To agree or not to agree? Working towards consensus under conditions of mutual r
To agree or not to agree? Working towards consensus under conditions of mutual respect
Dr Eugenia Tzoumaka
What is the idea?
Echoing the thoughts of Volk (2019) on the ways democratic engagement can be developed during academic studies, as well as the current trends in employability, this chapter presents an active learning idea that cultivates the ability of students to work towards consensus under conditions of mutual respect.
This exercise is ideal for, but not limited to courses where group work is moderately or heavily incorporated, i.e. a term group-project, or group participation in a simulation game.
The idea builds on the rationale of the traditional team-building scenarios, the purpose of which is to develop collaborative skills, but in the proposed activity the focus is on whether consensus has been reached and whether mutual respect has been maintained.
Why this idea?
The present idea is linked with two important objectives that are beneficial for students: the acquisition of soft skills relevant to their employability, and the democratic skills. Such skills enhance students’ ability to argue, debate and reach consensus in a mutually respectful manner that is characterised by care, community and trust (Lloyd, 2008).
A dominant view of employability is the one that focuses on the skills potential employees attain, with the “soft” skills, i.e. teamwork, communication, etc. becoming increasingly prioritised by both employers and university students (Andrews & Higson, 2008; Kyrousi et al., 2022; Ritter et al., 2018). Moreover, universities are urged to cultivate “skills of political deliberation” that will allow current students and future citizens to at least understand the difference between democracy and authoritarianism or illiberalism and be able to preserve it (Volk, 2019).
For this chapter, respect and consensus are defined as follows. Respect denotes the treating of a person as equal “regardless of [their] social position, individual characteristics or achievements, or moral merit” (Dillon, 2018). In the classroom environment, mutual respect could translate as (a) the student body valuing all its members, (b) being considerate of their feelings, and thus (c) not making fun of any member (Patrick, Ryan,& Kaplan, 2007). Consensus, is one of the two alternatives for reaching an agreement, with the second being the compromise, namely consenting to a decision without actually agreeing or endorsing the outcome. Consensus, contrarily to compromise, “is a situation where the agents adopt the final outcome as their own position on the matter in question”, they internalise because of a fruitful argumentation (Martini, Sprenger, & Colyvan, 2013, p. 881).
How could others implement this idea?
The idea under discussion was aimed at the students of a Level 5 validated course in Sports Marketing, the first assessment of which, bearing 60% of the final grade, includes a group project, namely a live-assessment marketing plan and a group presentati