Peter Felten – författare

Trust matters in higher education, yet it is often taken for granted. This book shows how trust—between students and teachers, faculty and academic developers, or individuals and institutions—shapes the ways we teach, learn, and work together.Drawing on fresh research and first-hand accounts from across the world, this book reveals that trust is not static but a dynamic, reciprocal process. It is cultivated gradually through care, credibility, and openness, and it enables people to share vulnerabilities, take risks, and imagine new possibilities for teaching and learning. Contributors explore trust at many levels: in the classroom, in academic development programmes, and within wider institutional and cultural contexts. They demonstrate how trust allows people to share vulnerabilities, engage in honest conversations, and take risks that lead to more inclusive and effective teaching. At the same time, they address the challenges of mistrust and the work required to establish trustworthy practices and structures.Accessible and thought-provoking, this book offers valuable insights for anyone interested in the human relationships at the heart of higher education. It makes a compelling case that trust-building is not optional but integral to effective teaching, meaningful learning, and transformative academic development.This book was originally published as a special issue of International Journal for Academic Development.

Praise for Transformative Conversations"In the 'superstorm' of writings about the crisis in higher education this little gem of a book stands out like a mindfulness bell. It calls us back to the only thing that truly matters—the energy and wisdom buried in the minds and hearts of dedicated educators." —Diana Chapman Walsh, president emerita, Wellesley College; trustee emerita, Amherst College; member of the MIT Corporation"This book is revolutionary! It is about transforming the very essence of higher education through the power of authentic conversation, knowing that as the people within the institution evolve, the institution will transform." —Patricia and Craig Neal, The Art of Convening: Authentic Engagement in Meetings, Gatherings, and Conversations; founders, Heartland Inc."This is a radical story about how to create a more intimate and relational culture inside the halls of higher education.... for those who long for higher education to return from the abyss of siloed isolation to its original charter as a cooperative learning institution committed to developing the whole person in service of the common good." —Peter Block, Flawless Consulting and Abundant CommunityTransformative Conversations offers guidance to help readers create and sustain Formation Mentoring Communities, where faculty, staff, and administrators can speak openly and honestly to the heart of their work as educators and human beings.

A guide to developing productive student-faculty partnerships in higher education Student-faculty partnerships is an innovation that is gaining traction on campuses across the country. There are few established models in this new endeavor, however. Engaging Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching: A Guide for Faculty offers administrators, faculty, and students both the theoretical grounding and practical guidelines needed to develop student-faculty partnerships that affirm and improve teaching and learning in higher education. Provides theory and evidence to support new efforts in student-faculty partnershipsDescribes various models for creating and supporting such partnershipsHelps faculty overcome some of the perceived barriers to student-faculty partnershipsSuggests a range of possible levels of partnership that might be appropriate in different circumstancesIncludes helpful responses to a range of questions as well as advice from faculty, students, and administrators who have hands-on experience with partnership programsBalancing theory, step-by-step guidelines, expert advice, and practitioner experience, this book is a comprehensive why- and how-to handbook for developing a successful student-faculty partnership program.

The recent trend of trying to measure higher education's return on investment misses a fundamental point, argue Charity Johansson and Peter Felten. The central purpose of a college or university is to transform the lives of students-not to merely change them or help them mature. This transformation is an ongoing process of intentionally aligning one's behavior with one's core sense of personal identity. It is the university's central role to lead students in this transformation, a process that shapes students into intentional, critical, and engaged individuals. Recognizing the remarkable influence of the college experience on peoples' lives, the authors offer a guide to how colleges and universities can effectively lead students through this life-changing process. Drawn from extensive interviews with students and graduates, faculty and staff, Transforming Students gathers diverse stories to show how students experience the transformation process, which rarely follows a neat or linear path. The interviews illustrate central themes from the literature on transformative learning and the undergraduate student experience.A sequel of sorts to George Keller's classic Transforming a College - which chronicled Elon University's metamorphosis from struggling college to a top regional university- Transforming Students addresses the school's core educational mission: to shape students into engaged adults who embrace learning as a lifelong endeavor. Given this effect, the college experience is much more than preparation for a career. It is preparation for life.

