Cooperative Pedagogy

I wrote this originally before starting my PGCE. It is currently unfinished, maybe will return to this in future.

Idea: Education is empowering when it is cooperative, in service of each other, and derived from selfish self preservation

Cooperative Authority

In tradition, school teachers have been stern dictators of the class room. They are in control and students obey the control. The school and its actuators are institutions and they are not to be questioned or challenged by the student body. The students are disempowered, they do not control their education or their time. In this way they are oppressed, and subject to an ideological curriculum with a didactic pedagogy. Ultimately, I argue, this breeds discontent, rebellion and homogenisation.

fixa: part below needs checking

Addressing the homogeneity of children by schooling is the role of the next section. Thereafter, we will discuss theoretical behavioural changes of students when adopting the cooperative authority stance as an educator. Here, I will introduce the concept of cooperative authority. In doing so I will introduce the bedrock philosophy of this writing: Honesty and Harmony.

Cooperative authority is a pedogeological approach an educator and student may adopt. It is distinct from pure cooperation in that it acknowledges the natural power imbalance in education, and treats the authority held by the educator with respect. It is derived as a means to bring students into an empowered and liberated educational stance. The ultimate goal is to allow empowered students to flourish into their own, and personalised maturation, and be equipped to correct and future power imbalances. As educator, the goal should be to equilibrate the power imbalance. This empowerment is achieved by educators engaging the student in the pedogeological process as a cooperative guide. The role of the teacher is to gift their earned knowledge, including their own knowledge of how education works, how best to engage with this, and, with honesty, what the ultimate goal of the education is.

If the ideological basis of the education is sound, the student may engage with their education in earnest, mainly as it is within their best interest to, because the educator has their best interest in mind. This acknowledges students as their own custodian, and empowers them to place this role in a primacy that develops their minds and souls. In redistributing the educational power, they see the teacher as a cooperative authority, as the power imbalance is reduced. The student sees the teacher as a benefactor, someone with passion and joy for their knowledge, and an altruistic desire to benefit the student with their knowledge. In creating this understanding, the cooperative authority relationship is distilled and empowers educator and student.

The cooperative authority relationship is a maintained state, and is fundamentally one of trust, honesty and mutual respect. The student must trust that the teacher has the best of intentions, and to the teachers part this must be true. Honesty must be present in this relationship. This honesty must reflect the mutual respect the student and teacher hold for one another. In holding this respect, Honesty is never cruel, nor driven by anything other than a cooperative construction of everyone involved. In this way, honest behavior becomes the mechanism by which the student’s education is empowered, and their respect for their education is enhanced. A cooperative authority must be honest. If the honesty is not present, especially on the part of the teacher,(having the majority of the power by inherency of the educational ideal), the relationship collapses into an oppressor/oppressed exchange and is an act of violence towards the student’s potential.

In principle, this writing considers education to be the process of giving people a bedrock for a life which is fulfilling. This is constructed by a curriculum and pedogeological process that is provided and led by educators. Fundamentally the process is political and this should be at the forefront of an educators mind. The cooperative authority relationship between student and educator generates an environment which is fundamentally honest, and seeks to manifest the potential of the student. In doing so, we acknowledge that their are multiple aspects to this potential with different cultivation methodologies. The current education system is rooted in the notion of standardised academic testing. This method of assessment brands a student, now considered educated in finality, with a mark of their perceived worth. In the process, the nonacademic student is disempowered. Their motivation for learning, self belief and prospects are crushed. When one adopts the diverse view of intelligence this act is a perverse injustice. As educators, there is an inherent responsibility for this injustice. This method of assessment will be explored in the next section as it is fundamentally rooted in an nefarious and oppressive ideological view.

The Fallacy of Apolitical Education

_Education is an ideologically driven political process

Inherent to the nature of power imbalance in the educator/student relationship is a political potential. When education occurs, this political potential first manifests in the curriculum; what content is delivered and which is omitted. In the design of a curriculum, educators guide the thoughts of the student by A curriculum is a minimisation of set of cognitive paths, as the majority of sources of knowledge are omitted. In designing the thought process of a student through curriculum, educators are directly responsible for the cognitive paths students take. This is especially true in the context of mandated education, like the UK schooling system. As educators, the power imbalance equilibration is primary and the knowledge they wish to teach should be chosen to meet this role. In setting a curriculum, the educator must consider the reaching effect of the constriction of cognitive paths. The ideological basis of the education manifests here. Western education circa 2025 manifests itself primarily in the context of the decaying dynasty of neoliberalism, where technology is venerated. This pushes the curriculum to value maths, IT and the sciences before trades and humanities. Acknowledging this fact in curriculum design needs an honest response, in order for cooperative pedagogy to manifest in the current climate. The educator, through curriculum design, interfaces with and potentially alters the value structure of the student. In the now, cooperative pedagogical approaches seek to provide an honest balance of the necessary content to flourish in the world, but also empowers the student to be their own teacher, thus furthering a mechanism that gives the student the capability to remove any power imbalances that may come outside of education. Through knowledge, and the skill of knowledge attainment, the student can enter into a constant liberation, where they are empowered to remove any power imbalances, be they of the cooperative authority type or those imposed by oppressive educators. In this way, the honesty aspect of the underlying ideology is passed on to the student, which is inherently a political act. Noticing their authority, the educator is forced to address their own politics fixa needs work because I can’t quite get the point across.

Ideologies of Now The minimsation of suffering is a noble, futile endeavor. A happy life, assuming happiness is fully and totally chronic, is ultimately a life of consumption and egestion. This approach ultimately assumes an infinite reservoir of energy. Economies that assume total, open loop growth can not be taken seriously for this fundamental ignorance, but for centuries it has been neglected, and billions have been exploited and corrupted by its lures. In the process, 1% of the population of the planet have become incredibly rich.

Standardised Testing and Methodological Fetishism In theory, these are not brands and can be changed through reassessment In the UK, students are pseudo-empowered to select from a preordained curriculum, exams which for some define their lives henceforth. This decision is made by the student and their custodial guardians. From the foundation of being exposed to an oppressive pedagogy, this decision is fundamentally ideologically motivated.

An Ideology of Harmony

A Community of Individuals

A students place in a education community

Transparent Rules and Motivations

• Behavior rules as beneficial to the students and the community
• Education as primacy

Uniform

The principles of uniformity and their oppression

Behavior

Behavior as rebellion against boredom and control

Design of a Cooperative Curriculum

Here discuss what would be included

• Foundational Knowledge
• Education philosophy and practices
• Art and Social Education
• Practical Skills
• Science and Philosophy together
• Open dialogue channels