Disruptive Partnerships: Collaborating with Students to Create Empowering Learning Experiences in Information Studies

Synthesis: Faculty at Purdue University's School of Information Studies employ a Pedagogical Partnerships (Students as Partners) approach to co-design learning experiences with students, disrupting traditional top-down power dynamics in Higher Education. The paper documents three programs — SPIRaL, PAL (Partners for Algorithmic Literacy), and ISRA — each repositioning students as collaborators rather than consumers of expert knowledge. PAL is a direct alternative to deficit-based narratives about student misuse of generative AI, co-producing AI course policies, AI-integrated group projects, and specialized chatbots. Grounded in Cook-Sather's values of respect, reciprocity, and responsibility, the work links Pedagogical Partnerships to decolonizing and Critical Thinking-oriented critical pedagogy and critical information literacy.

Background and Framework

Fostering learner Motivation and Learner Agency is a central educator goal, yet academic systems often preserve traditional faculty-centered hierarchies. Purdue's School of Information Studies — an arm of Purdue Libraries serving all disciplines rather than training future information professionals — adopted a Students as Partners (SaP) pedagogy to give students a voice in constructing their own Student Experience. SaP centers on developing authentic, caring, and complex relationships between faculty and students, built on the core values of respect, reciprocity, and responsibility (Cook-Sather et al., 2014). Partnership does not demand students become pedagogy experts nor faculty surrender all control; instead it emphasizes complementary roles — faculty as disciplinary experts and guides, students as experts in their own learning.

The approach shares roots in critical, Indigenous, and decolonial pedagogies that aim to dismantle colonial structures in education by rejecting one-sided decision-making and honoring multiple ways of knowing. This aligns with critical information literacy (CIL), building on the praxis of Paulo Freire and bell hooks. By redefining the Teaching and rebalancing power, SaP provides an entry point for LIS educators to begin decolonizing classroom hierarchies.

SPIRaL: Undergraduate Research Partnership

SPIRaL (Students Partners for Information Research and Literacy) is a two-semester undergraduate research program where students investigate societal information challenges. Co-designed in 2022-23 by faculty, a graduate student, and an undergraduate, the program treats students as full research partners who make decisions shaping project outcomes — selecting study participants, coding transcripts, analyzing data, and presenting findings at Purdue's undergraduate research conference. Cohorts have examined topics such as social media algorithms and democratic participation, information challenges facing student journalists, and information use in climate change conversations. Analysis of student reflections shows learners initially equated AI Literacy-adjacent information literacy with source evaluation, then moved toward viewing it as a layered scholarly phenomenon essential for Learner Agency and responsible information use.

PAL: Partners for Algorithmic Literacy

The disruptive wake of ChatGPT left many faculty speculating about how to prevent unethical student use — conversations that rarely included students. Partners for Algorithmic Literacy (PAL) was created as a direct alternative to deficit-based narratives about student misuse of Generative AI. It is a six-week student-faculty learning community, facilitated by academic librarians, where undergraduates and faculty co-design teaching strategies to integrate or interrogate AI, making students active decision-makers about AI in courses. Deliverables include co-designed AI course policies, AI-integrated group projects, and specialized chatbots to support disciplinary Critical Thinking. Thematic analysis of deliverables reveals that, beyond innovative curricular outcomes, participants report a deepened sense of connection and shared decision-making about learning with AI. PAL exemplifies Equity by treating students as partners in Learning Design rather than risks to be policed.

ISRA: Whole-Class Co-design

ISRA (Information Studies Research Accelerator) is a redesigned first-year living-learning community introducing students to information studies research. Faculty applied SaP principles to restructure the yearlong program around whole-class co-design, which Bovill (2020) suggests may be the most equitable form of partnership because it allows broad participation. During the first week, students and faculty co-design course goals and policies, revisiting them throughout the term. Evaluation relies on individual reflective self-assessment rather than final products, with students grading themselves and their groups using personal goals, team goals, and a shared rubric. This structure combines faculty expertise with students' expertise in their own learning, supporting Self-Regulated Learning and Motivation.

What this means for practice

• Educators. Start with a small-scope pilot rather than a full program redesign: pilot partnership with a limited number of participants before scaling to a course or curriculum.
• Educators. Recognize participant effort explicitly when resources are limited, using employment, publication or presentation opportunities, course credit, certificates, or professional development badges.
• Faculty developers. Lean into existing institutional infrastructure — faculty development programs and relationships with student employees — as the foundation for adapting practice around students-as-partners.
• Curriculum designers. Leverage cross-campus partnerships, since library work is highly interdisciplinary and connections across units can identify others interested in partnership or seed mutually beneficial projects.
• Curriculum designers. Do not limit partnership to students in the same degree program: shared understanding across disciplines can produce clarity and Creativity in Curriculum Design.

Limitations

• The paper is a descriptive case study of three programs at a single institution — Purdue University's School of Information Studies — so it documents local program design rather than comparing outcomes across contexts or institutions.
• PAL's two cohorts were small and competitively selected (12 partners in Fall 2023 and 19 in Fall 2024), meaning participants were students and faculty who opted in.
• The authors state that existing and ongoing studies are underway to examine the learning benefits, so the accounts of SPIRaL, PAL, and ISRA rest on program descriptions and a preliminary thematic analysis rather than completed outcome evidence.
• ISRA's evidence is prospective: IRB approval was granted for a future examination of student coursework, and thematic analysis of first-year students' self-assessments had not yet been reported.

Citation

Maybee, C., LeGrand, S., & Fundator, R. (2025). Disruptive Partnerships: Collaborating with Students to Create Empowering Learning Experiences in Information Studies. ALISE 2025 Juried Paper.