Resistances and resiliencies in student-faculty pedagogical partnership

Abstract

In this article, we explore forms of psychological resistance that 10 female students perceived in their faculty partners and in themselves in the context of a pedagogical partnership program in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Positioning these students as “holders and creators of knowledge” (Delgado-Bernal, 2002, p. 106), our analysis draws on literature in academic development and psychology and on student responses to research questions to discuss how these student partners built resiliencies through the approaches they took to engaging the resistances they perceived. We first present the resistances these student partners perceived in their faculty partners and what factors they think might have contributed to such resistances. Next, we describe the approaches the student partners took to working through the resistances they perceived and the resistances they experienced in themselves. Finally, we analyze the ways that student partners developed resiliencies through productively engaging these forms of resistance.