The Students as Partners Podcast

Recorded live at the 2025 Students as Partners Community Forum at McMaster University's MacPherson Institute, this panel brings together two of the International Journal for Students as Partners editorial teams for a conversation about what it means to run an academic journal as a student-staff partnership.
Alison Cook-Sather, Brisa Kane, Amrita "Nikki" Kaur, Samarah Maqbool, Ian Steinberg, and Vivi Wei Zou discuss what student and faculty editors discover through editorial partnership, how the partnership model challenges traditional academic hierarchies, and what makes IJSaP's open, dialogic review process different from conventional peer review.
Articles mentioned in this episode:
Cook-Sather, A., & Healey, R. L. (2024). Toward greater transparency and inclusion in manuscript review processes: A relational model. https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.12.23
Cook-Sather, A., Braud, A., Kane, B., & Suresh, A. (2024). How student-faculty pedagogical partnerships counter adultism in higher education. https://taboojournalcom.files.wordpress.com/2024/03/07cooksatheretal.pdf

The final episode of the season features the opening plenary session of MacPherson Institute's 2024 Students as Partners Community Forum. It was recorded on May 28, 2024 and was hosted by Antonio Dos Santos. The participants included Anita Acai (Assistant Professor of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University), Beth Marquis (Director of the Arts & Science Program at McMaster University and Associate Professor in the Arts & Science Program and the School of the Arts), Roselynn Verwoord (Strategist for University of British Columbia’s Students as Partners Initiative), and Cherie Woolmer (Assistant Professor and Canada Research Chair in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, based in the Mokakiiks Centre for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at Mount Royal University).

"The Students as Partners Podcast" is produced by the Paul R. MacPhersion Institute for Leadership, Innovation, and Excellence in Teaching at McMaster University.

Hosted by Antonio Dos Santos.

Produced and Edited by Ian Steinberg.

Contact the show at: MI_SAP@mcmaster.ca

Theme music by:

Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com
Track: Cassette and TV by automaticbananas
https://tunetank.com/track/5887-cassette-and-tv/

Antonio has a conversation with Roselynn Verwoord, strategist for University of British Columbia’s Students as Partners Initiative, and Rohil Sharma, UBC student and SAP Initiative Coordinator. They discuss the impact of the SAP Initiative on curriculum design at UBC, the benefits of meaningful partnerships between students and faculty, and how the initiative has adapted to challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Students as Partners Project Profile: Curricular development project for Introductory Sanskrit with UBC Lecturer Janet Um and undergraduate UBC student partner Zoe Duquette.

"The Students as Partners Podcast" is produced by the Paul R. MacPhersion Institute for Leadership, Innovation, and Excellence in Teaching at McMaster University.

Hosted by Antonio Dos Santos.

Produced and Edited by Ian Steinberg.

Contact the show at: MI_SAP@mcmaster.ca

Theme music by:

Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com
Track: Cassette and TV by automaticbananas
https://tunetank.com/track/5887-cassette-and-tv/

Antonio has a conversation with Glenda Cox, an associate professor at the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching, and Christine Immenga, the senior coordinator of student governance in the Office of Student Development, both at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. They discuss their involvement in the Students as Partners program, the integration of student partnerships in the creation of open educational resources, the benefits of these partnerships in enhancing student agency and inclusion, and the global development of SaP, particularly in relation to decolonizing curricula and fostering equitable and humanizing pedagogies.

Students as Partners Project Profile: "DALA iiNkokheli" means "Create Leaders" in isiXhosa and is a Student Staff Partnership project conducted by UCT's Leadership Academy. The participants include UCT graduate student partners Joe-Dean Roberts, Esai Reddy, and Shalom Abiodun and staff partners Charmaine January and Christine Immenga.

"The Students as Partners Podcast" is produced by the Paul R. MacPhersion Institute for Leadership, Innovation, and Excellence in Teaching at McMaster University.

Hosted by Antonio Dos Santos.

Produced and Edited by Ian Steinberg.

Contact the show at: MI_SAP@mcmaster.ca

Theme music by:

Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com
Track: Cassette and TV by automaticbananas
https://tunetank.com/track/5887-cassette-and-tv/

Antonio has a conversation with Alison Cook-Sather who is the Mary Katharine Woodworth Professor of Education at Bryn Mawr College and the Director of the Teaching and Learning Institute at Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges. They discuss the development and impact of SALT the "Students as Learners and Teachers" program, the importance of context to  student partnerships, the global development of student partnership programs, and how different cultural and institutional contexts influence the design of SaP programs.

Students as Partners Project Profile: "CATALYST: Community Advocates for Teaching and Learning Yields in STEM" with Mara Wald (recent graduate and student consultant at Bryn Mawr College) and Adam Williamson (Assistant Professor of Biology, Bryn Mawr College).

"The Students as Partners Podcast" is produced by the Paul R. MacPhersion Institute for Leadership, Innovation, and Excellence in Teaching at McMaster University.

Hosted by Antonio Dos Santos.

Produced and Edited by Ian Steinberg.

Contact the show at: MI_SAP@mcmaster.ca

Theme music by:

Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com
Track: Cassette and TV by automaticbananas
https://tunetank.com/track/5887-cassette-and-tv/