The coordinates of co-production in the educational services system

Abstract

The paper proposes a certain delimitation of the concepts of cooperation and co-production in services and aims to apply them concretely in education, related to the connections (cooperation) between offeror and beneficiary. The article is part of a wider plan that seeks to implement the legitimacy of using the notion of co-production in all sectors of activity, whether it is the one of goods or services to designate cooperative relationships between producer and consumer or, as we like to say, between the offeror and the beneficiary. The article starts with the definition and clarification of the concept of co-production. After briefly setting several conceptual aspects, an applied analysis is performed on a group of respondents from education, using a questionnaire developed to provide adequate information for the purposes set forth: some relationships between the influence factors of the co-production between teacher and student are analysed. The questionnaire allows us to share interesting conclusions regarding the reasons that make people to participate. An analysis of the logic behind the co-production phenomenon is offered, reserves for the improvement of such relations being revealed for the education system.  The conclusions following the data analysis confirm the initial assumptions and reveal interesting aspects, as described in the final section.