Thursica Kovinthan is a PhD Candidate in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa. Her research interests include citizenship education, gender equality in education, and conflict and post-conflict education. Thursica received her M.A. in Child Study and Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and her BSc. from the University of Toronto. Debates have been taking place in higher education communities in Canada and other Anglo-American contexts between defenders of liberal education and promoters of neoliberalism. One development not addressed is the growth of co-operative education (co-op). The origins of co-op may reside in John Dewey's (1939, 1966) ideas about experience and democracy, but co-op also resembles a neoliberal phenomenon. We reviewed the North American literature on co-op from 1990-2014 to see if and how the rise of co-op has posed a challenge to liberal education. Our analysis revealed a dominant focus on instrumental and economic purposes reflecting neoliberal reforms, strands of philosophical and empirical inquiry consistent with liberal education, and a notable absence of critical, emancipatory outlooks. We contend that co-op researchers need to rediscover the socially progressive promise of experiential education, informed by other educational subfields. We also argue that researchers interested in neoliberal challenges to liberal education need to tap co-op as a site of inquiry. © 2014 The Governors of the University of Alberta.
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