From “faculty-student” to “student-student” partnerships: Exploring student-initiated inter-institutional virtual service learning in Asia

Abstract

This research moves beyond the conventional students-as-partners discourse to explore student-student partnership practices in higher education, addressing research gaps regarding such partnerships in inter-institutional and non-Western contexts. Through a qualitative study of a student-initiated virtual service-learning project which involved student partners from two research-intensive universities in Hong Kong and Singapore, the research unveils novel conceptualizations of student partners as professional co-explorers and challenges prevailing negative perceptions of learners in Asian higher education institutions, a population that the literature has tended to characterize through stereotypical views of Confucianism. The findings emphasize possibilities for student-student partnerships to enhance agency and promote positive ripple effects in subsequent student-student and faculty-student partnerships. These benefits emerge through co-development in the perceived safer and egalitarian partnership learning community fostered between students. The study calls for restructuring partnership language formalizing integration of student-student partnerships into institutional practices. This research sets the stage for future studies on student-student partnerships in diverse contexts