Johnston, N. (2007). What aren't we teaching our students: Critical pedagogy and co-operative education curriculum. Journal of Cooperative Education and Internships, 41(2), 23-29.
Co-op programs enjoy a unique relationship with employers in business, industry, and governments as suppliers of motivated and educated students in exchange for paid on-the-job learning experiences. This partnership ensures a steady supply of work ready individuals to participating employers and an opportunity to get a head start in the work world for participating students. Such expectations necessarily narrow the educational mandate of co-op to the very instrumental purpose of students being placed in jobs, and ignore opportunities for other kinds of learning and development that could (and arguably should) occur through the co-op experience. This paper questions whether the co-op programs have a responsibility to do more than simply ensure student employability. Is there a concurrent responsibility to contribute to broader educational outcomes including the development of active, engaged, and socially conscious worker-citizens, knowledgeable and prepared to actively critique and contribute to the workplaces they encounter? The potential for introducing a critical pedagogy to the co-op preparatory curriculum is explored in this paper along with discussion of the hidden and null curricula embedded within the co-op curriculum.