Pedagogical Partnership Program at UNM-Valencia Campus

Today’s Valencia students represent a rich diversity of backgrounds and experiences. They include dual-credit students, single parents, veterans, full-time employees, members of the sandwich generation, and first-generation college students. Some are non-native English speakers, while others are adult learners attending college for the first time or returning to college to sharpen job skills. Though their backgrounds differ, they have a common aspiration: to create a better life for themselves and their families.

As they embark on their academic journey, these students face demanding work schedules, family obligations, and academic responsibilities. While sitting in class, some may be preoccupied with how to pay their next bill, while others worry about caring for a sick family member or an aging grandparent. For these students, staying focused in the classroom can be a struggle. At the same time, faculty members experience their own challenges as they strive to foster student participation and keep them intellectually engaged.

The Pedagogical Partnership Program (3P) offers support for student engagement with potential benefits for both students and faculty. Although it is the first initiative of its kind in New Mexico, similar programs have been successfully implemented at colleges and universities worldwide for nearly a decade. The 3P creates opportunities for faculty and students to collaboratively cultivate an inclusive learning environment—a space where students feel part of a supportive learning community and faculty can actively engage them and empower them to take ownership of their education.

At UNM-Valencia, we remain committed to serving our students by fostering these partnerships and ensuring that every classroom is a place where learning thrives.

What it is

Pedagogical Partnership is “a collaborative, reciprocal process through which all participants have the opportunity to contribute equally, although not necessarily in the same way, to curricular or pedagogical conceptualization, decision making, implementation, investigation, or analysis”.¹ The partnership involves faculty and students working as collaborative partners to identify implicit assumptions and critically reflect on their experiences, while building a trusting relationship to enhance the faculty's teaching that works for both the faculty and the students.  The process empowers both the faculty-partners and student-partners to co-create an all-inclusive learning environment. This is done intentionally to engage students and ultimately increase the course retention rate and possibly the graduation rate of the college. Since proposed by Alison Cook-Sather and Peter Felten in 2017,² the benefits of the Pedagogical Partnership Program (3P) on students, faculty, and the institution have been well demonstrated by research. Today, it is being practiced at many colleges and universities across the globe. For additional information regarding pedagogical partnerships, please visit Alisoncooksather.com.

 

Based on a framework that emphasizes sharing, creativity, active learning, and student research opportunities, the foundational value of the 3P is trust—the trust between the student-partner and the faculty-partner as well as among the student-partners, the faculty-partners, and the institutional lead. Operating under the Program’s principles--respect, reciprocity, and shared responsibility--the ultimate goal of the 3P is to foster a more inclusive classroom that actively engages students in their learning. It is an avenue to co-create a collegial partnership between a student-partner and a faculty-partner that harnesses the student-partner’s unique perspective and candid feedback while meaningfully instigating the faculty’s reflection on an equitable and inclusive course design. The partnership also explores innovative pedagogical approaches while cultivating a sense of belonging among students, especially minoritized students, thus raising their level of active learning. More importantly, the purpose of the 3P aligns with UNM-Valencia’s Strategic Plan Vision Defined: “Build a pedagogical framework that emphasizes sharing, creativity, student research opportunities, and active learning”.  UNM-Valencia is the first institution of higher education in New Mexico to participate in this innovative pedagogical initiative. Together with six other universities nationwide, the 3P is part of a national project under the SCIENCE Collaborative.

 

According to Pedagogical Partnerships: A How-To-Guide for Faculty, Students, and Academic Developers in Higher Education,³ the benefits of 3P are as follows: 

Benefits to the Faculty-Partners

• Allows faculty-partners to reflect on their pedagogy, receive meaningful feedback from the student-partners, and work collaboratively to meet their teaching goals.
• Leverages the valuable perspective and camaraderie student-partners offer to cultivate a sense of belonging for the students in the class. This is a contrast to the pedagogical solitude they were previously involved in.
• Helps faculty meet students where they are while heightening their sense of empathy, understanding, and appreciation for students.

Benefits to the Student-Partners

• Cultivates a meaningful and trusting relationship with professors as people while taking an active role in their college academic life.
• Develops a deeper understanding of teaching and learning from their shared responsibility in promoting active learning and co-creating course design.
• Empowers student-partners’ self-efficacy in their academic journey while gaining confidence.

Benefits to Other Students

• Raises their sense of belonging as the classroom is transformed into a more inclusive learning environment where they feel they are part of a learning community.
• Increases the likelihood of course retention when they are more engaged in their own learning.

Benefits to the Campus Culture

• Fosters a sense of belonging and effectuates retention of students and faculty.
• Transforms the traditional context of higher education hierarchy into “a more egalitarian learning community that supports equity-seeking students and culturally sustaining pedagogical practices”.⁴

We appreciate your interest in learning more about the Program. For additional information, please contact:

The AY2025-26 faculty-partners:
Cindi Goodman
Sarah Heyward

 

The AY2025-26 student-partners:
Esther Grace Cordova
Eden Ortega

We are currently recruiting full-time faculty members as faculty-partners and second- or third-year students as student-partners for AY 2026-27. Adjunct faculty, dual credit students, and first-year students are not eligible to participate at this time. If you are interested, please complete this form. We will respond to your request within one week. Thank you for your interest!

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References

¹ Cook-Sather, Alison, Catherine Bovill, and Peter Felten. 2014. Engaging Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching: A Guide for Faculty. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. pp. 6 – 7.
² Cook-Sather, Alison and Peter Felten. “Where Student Engagement Meets Faculty Development: How Student-Faculty Pedagogical Partnership Fosters a Sense of Belonging.” 2017. Student Engagement in Higher Education Journal 1(2): 3 -9.
³ Cook-Sather, Alison, Melanie Bahti, and Anita Ntem. 2019. Pedagogical Partnerships: A how-to-Guide for Faculty, Students, and Academic Developers in High Education. Open Access Book Series. Elon University Center for Engaged Learning. DOI https://doi.org/10.36284/celelon.oa1
⁴ Cook-Sather, Alison, Sri Krishna Prasad, Elizabeth Marquis and Anita Ntem. 2019. “Mobilizing a Culture Shift on Campus: Underrepre-sented Students as Educational Developers.” New Directions for Teaching and Learning 159: 21–30. DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.20345