Invitation and Initiative: Advancing Student Scholars in SoTL

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.14.25

Keywords:

invitation, initiatve, student scholars, co-inquiry, student voice

Abstract

This reflective article reviews the historic and present state of student scholars in SoTL and offers recommendations for further advancing SoTL student scholars. We share our own experiences as a former student scholar and a collaborator with and mentor to student scholars, respectively, and we follow these experiences with the reflections and stories of six other former student SoTL scholars. Looking across both documented history and lived experiences, we suggest that explicit invitations can make students feel valued and significant as well as inspire students to take the initiative to invite others. Invitations to students and initiative taken by students expand who is included in a field still predominantly occupied by faculty and staff. We argue that such inclusion has the potential to change the way everyone in higher education understands, studies, and experiences learning and teaching.

Author Biographies

  • Sophia Abbot, University of Rhode Island

    Sophia Abbot (United States) is a faculty development specialist in SoTL at the University of Rhode Island (URI), and part-time faculty with URI’s Feinstein College of Education. She publishes on pedagogical partnership, co-creation, and SoTL.

  • Alison Cook-Sather, Bryn Mawr College

    Alison Cook-Sather (United States) is the Mary Katharine Woodworth Professor of Education at Bryn Mawr College and director of the Teaching and Learning Institute at Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges. She has developed internationally recognized student-faculty pedagogical partnership programs, authored or co-authored over 200 articles and chapters and 12 books, consulted on six continents, and received the Alumni Excellence in Education Award from the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. Learn more at https://www.alisoncooksather.com/.

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Six headshots of individual scholars each on a different colored background.

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Published

2026-05-29