Productive contradictions: dissonance, resistance and change in an experiment with cooperative learning

Abstract

This article discusses a qualitative research project designed to investigate processes and outcomes of learning in a first‐year undergraduate course—‘Introduction to conflict resolution: theory and skills’ (ICR)—taught in the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford. The research project was set up to help us understand how students experienced two ‘innovations’ introduced to the course in January 2006—the use of a cooperative learning methodology in the classroom, and the introduction of a reflective portfolio as the main assessment format. The article discusses some of the benefits of using cooperative and reflective learning for teaching conflict resolution theory and skills in a large and diverse class. The article also describes and analyses some of the resistance and contradictions that emerged as we introduced our ‘new’ pedagogy. It also explores some contradictions between our aims and practice, and how these were experienced by students. In conclusion, the article reflects on the broader implications of this experience, specifically related to efforts to develop a relevant pedagogy for peace practitioners in a higher education setting.

Keywords:

• cooperative learning
• reflection
• resistance
• dissonance
• transformative learning
• peace education

Notes

1. We define this broadly to embrace activity in the humanitarian relief, development and peacebuilding fields, as well as conflict resolution.

2. We would also take issue with the prevailing discourse of ‘skills’ in the UK context, which is dominated by economic imperatives. As Tom Sastry and Bahram Bekhradnia (2007) claim, the recent Leitch Review of Skills (2006) defines them ‘largely in terms of the knowledge an employee needs to do an immediate job of work for an employer, disregarding the analytical skills and deeper more generic knowledge that it has in the past been uniquely the function of higher education to provide’. We suggest this is too narrow a conception of skills, both generally and in relation to peacework.

3. A fuller analysis of transformative learning in this class can be found in Fetherston and Kelly (2007).

4. A second core module in Year 2 builds directly on ICR, and other options modules have also been redesigned to follow on from the core courses.