Friday, December 14, 2018

Reflective Essay: Co-Researching Co-Creation of the Curriculum

Last year, I shared on this blog some of my reflections on co-researching co-creation of the curriculum and my experiences of working with students as partners as part of my PhD research in this area. After this time, I was thrilled that Hermina Simoni wanted to carry on this partnership work by writing a reflective essay about our experiences of using arts-based methods together, and that she shared with me about co-production in her subject area of health care. I learnt a lot throughout this collaborative work, and I'm thrilled to now share our work in our new publication.

Co-researching co-creation of the curriculum: Reflections on arts-based methods in education and connections to healthcare co-production
International Journal of Students as Partners

Summary of our reflective essay:
Our research explores how students and staff can both benefit from participating actively in partnerships in higher education. Through qualitative research employing focus group discussions with students and then with staff, participants suggest a plethora of practices of co-creation of curriculum whilst also reflecting on benefits and challenges. The inclusion of two student consultants as co-researchers added another layer to this research project by engaging students as partners in learning and bringing multiple voices to the research collection, analysis, and dissemination processes. The inclusion of undergraduate student co-researchers’ perspectives offers a mirror in which we can observe what is needed to foster effective co-creation of the curriculum in higher education. This reflective essay illustrates perspectives about our experiences of engaging in this collaborative research using deliberative democratic methodology. The scope of this paper is to provide an informative picture about our experiences, draw connections with co-creation of healthcare, and encourage similar partnerships in education and beyond.

I hope you enjoy reading the full reflective essay via the IJSaP website.