Growing Into Pedagogical Partnerships Over Time and Across Disciplines: My Experience as a Non-STEM Student Consultant in STEM Courses
We have included this essay as an insightful example of partnership told from the perspective of the student consultant. It also explores the doubts and challenges involved in pedagogical practice, modeling a way by which other student partners can conceptualize their own experiences.
“I don’t know anything about chemistry,” I thought, as I read an email informing me that my first placement as a student consultant with the Students as Learners and Teachers (SaLT) Program would be in an organic chemistry lab. I was a political science major. What could possibly qualify me to work with a STEM professor?
In this essay, I consider my role as a student consultant across these three partnerships. Each placement challenged me to adapt to new and unfamiliar subjects, different classroom cultures, and a variety of goals and intentions for the partnership. All three partnerships proved to be valuable opportunities for personal growth and development in my practice as a consultant, and together they convinced me that my non-STEM identity was an asset to my faculty partners and our work together.