A mentor, advisor, or even a friend? Making connections in college makes all the difference.What single factor makes for an excellent college education? As it turns out, it's pretty simple: human relationships. Decades of research demonstrate the transformative potential and the lasting legacies of a relationship-rich college experience. Critics suggest that to build connections with peers, faculty, staff, and other mentors is expensive and only an option at elite institutions where instructors have the luxury of time with students. But in this revelatory book brimming with the voices of students, faculty, and staff from across the country, Peter Felten and Leo M. Lambert argue that relationship-rich environments can and should exist for all students at all types of institutions. In Relationship-Rich Education, Felten and Lambert demonstrate that for relationships to be central in undergraduate education, colleges and universities do not require immense resources, privileged students, or specially qualified faculty and staff. All students learn best in an environment characterized by high expectation and high support, and all faculty and staff can learn to teach and work in ways that enable relationship-based education. Emphasizing the centrality of the classroom experience to fostering quality relationships, Felten and Lambert focus on students' influence in shaping the learning environment for their peers, as well as the key difference a single, well-timed conversation can make in a student's life. They also stress that relationship-rich education is particularly important for first-generation college students, who bring significant capacities to college but often face long-standing inequities and barriers to attaining their educational aspirations. Drawing on nearly 400 interviews with students, faculty, and staff at 29 higher education institutions across the country, Relationship-Rich Education provides readers with practical advice on how they can develop and sustain powerful relationship-based learning in their own contexts. Ultimately, the book is an invitation—and a challenge—for faculty, administrators, and student life staff to move relationships from the periphery to the center of undergraduate education.

A practical guide to building the connections students need to thrive in and after college from the authors of the best-selling Relationship-Rich Education.Decades of research demonstrate how important the relationships with peers and professors are for students academically, personally, and professionally. Yet many students lack the strategies to develop educationally purposeful relationships in college. Connections Are Everything shows students the simple steps they can take to make their own college experience meaningful and transformational. In short, practical chapters, this guide helps readers learn how to build relationships through various strategies, including using "relationship accelerators" like internships and mentorships, undergraduate research, and campus employment. Undergraduate demographics have changed dramatically as students of color and first-generation students become the new majority at colleges and universities across the United States. Connections are particularly significant for these students; the positive—and negative—impacts of peer, faculty, and staff relationships are magnified. Higher education cannot meet students' needs or achieve equity, justice, and inclusion without relationship-rich education. This book empowers students to seek out relationships by demystifying the varied ways they can cultivate significant connections.

Colleges and universities silo diversity and inclusion by creating specific courses to address them, or programs to welcome and support people with a range of identities, whereas in reality students, faculty and staff do not encounter diversity in the fractured ways that match the organizational structures of our institutions. We all simultaneously embody a variety of identities with different saliency in different circumstances and times.This book offers models for institutions to move intentionally toward intersections – of study abroad and multiculturalism, of race and gender and religion, and of other essential aspects of our educational programs and our students’ identities – to open doors to new possibilities that better prepare our students for life in a diverse world, and that allow our institutions to become more efficient and effective as we strive to not simply do things better in our own separate spheres, but to do better things by working together across difference.Each chapter offers action-oriented analysis focusing on particular campus intersections, rather than attending to specific demographic groups. Chapter authors also build on their own local expertise of doing this work on campuses that often do not have deep pockets or rich histories of such efforts.The book is organized into three sections:* People focuses on diversity broadly defined, considering questions about how we recruit and engage the students, faculty, and staff in the campus community, and how we work with governing boards and others to promote inclusive excellence.* Environment focuses on inclusion, including residence life, the local community, the working and learning environment, and external factors and events such as national and international news or town gown relationships.* Learning focuses on perspective taking and learning about difference in the core curriculum, the disciplines, and the co-curriculum, as well as professional development for faculty and staff.This ground reaking book helps readers, no matter what position they occupy on campus, to develop the knowledge and capacities necessary to create inclusive classrooms and is premised on the understanding that identity, oppression, power and marginalization cannot be addressed by looking solely at single identities.

Colleges and universities silo diversity and inclusion by creating specific courses to address them, or programs to welcome and support people with a range of identities, whereas in reality students, faculty and staff do not encounter diversity in the fractured ways that match the organizational structures of our institutions. We all simultaneously embody a variety of identities with different saliency in different circumstances and times.This book offers models for institutions to move intentionally toward intersections – of study abroad and multiculturalism, of race and gender and religion, and of other essential aspects of our educational programs and our students’ identities – to open doors to new possibilities that better prepare our students for life in a diverse world, and that allow our institutions to become more efficient and effective as we strive to not simply do things better in our own separate spheres, but to do better things by working together across difference.Each chapter offers action-oriented analysis focusing on particular campus intersections, rather than attending to specific demographic groups. Chapter authors also build on their own local expertise of doing this work on campuses that often do not have deep pockets or rich histories of such efforts.The book is organized into three sections:* People focuses on diversity broadly defined, considering questions about how we recruit and engage the students, faculty, and staff in the campus community, and how we work with governing boards and others to promote inclusive excellence.* Environment focuses on inclusion, including residence life, the local community, the working and learning environment, and external factors and events such as national and international news or town gown relationships.* Learning focuses on perspective taking and learning about difference in the core curriculum, the disciplines, and the co-curriculum, as well as professional development for faculty and staff.This ground reaking book helps readers, no matter what position they occupy on campus, to develop the knowledge and capacities necessary to create inclusive classrooms and is premised on the understanding that identity, oppression, power and marginalization cannot be addressed by looking solely at single identities.