There is a story that Theodore Herzl, a popular Zionist leader in the early 1900's, once inquired of the gardener at one of Oxford's Colleges how to cultivate a beautiful lawn like those that graced the lawn at Oxford. In a humor borne of English tradition, he replied: "It's really very simple sir. You sow the grass, you water it, you fertilize it, and roll it, and when you have done that for a hundred years, you get a lawn like this."
In a similar way, one might think about the building and flowering of an academic journal, one committed to the publication of the best efforts of the populace it is intended to serve. With the healthy perspective of twenty-five years of publishing the 'best and the brightest' in the field of literature of the Cooperative Education Association, the Journal of Cooperative Education can now commit itself to another twenty-five years of 'sowing, watering, fertilizing and rolling.' To do so will require a constant attention to the educational, political, economic and social environment, for these are all in the midst of great changes that will not only affect the shape and destiny of our cooperative education programs nationwide, but will shape the face of the research that emerges from the movement.
It was over a decade that Dr. D.T. Kenney, the President of the University of British Columbia, described the changing social environment and its impact on the university. He said:
"Two decades ago universities lived in a straight-forward world. Universities were at liberty to do pretty much as they desired. They were regarded as society's greatest hope. They set their standards of admission without giving great thought to the declaration that equal access to higher education is the key to the future of youth and of nations. They were not convinced that admission policies or graduation requirements had to be bent in conformity with the social goals of society ... Then academic affairs began to become increasingly complex and mazy. The belief in our omnipotence was challenged in the turbulent and hurley-burly days of the late sixties. Universities became publicly vulnerable when they were bitterly denounced for denying opportunities for advancement in society. Universities were accused of racism, sexism and elitism."
While those days are far removed from us in the late 1980's, what remains are the claims for "relevance" and "flexible innovations" in the teaching of curriculum, ideas accompanying the demands for equal access and which, perhaps not so coincidentally, coalesced with the greatest advancement in student participation in the history of cooperative education. Could one possibly mistake the impact of the social drama played out in the 1960's, with the subsequent massive infusion of monies into cooperative education through Titles IV-D and VIII? The literature of the movement during this period quite naturally concentrated on the mechanics of operating, sustaining and validating cooperative education programs, but did not comment on the social milieu out of which the movement was growing and by which it was being impacted.
As we move into the 1990's and look at the next twenty-five years in the light of the direction(s) of the Journal of Cooperative Education, it perhaps would behoove us to consider these sorts of social events, ( as well as the economic, political, and education events) as we now perceive them, and project how these events might affect our movement and hence our literature. Consider the following:
Presuming that co-op dollars continue to flow from the federal government in support of cooperative endeavors, is there a case to be made for an allocation of monies based on where the jobs are predicted to be in the future? Could a national dialogue ensue related to this issue, and could surveys support the validity of such an approach? Should the issue of geographical representation be thrashed out as was suggested in an earlier issue of the Journal of Cooperative Education (Harris, 1983). Is this issue of new job generation similar to the one encountered with the move to "comprehensive" program grants begun several years ago, which incidentally, have never been comprehensively, systematically measured and evaluated as to the achievement of expected or projected outcomes?
What impact might these shortages have on cooperative education and on the literature of the movement? We have been hearing for some time now that cooperative education is a valid instructional strategy for both graduate and undergraduate programs. Is it possible that the next twenty-five years could herald a dramatic reversal of this graduate enrollment decline brought on by the increased role of cooperative education? If this is to happen, then the literature, which is scant at best at the present time (Tillman, 1986), must increase substantially. Successful programs must be documented, students must surveyed, employer commitment and satisfaction must be validated, and the role and scope of faculty and university involvement must be detailed.
Over the past twenty-five years, there have been approximately six articles reported in the JCE that dealt with effectively marketing the cooperative education program (Harris, 1982; Komgold and Dube', 1982; Dawson, 1982; and Harris, 1982, among others). Each of these articles deals in a limited way with market segmentation, but a comprehensive method of examining the redistribution of students into various subgroups is yet to be systematically or comprehensively examined in the literature. Is there a yet-to-be-discovered method for adapting our cooperative education "products and strategies" to the changing conditions of the student marketplace? While CEA, Inc. deals with "imaging" through, among other things, changing the national logo for cooperative education, are there proven methods of "imaging" that could be documented in the literature of the movement? What is the "image" of cooperative education programs on our nation's campuses, as carefully measured and validated by our best researchers?
The appeal to students of entrepreneurship is a national phenomenon. A survey of Harvard University students in 1970 found less than four percent of the students interested in going into business for themselves. A 1987 study found better than fifty percent interested in starting their own businesses upon graduation from college.
