Badging ‘co-operative character’

Reflections on our role as part of the Co-operative Education & Research Conference 2017

Doug Belshaw
We Are Open Co-op

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Earlier this week, I attended the Co-operative Education and Research Conference on behalf of We Are Open Co-op. It was a flying visit, as I could only be there for the first day, but I managed to run two sessions.

Click here to view the slide deck

In the first session, How can we build and credential co-operative character? I outlined Open Badges for those new to the concept, and explained ways in which they could be used to scaffold the development of ‘co-operative character’.

During my preparations, I was indebted to Patrick O’Connor who sent me a copy of a paper he co-authored after last year’s conference. The paper, ‘Learning together: Foucault, Sennett and the crisis of the co-operative character’ greatly helped in clarifying my thinking as co-operative character being a virtue, rather than a collection of skills.

Co-operation is a matter of character — it designates an attitude, a disposition, a way of being and acting. And getting to grips with co-operation is essential, so that what is needed is not an account of the various skills that are held to make it up, but a description that conveys the vivacity of the co-operative character as it is inculcated in teaching and learning…”

I therefore approached the badging of co-operative character in a similar way as I would with digital literacies — not as a threshold to cross, but as a condition, a way of being.

Using the example of the ‘Co-op Curious’ badge we have started issuing those who show a tangible interest in joining or starting a co-op, I talked about the importance of that first step.

Too often, we rush straight to the end result we want to see, creating credentials or requirements that are far too high-bar.

In addition to this badge, designed by Bryan Mathers, I showed some mock-ups of ways we could badge Principles 5–7 of the International Principles of Co-operation.

This sparked a tsunami of interest and questions, meaning I had little time to prepare during the break for the workshop!

Time was tight, so I only had a very short amount of time to do a quick recap of badges at the start of session. This was fine for those who had attended my presentation, but given the nature of parallel conference sessions, about half of the room were entirely new to badges.

Nevertheless, they participated fully and enthusiastically, using the ‘Badge Drawsome’ template.

This example took the value of ‘democracy’ from the ICA list and ran with it in the context of encouraging co-operatives to flourish. Other groups tweeted out their efforts — which ranged from leadership to solidarity.

Inevitably, some participants asked for case studies of case studies where badges were already being used by co-ops. Other than our own, I don’t know of any, but I find that exciting and a huge opportunity.

We’ve been invited to various parts of the UK off the back of this workshop, so I’m looking forward for sharing more news about badging co-operative character soon!

We Are Open Co-op works to spread the culture, processes, and benefits of openness wherever we can.

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