Mainstreaming Co-operation
Manchester & Rochdale, 3rd-5th July 2012
Session C1
Democracy, competition and co-operative schools
Wednesday 4th July, 2012
Why co-operative schools
should oppose competition
and what they might do instead
Michael Fielding
Institute of Education, University of London
m.fielding@ioe.ac.uk
Competition the standard philosophical account
1 A and B both want X
2 If A gets X, B does not (they can’t both have it)
3 Both must persist in trying to gain X
Other issues often discussed
 Rules governing the process (are competition
and conflict different)?
 Competition and co-operation interdependent?
 People ‘co-operate competitively and compete
co-operatively’ (no psychological / logical incompatibility)
 Object centred or opponent centred?
 Competitive process or competitive motive?
 Is competition a neutral or a normative concept?
Competition as
essentially contested concept
For competition
‘If nothing suppresses competition, progress will
continue forever’ J.B.Clark (1907)
Against competition
‘All competition is essentially selfish. That is its
condemnation. No matter how much competition is
“regulated” by forbidding the practice of
objectionable methods the selfishness of it
remains. The eternal and insuperable objection to
competition from the ethical standpoint is the state
of mind involved’ I.W. Howerth (1912)
‘Of schools in all places, and for all
ages, the healthy working will depend
on the total exclusion of the stimulus of
competition in any form or disguise’
John Ruskin 1894
‘Imagine it!
The Ideal of Human Brotherhood
to be built on a foundation of
egotism and self-interest!’
Robert Blatchford 1898
Co-operation and
emulation not
competition
Shorten working day and lengthen life
England should feed her own people
The land for the people
Merrie England
No people can be free while dependent for
their bread
The plough is a better backbone than the
factory
No child toilers
Production for use not profit
Solidarity of Labour
The cause of labour is the hope of the
world
Socialism means the most helpful happy
life for all
A commonwealth when wealth be common
Art and enjoyment for all
Hope in work and joy in leisure
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Competition
Exclusive - winners /
losers (zero-sum)
Deflects attention
away from standards
Encourages cheating
Taking part less
important than winning
Socio-political model
based on greed, selfinterest + perpetuation
of privilege / inequality
Fear often underpins
resolve
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Emulation
Inclusive - all can take
part
Focus on skills /
excellence is the point
No point in cheating
Joy of taking part
(with others)
Socio-political model
based on freedom,
equality + democratic
fellowship
Love (of others / the
activity) the main
driver
The work of Alex Bloom
at St George-in-the-East Secondary Modern School,
Cable Street, Stepney, in the East End of London
On 1st October, 1945 Alex Bloom
out to develop
set
‘a consciously democratic
community … without
regimentation, without
corporal punishment,
without competition’
Competition is out
from
St George-in-the-East: Modern School in Action
(Times Educational Supplement 27 July, 1954 p.605)
‘Competition is out. No individual prizes for
work, conduct or sport distract the
constant aim of doing a thing for its own
sake, trying to beat, not other people’s
standards but one’s own, producing
one’s best, not to shine above the rest but
with the maturer pleasure of co-operative
achievement.’
Bloom on competition and democracy (1)
 ‘How can children reconcile the opposing
concepts of competing against and co-operating
with? Do you help your brother over one style
and push him away at the next?’
 ‘If our aim in education is to learn right living,
and the means is by living aright, then we can
achieve our purpose only by ensuring that, as
far as is possible, the child’s experiences within
the ambit of the school are cumulatively
harmonious.’
Bloom on competition and democracy (2)
 ‘It is part of my belief that the modus vivendi
claims paramount importance. We are
convinced that not only must the overall school
pattern – the democratic way of living – precede
all planning, but that it proclaims the main
purpose of education in a democracy. Our aim is
that our children learn to live creatively, not for
themselves alone, but for their community.’
 ‘Lessons about co-operation or tolerance or
injustice will not form right attitudes nor change
wrong ones.’
A.S.Neill
presented the school prize
(picture added by me!)
