The value of a co-operative learning approach in promoting the social and intellectual ability of learners has long been recognized. We have an understanding of the values that promote co-operative behaviors and attitudes but how many of us have made the connection between a structural context in communities in which to explore and exploit these aptitudes? The Co-operative Movement offers exactly that.

There are co-operative enterprises of every kind on every continent of the world with 750 million known members in over a 100 countries. They take many forms from care co-operatives to housing co-operatives and from health food distributors to ferry operators. All are independent societies but working with the same framework of principles and all are clear demonstrations of people co-operating together. With 4 in 10 people in the U.S. having membership of a co-op and with over 7000 co-ops in Canada, they provide excellent examples of the application of co-operative skills, behaviors and structures to teach through, for and about co-operation.

Although co-operative organizations are thought to have existed since ancient times, what is commonly regarded as the conception and growth of the modern consumer Co-operative Movement started in Britain early in the 19^th century during the second half of the industrial revolution. Whilst industrialization had many benefits it also bought with it untold exploitation and misery for many working people.

In Britain, the Chartists sought political reform through universal suffrage, whilst nearly every major European capital witnessed political ferment and upheaval.

During the early part of the 19^th century, the social reformer Robert Owen (1771-1858) started some of the first experiments in co-operation. A Welshman who had made his fortune in cotton, Owen was convinced that, given the right environment, working-class people could form co-operative communities. He put this into practice in New Lanark, Scotland, where his own business was based. He built an Institute for the Formation of Character for his employees that contained schoolrooms, public halls, community centres and a nursery school - all extremely radical ideas for the time. Owen believed that these villages of co-operation would solve the problems of poverty, by allowing people to opt out of capitalist society and into a New Moral World.

Owen went on to establish other model communities in America and Glasgow, in keeping with his socialistic vision. While his organization of co-op stores did not succeed, much was learned through his experimentation. The basic purposes and principles expounded and tested by Owen were crucial in developing an attitude for change and confidence among working people of the day that they could, with co-operative effort, make things better for themselves and their communities.

As the Industrial Revolution progressed and textile production became mechanized, workers struggled to maintain their standard of living. In the mill towns of Lancashire, England many weavers lived in poverty.

A number of strikes by weavers in Rochdale over the preceding 40 years had failed to have the lasting effect of improving wages and living conditions. After the collapse of the 1844 strike, the weavers wondered if there was a better way of improving their situation. Political, moral and economic action had not achieved lasting change. People were looking for new ideas that could help pull them out of their poverty and desperation.

With no formal weights and measures legislation, some store owners gave unfair measures and adulterated their products, for example flaking chalk into flour and tree leaves in loose tea. A lack of local competition and little consumer awareness allowed these traders to continue their bad practices.

Twenty-eight Rochdale men, mostly textile workers, decided to open a shop in Rochdale to provide unadulterated products at a fair price and compete with the local traders. The men, later to become known as the Rochdale Pioneers, each invested £1 and opened a shop providing a small range of good quality essential products. They invited customers to join them and invest small amounts in the business and become members and joint owners of their co-operative society. Any surplus money left after meeting the expenses of running the shop was returned to the members as dividend, in proportion to how much money they had spent. They did not allow their members credit as bad debt had caused the failure of such earlier co-operative societies. They also ran their society democratically with each member having one vote.

From the start, the 28 Pioneers inspired by the ideas of Robert Owen and others social reformers such as Dr William King, had a vision beyond the provision of consumer goods. It was of a world in which co-operation was the underlying feature in human society. This was to be achieved through education. For them they made this possible by placing a 2.5% levy on purchases and set it aside for a fund with the aim of intellectual improvement of the members and their families.

The ideas of the Pioneers and the success of their venture inspired co-operators across the Britain to open stores based on the same principles and the consumer movement grew.

Although the Rochdale Society was not the first co-operative business, it was the first to be successful over a long period of time and became well known for it’s operating principles and as the founder of the consumer Co-operative Movement.

Britain now boasts over 8 million members.

Between 1850 and 1895 more co-operative businesses developed across Europe. Three other forms of co-operation became important– credit, agricultural and worker, all attempting to meet basic human needs for short-term loans, supply and sale of farm produce and the provision of paid work on fair terms. All now represent major contributions to local and national economies through jointly owned and democratically controlled co-operative businesses. Health co-ops took hold from 1920’s and now are important providers of healthcare throughout the world. In Japan, for example, almost 2 million households are involved.

The Woodcraft Folk is a co-operative educational movement for children and young people and has been associated with the Co-operative Movement for over 70 years. It aims to build a world based on equality, friendship, peace and co-operation. There are active groups throughout the UK which are supported and encouraged by co-operative societies, with international youth links across all continents of the world. An international camp is to be held in the UK this summer with 3000 young people representing 35 countries coming together to learn about and explore the theme, ‘the world on a tight-rope’.

The International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) was founded in London in 1895 and now represents 230 member organizations in 100 countries. Its members are national and international co-operative organizations, covering activities ranging from banking and industry to housing, consumer and tourism.

Today the ICA represents more than 750 million individuals world-wide and working from its head office in Geneva encourages and assists the development of co-operatives in developing countries. It also works to influence governments, gather finance and exchange experiences and good practice between co-operatives.

All co-ops work within a set of principles updated from the original Rochdale principles. These principles are underpinned by a number of co-operative values such as democracy, equality, self help, solidarity, social responsibility and caring for others.

The provision of education has been a principle applied by co-ops since their inception, and the UK consumer movement has a long tradition of educational provision for its members, employees and the communities it serves –from cradle to grave.

There is a national Co-operative College co-ordinating and delivering training and education to the several thousand democratically elected members of co-operative societies and their staff as well as a national network, Movement-wide, of over 50 field staff with a responsibility for education, the promotion of co-operative ideals and community involvement. An annual conference for teachers and educationalists is co-coordinated by the College and well over a thousand practitioners and supporters of co-operative learning approaches have attended the conferences over the past decade, finding out how to apply co-operative ways of learning to their practice or about the vast educational resource the Movement can offer.

In furthering the attempts to support and network educationalists, a UK association for co-operative learning supported by the Co-operative Movement is in the process of being established – the Co-operative Learning Network. It is to be supported by a web-site that is currently under development and will promote the wide range of resources available, share best practice as well as spread the understanding and application of co-operation more widely to educators.

Much information is available about the Movement in its widest sense. A number of web sites are good places to start.