meaningful outcome that should feed back into the organisation that initially “suggested” partnership, and provide a platform for change (Mitchell, Cordell & Fam, 2016; Kligyte, 2021). Student staff partnerships should produce new knowledge that can be used to re-imagine the status quo and make meaningful change for the benefit of similar stakeholders, to the student, but also for the organisation. This discussion will use the framework of Partnership Outcome Spaces as posited by Kligeyte et al. (2021) to drill deeper into the effective design of partnerships with black students. The relationship between personal intention and organizational intention is explored looking at competing narratives, financial barriers, and success as defined by black staff and students. A critical component of this discussion is representation, and how it factors into both strategic decision making and the one-to-one interaction between black staff and students concerning their learning experiences.