Does cooperative education have a role to place in this worldwide phenomenon? To date there have no articles in the Journal reflecting innovative program changes to accommodate the move to entrepreneurship or 'intrapreneurship,' as the term is used for entrepreneurial activities within corporations by employees. Are there significant numbers of students who are interested in pursuing entrepreneurial internships, who would normally have little interest in traditional internship programs? How would the structure of such an internship differ from internships within well-established organizations? This emerging field raises many questions when applied to the academic internship mode of learning, but all developments and structural changes related to the area of entrepreneurship would need to documented in the literature.
The past twenty-five years of the Journal has not been concerned with ethics as a field of study related to cooperative education. In our unconcern, we have not been unlike the rest of higher education: benignly neglecting an area of great need in our educational system. Who is in a better position to drive home ethical imperatives than the cooperative educational practitioner involved with students in a day-to-day work environment, where ethical dilemmas are played out on a daily basis. Even if not specifically trained, co-op professional could coordinate development of curriculum, scheduling of speakers for seminars, and engage other elements of the university in addressing the issues. Is such a program called for and if so, what should be taught? Is the co-op model appropriate for teaching ethics? Does someone in co-op have a "Master Plan" for teaching ethics to coop students? Is it possible that the co-op community could be on the cutting edge of this unique need in the educating of our citizenry? The next twenty-five years of the Journal should see a closer attention to this issue as the ethical imperatives come into clearer focus.
Remarkably, the cooperative education movement has survived all these years without a fully developed theory of cooperative education. Understandably, neither theory nor practice have within them the essence of purpose, except as derived from an underlying philosophy. Therefore, several questions need to be dealt with, in seeking to establish a theory of cooperative education:
These are not questions that can be flippantly answered but require a fundamental understanding of the deeper issues involved, along with an understanding of key educational theorists shaping our comprehension of these issues. Additionally, this is a starting point in the formation of a philosophy and/ or theory of cooperative education, and not a comprehensive listing of questions to be answered.
The Journal of Cooperative Education, in the next twenty-five years should find increasing attention being paid to the area of educational theory and philosophy as elaborated upon by fellow educators.
Of course, many other trends could be listed from a variety of sources, but these are highlighted as a reference point for this article in analyzing the impact of trends on the co-op ed movement and thereby the literature that emerges from the movement. Not to be lost in all of this peering into the future is that fact that within the next twenty-five years of the Journal of Cooperative Education, we will enter the 21st century. According to author Tom Wolfe, the 21st century will not be nearly so consumed with the constant yearning for the new and the bigger and the best, that has so characterized our late 20th century. This constant and frantic searching for the new, to the exclusion of all else may have an entirely new dimension in the 21st century. As a result, Wolfe writes in the December, 1987, issue of the American Spectator, the 21st century will be characterized by the "Great Relearning":
The 21st century, I predict, will confound the 20th-century notion of the future as something exciting, unexpected or radiant; as progress, to use an old word. It is already clear that the large cities, thanks to the Relearning, will not even look new.
Quite the opposite; the cities of 2007 will look more like the cities of 1927 than the cities of 1987. The 21st century will have a retrograde look and a retrograde mental atmosphere. People of the next century will gaze back with a ghastly awe upon our time. They will regard the 20th as the century in which wars became so enormous they were known as World Wars, the century in which technology leaped forward so rapidly man developed the capacity to destroy the planet itself - but also the capacity to escape to the stars on space ships if it blew. But above all they will look back upon the 20th as the century in which their fore bearers had the amazing confidence, the Promethean hubris, to defy the gods and try to push man's power and freedom to limitless, godlike extremes.
They will look back in awe-without the slightest temptation to emulate the daring of those who swept aside all rules and tried to start from zero. Instead, they will be content to live in what will be known as the Somnolent Century or the 20th Century's Hangover.
Whether or not we agree with Wolfe's prognosis, the concept of the Great Relearning is intriguing, even as we observe a return to the past in many areas of culture, architecture, and classical literature and music. So even as we stretch and imagine the future, and attempt to draw its parameters in our finite minds, we are aware of the past. As we consider the past twenty-five years of the Journal of Cooperative Education, we are aware of the vision of our past editors: Donald C. Hunt, Edward Susat, Harry N. Heinemann, and Maurice P. Hartley.
To quote the gardener at one of Oxford's Colleges, the next twenty-five years of the Journal of Cooperative Education will be consumed with "sowing, watering, fertilizing, and rolling." They will be magnificent years, filled with opportunity and growth. I can hardly wait!