Invitation and Initiative: Advancing Student Scholars in SoTL

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.