Seeing Beyond Labels: Staff and Student Perspectives on the Importance of Building Community

Based on the principle of everyone working towards the same goal, this chapter outlines the value of building community in academic settings, taking a holistic approach, and seeing everyone within a school, college, university, and discipline as members of the one community. As both teaching-focused academics (McAleer and Cleland Woods) and student collaborators (Brady, Reid, Schorrlepp, and Sijtsma), we aim to give insight from the staff and student perspectives as to the shared experience and importance of a community built on collaboration and trust, focused on a common goal of developing graduate skills within students so that they develop as prime contributors to today’s employment market. The three key principles of our approach are: (i) communication and the importance of regular contact between staff and students, (ii) accessibility and the value of students feeling able to connect with staff both pastorally and academically, and (iii) seeing beyond labels and showing how staff and students working in partnership to develop pedagogical frameworks has a positive outcome on ownership of the development of skills and knowledge. Behind our approach is the desire to create a working and learning environment that encapsulates a sense of belonging, for both staff and students, and we provide first-hand student perspectives as well as practical examples as to how this can be achieved regardless of resources.