EVALUATION OF A STUDENTS AS PARTNER APPROACH IN PHASE 1 OF THE EARTH SCIENCE EXPERIENTIAL AND INDIGENOUS LEARNING (EASEIL) PROJECT

The Earth Science Experiential and Indigenous Learning (EaSEIL) project is a science faculty and curriculum development initiative at the University of British Columbia (UBC; located in Canada). EaSEIL broadly seeks to support a group of science instructors (n=20) to provide UBC students with increased opportunities for field-based science experiences, while also advancing UBC’s Indigenous Strategic Plan’s Call to Action to respectfully integrate Indigenous Knowledges, histories, contemporary perspectives, and ways of knowing into science courses. EaSEIL primarily supports faculty and curriculum development by engaging instructors in a formalized interdisciplinary community of practice, creating space for regular, ongoing individual and collaborative reflection, learning, and production. EaSEIL’s community of practice model includes students, as students are uniquely positioned to provide important insights into the course curriculum development efforts, due to their “end user” experiences of course curriculum and pedagogical approaches. As such, EaSEIL adapted a Students as Partners (SaP) theoretical framework (Cook-Sather, 2010), which engages students as co-creators and co-developers with instructor and faculty developer partners. In Phase 1 of EaSEIL (a 3-year initiative), project leaders conducted a preliminary needs assessment of instructor participants, identifying key topical areas of interest, related resource guide needs, and potential student-instructor curriculum development partnerships. Students were recruited based on overlap of their interests and the needs of instructors and faculty developers leading the community of practice. Students had a voice in choosing their projects. Students were contributing partners in the development of over 8 curriculum development and instructor resource guide creation projects (e.g., virtual field station tour, workshop-in-a-box, collecting student experience data, locating and selecting case studies for courses, evidence-based teaching practices literature reviews). Presented here are the evaluation results of Phase 1 of the SaP approach in the EaSEIL project, including a summary of student (n=7) survey and interview results, as well as lessons learned and recommendations for others employing a SaP approach.