The ideology of skills and the suppression of critique

in university co-op education Peter Milley

University of OttawaCAFE Conference, Ottawa, May 31-June 3, 2015

Co-operative education (co-op)

In Canada, 2014:• 55 universities

• 80,000 students

Co-op students “alternate periods of academic study with work experiences in appropriate fields in business, industry, government, social services and the professions”

Neoliberal reforms

Discourses drawing on neo-classical

economics

Use markets

Rely on corporate models

Focus on job

preparation

Deregulate

Reduce public

investment

Privatize

Increase competiti

on

Measure performan

ce

Implement technolog

ies

Discourses drawing on neo-classical

economics

Use markets

Rely on corporate models

Focus on job

preparation

Deregulate

Reduce public

investment

Privatize

Increase competiti

on

Measure performan

ce

Implement technolog

ies

Discourses drawing on neo-classical

economics

Use markets

Rely on corporate models

Focus on job

preparation

Deregulate

Reduce public

investment

Privatize

Increase competiti

on

Measure performan

ce

Implement technolog

ies

The problem

Co-op grows in tandem with neoliberal reforms

Co-op presented as:• Human capital development

• Learning + earning

Co-op:• a neoliberal reform?

• effects on student’s academic identities and choices?

• implications for social, cultural, democratic missions of university?

No socially critical

scholarship on co-op…

Research response: An ethnographic, nested, multiple case study

Participants (n=26):•Students•Employers•Co-op administrators

•Professors

Research questions

•How do co-op students experience and make meaning of the contemporary relationships between the sociocultural and economic missions of higher education?

•What are the social and educational implications of the ‘answers’ to this first question?

Concepts: Lifeworld and System

Communicative Competence and Critique Type of

competence

 Formal features of competence Orientation  Function  Validity claims

 Strategic and instrumental

 Success Influencing others, predicting and controlling contexts

 Effectiveness, efficiency

 Scientific

 Understanding

Representing states of affairs or facts, advancing knowledge

 Truth: provide “grounds”

 Moral-practical

Understanding Establishing legitimate interpersonal relationships, positing valid norms, challenging existing norms

Rightness:provide “justifications” 

 Aesthetic-expressive

 Understanding

 Self-presentation, subjective disclosure, challenging barriers to self-development and expression

 Truthfulness:prove “sincere,” “authentic”

Outcomes of a good university education?

Central theme: “Skills”

“We gain practical skills…or soft-skills

like social interaction” (computer

science student). “Co-op has given me skills and

made me more employable” (anthropology

student)

Skills have strategic and instrumental value and meaning:

- Job search- Job

performance- Career

Continuities and contradictions in “skill” development?• “I can tell somebody if they’ve got a manuscript I can

pop it into the software, do the layout, and get it printed, no problem…But if I comment that a movie is constructed with a male gaze that objectifies women, they’ll think I’m a flake…and wonder what I’m learning at school.”

• “You can put technical skills on your résumé and say, ‘See, this is what I can do’. But, there’s no point in listing something like ‘I know how to write a well-balanced non-fiction piece’.”

Lisa’s story – learning to put her “techie” self first (creative writing

student)

• “A lot of the stereotypes that you’ve heard about male engineers are real...[but]…I just don’t want to start a big confrontation.”

• “It’s just the type of person he is, and the type of person I am…Plus, he is under a lot of pressure.”

Linda’s story – gendered power dynamics muddy the water (electrical

engineering student) • “I feel like I’m jumping through hoops…I was hoping for more, especially after my last work term…which was a wash-out.”

• “In my spare time I try to do some proofs on a pet problem, just to keep me sane.”

Warren’s story – when markets rule and fail (computer science student)

Concluding thoughts

skills

communicative competence

• Skill development and meanings associated with it are highly contextual

• Perspectives on skills in co-op are largely based in labour market and workplace contexts (i.e., in the “system”)

• This reduces emphasis on communicative competence, creates imbalances and distortions• alters identities, curricular choices• reduces capacity for authentic self-expression and critique

• Increased communicative competence could:• improve quality of co-op education • contribution to sociocultural mission of university

AND• accelerate human capital formation

Communicative

competenceSkillsCo-op

Thank you Merci