Building Bridges in the Classroom

Student-Led Peer Facilitation for Inclusive Group Work: How second-year students are transforming political discussions for first-years at the University of Exeter’s Cornwall campus

In an age of increasing political polarisation and digital group thinking, how can universities help students learn to communicate across divides?

At the University of Exeter’s Cornwall campus, we’ve been piloting a new approach that places students themselves at the heart of the solution, emphasising inclusive communication. As a second-year politics student, I had an opportunity to participate in the project last year and thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

For the past three years, students in our first-year core module,  Political Communication, have tackled complex, often controversial issues through collaborative group projects. These projects aim to build inclusive communication skills such as active listening, critical self-reflection, and the ability to respectfully disagree.

Student feedback has been positive but also revealing. Reflective essays and classroom observations showed that women and students from global majority backgrounds often face unequal group dynamics while more conservative students sometimes feel reluctant to openly express their views. And sometimes, the discussions initiated in the “civil confines” of the classroom spill over into social media, where tone and intent can get lost. That’s where our new peer facilitation project comes in.

Learning With Students, Not Just  From  Staff

This year, we introduced ten Student Facilitators into our first-year politics classrooms. They were a diverse group of second-year politics students who had taken the module the previous year. Importantly, their role was not to act as teaching assistants or tutors but rather as peer mentors who supported small group work during class to help notice and navigate the challenges of collaborative work. After a brilliant success, for the upcoming academic year, we are bringing it back!

The role? I was able to model inclusive communication, reflect openly on my own experiences, and support students in real-time as group dynamics unfolded. This is especially important in early weeks, when new students are still forming bonds and figuring out how to speak and be heard in a university context as it is a brand-new encounter. These same skills will be demonstrated by future peer facilitators.

As my fellow peer facilitator, Nicole Lee reflected, in a video we recorded about the project: “I think if I had not said anything about what I have experienced and my own positionality, they might not have understood how they could have gone about that conversation as well, especially because we spoke about positionality in the second week of university and people would definitely not feel comfortable talking about that in that period, especially because everyone in their group is new to them. So when I spoke about my own positionality and my own experiences, it guided them to do so as well and started the conversation.’

 

From Theory to Practice: Co-Creation and Critical Reflection

The Peer Facilitators were not only there to assist the lecturers, we were part of a co-created learning experience. As Student Facilitators we helped refine the group project brief, attended bespoke training sessions led by EDI and pastoral staff, and took part in weekly debriefs with the lecturers, Andrew Schaap and Karen Scott. These meetings allowed us to reflect in real time on what was working, what was not, and who needed extra support. And while Student Facilitators were central to the project, we were not alone. They were supported by a wider team including EDI programme manager Rae Preston, pastoral tutor Hannah Lyons, and an interdisciplinary advisory board that brought international and institutional perspectives into the mix.

 

The group project instructed students to create an online resource that critically explores the idea of civility in the context of a controversial political issue. Groups were formed using personality insights from the “Myers-Briggs Type Indicator” which was a surprisingly effective way to get students reflecting on communication styles before they dive into deeper conversations about identity and ideology. This was a surprisingly effective way to get students reflecting on communication styles before they dive into deeper conversations about identity and ideology.

Myra Acheampong-Mensah facilitating group work

Why This Matters

Too often, we ask students to do group work without giving them the tools or space to reflect on how their experiences are shaped by identity, power dynamics, and social norms. We expect them to collaborate but don’t always acknowledge the complexity of doing so across lines of difference.  This project aimed to change that.

By embedding Student Facilitators into the process, not just as helpers, but as co-researchers we hoped to foster more authentic, inclusive, and resilient learning communities. We are currently evaluating the project based on student reflective reports and surveys, focus groups, and interviews with peer facilitators and classroom observations. We have also produced a video that interviewed the lecturers and previous peer facilitators detailing the project and the lessons learnt. But beyond the metrics, we’re already seeing the impact: students who feel seen, heard, and supported during one of the most formative periods of their academic journey.

What’s Next?

We’ll be publishing another blog post later this year with findings and lessons learned. We’re developing a teaching resource for the EduExe Toolkit, sharing strategies for designing inclusive group work that works in practice not just in theory. We are also presenting a research paper at the Political Studies Association Teaching and Learning Network conference in September 2025.

In the meantime, we’re excited to see how peer facilitation can help students navigate political conversations with empathy, courage, and curiosity. Because, in politics and in education, how we talk to one another matters. We look forward to seeing new second-year Politics students in Penryn sign up to be peer facilitators in 2025/26.

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