Reciprocity and co-education: The evolving role of Midwest community partners

Abstract

As high-impact practices (HIPs) become critical for integrating functional and professional skills, the community partnership role has actively evolved toward a reciprocal exchange of ideas and resources and a co-educator perspective. This paper explores how community partners exchange value during HIPs through reciprocity and their teaching and learning roles as co-educators. Nine Midwest organisations responded to a survey highlighting their previous participation as community partners. This evidence helps identify preliminary insights that foster effective collaboration strategies to strengthen community partners’ expertise and contributions to the educational process. Importantly, findings also highlight the value of continued collaboration, with respondents expressing interest in ongoing roles or additional tools to enhance their effectiveness as co-educators.This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.