‘Mr A.S.Neill, head of Summerhill School,
Suffolk (who) presented the school prize
said … he didn’t believe in individual
prizes, rather a communal prize. “Nobody
does anything important for a prize. I
absolutely agree this method of dividing up
the prize between a community is an
excellent one.”’East London Advertiser 23 July, 1954
DEMOCRATIC STRUCTURES
St George-in-the-East Secondary School, Stepney, London (1953)
Staff
Staff Panel
 All staff (about 10)
Students
School
Pupil Panel
 Head Boy / Girl
 Deputy HB/G  Form Reps
 Secretary
 Headteacher
Joint Panel
Staff Panel Member
Head Boy / Girl
Chairs of Pupil Committees
Headteacher
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Weekly Meeting Schedule
Form Meeting
Pupil Committees
Monday Morning
Staff Panel
Monday lunchtime
Ongoing
dance
 meals
 tidy
 social
Pupil Panel
 sport
Friday Morning
Monthly Meeting Schedule
Pupil Panel
Staff Panel
▼
▼
Joint Panel
Last Friday of the month
▼
School Council [whole school: students + staff]
Monday following Joint Panel Meeting
DEMOCRATIC LEARNING
St George-in-the-East Secondary School, London (1953)
Communal frameworks for individual + group learning
 School study (agreed theme) e.g Man’s Dependence on Man
 Thematic day conference where work is shared
 Residential camps
 Learning in the community
Negotiate what you learn
 Mixed age Electives (choose what to study after taster session)
 Art
 Book-binding
Creative writing
 Debates
 Drama
 Dramatic reading
Fabric printing
 French
 Housecraft
 Italic writing
Literature
 Music
 Mythology
 Needlecraft
Poetry
 Puppetry
 Recorder playing  Weaving
What’s on?
 Woodwork
Student initiated  Extra Maths
Extra English
Non-groups group  absorb into existing group  include in new activity
 Each class approaches School Study differently – internal negotiation
Learn with + from each other (students + staff)
 Relationships with class teacher
 Individual Weekly reviews
 Form meetings
 (Whole) School Council / School Meeting
DEMOCRATIC RELATIONSHIPS
St George-in-the-East Secondary School, London (1953)
Individual significance + communal contribution
 ‘the child must feel that … he does count, that he is wanted,
that he has a contribution to make to the common good’
The community’s capacity to inspire commitment
 ‘the child must feel the school community is worthwhile’
From fear 
‘Fear of authority, fear of failure,
fear of punishment’
From exclusion 
 No competition
 No marks / prizes
 No streaming / setting
 No caning / no punishment
 To friendship
‘Friendship, security and the
recognition of each child’s worth’
 To inclusion
 Emulation / beat your past best
 Do it because it is interesting /
celebrate the achievements of the
group / community
 All ability, sometimes mixed-age
grouping
Sense of responsibility /
restorative response
Examples from
My experience as a teacher
1969-1989
At Thomas Bennett School, Crawley
 MUST (Mutual Support Time)
 Learning diaries
 Poet-in-Residence
 Mode 3 GCSE and AEB 753 (Mode 3 ‘A’ level)
At Stantonbury Campus, Milton Keynes
 Core groups in ‘Shared Time’
 Students in Hall Meetings
 MSO (Mutual Support & Observation)
 Living Archive
 Celebration as an educational strategy
Examples from
My experience as a researcher
1990- present
Portfolio forms of assessment / celebration
Student-Led Reviews
SALP (Students as Learning Partners)
developed at SSAT by Gill Mullis - an active MSO person at
Stantonbury
 Research Forum and development of new
accountability framework at Bishops Park College, an 1116 comprehensive school in Clacton, England
 Patterns of Partnership – a framework for partnership
working between young people and adults in school
 Radical democratic traditions of student voice
Towards the
Radical democratic common school
1 Education in + for
radical democracy
6 Radical curriculum,
pedagogy, assessment
2
Radical structures +
spaces
7 Insistent affirmation
of possibility
3
Radical roles
8 Engaging the local
4 Radical relationships
5
9 Accountability as
shared responsibility
Personal + communal 10 Regional, national +
narrative
global solidarities