Contribution to the Symposium on "Leading Media - Leading Education: Critical Considerations on Strategies of Empowerment and (Opening Up) Education" in Network 6, 06 SES 10, at the ECER Conference 2016 in Dublin (2016-08-25)

1. Openness in Education as Strategy of Empowerment?
Openness in Education as Strategy of Empowerment?
Theo Hug & Nelson Gonçalves ECER 2016 Leading Education in Dublin August 23*26, 2016 1
Theo Hug & Nelson Gonçalves
Network 6, 06 SES 10, Symposium
Leading Media " Leading Education:
Critical Considerations on Strategies of Empowerment and (Opening Up) Education
Thursday, 2016*08*25, 15:30*17:00, Room: NM*Theatre M, Chair/Discussant: Sonja Kröger/Rachel Shanks

2. Openness in Education as Strategy of Empowerment?
Overview
Opening
Understandings of openness in education
Openness in education as strategy of empowerment
Theo Hug & Nelson Gonçalves ECER 2016 Leading Education in Dublin August 23*26, 2016 2
Openness in education as strategy of empowerment
Paradoxes, ambivalences, and critical remarks
Conclusion

3. Openness in Education as Strategy of Empowerment?
Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776*1841)
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bildsamkeit#/
media/File:Johann_F_Herbart.jpg
Protagoras (490~411 BCE)
http://gwallter.com/politics/diffyg*
gwybodaeth*diffyg*democratiaeth.html
Theo Hug & Nelson Gonçalves ECER 2016 Leading Education in Dublin August 23*26, 2016 3
media/File:Johann_F_Herbart.jpg
Ruth C. Cohn (1912*2010)
http://www.ruth*cohn*institute.org/system/
html/ruth_cohn_schels_72dpi.JPG*7706f464.jpg

4. Openness in Education as Strategy of Empowerment?
Understandings of Openness and/in Education revisited
Open
Education
without
barriers
allowing for
passage
broad minded free permeable tbc
training easy to access
eligibility
certificates
free choice of
material
no or low
monetary costs
coming and going
learning in
formal contexts
no eligibility
assessments
authorization
transformative
learning
self*organized learning
revising and
reusing OER
self"learning
self*
crediting open
educational commons,
sharing /
Theo Hug & Nelson Gonçalves ECER 2016 Leading Education in Dublin August 23*26, 2016 4
self"learning
self*
empowerment
crediting open
learning, self*
improvement
critical literacy
educational commons,
"edupunk"
sharing /
re*distributing
content
teaching teaching as
learning
professional
growth
democratic
orientation
fair use,
(re*)use of OER
team*teaching
lesson, class low*threshold
access
skipping classes
global
education
lessons at no
(obvious) charge
"flipped classroom"
formation
(Bildung)
free choice of
educational
material
social mobility
enabling self*
determined
processes
personal enrichment,
education for its own
sake
multiple choices for
individuals in the
course of education
upbringing
(Erziehung)
anarchic
education
adequate
bonding
personal
maturation
liberal education
intercultural
education
tbc

5. Openness in Education as Strategy of Empowerment?
Openness in education as strategy of empowerment?
many faces of empowerment strategies as related to corresponding
understandings of openness on micro*, meso*, and macro*levels
For example: Opening up Education revisited
(Inamorato dos Santos et al. 2016:15):
Theo Hug & Nelson Gonçalves ECER 2016 Leading Education in Dublin August 23*26, 2016 5
“Learners must be empowered to
collaborate with each other and with
the institution and community in order
to produce knowledge, define their
unique learning paths and achieve
their goals.” (ibd.: 26)
“The 10 dimensions of open education”
(Inamorato dos Santos et al. 2016:15)

6. Openness in Education as Strategy of Empowerment?
Lessons learned from Free/Libre Software narratives (1/2)
Free as gratis ≠ Free as in Freedom
Mostly centered in content (OER, resources as content, sharing content, gratis
content, content quality , etc) and access to content.
From Content Dissemination for Reading (CD*R) to Content Dissemination for
Theo Hug & Nelson Gonçalves ECER 2016 Leading Education in Dublin August 23*26, 2016 6
From Content Dissemination for Reading (CD*R) to Content Dissemination for
Reading and Writing more (CD*RW)
Issues of western education colonialism
Knowledge as public domain vs. private property
“Knowledge cultures based on non*proprietary modes
of knowledge production and exchange” (Peters 2012)
Adapting F/LOSS strategies in education

7. Openness in Education as Strategy of Empowerment?
Lessons learned from Free/Libre Software narratives (2/2)
Openness in education as strategy of empowerment
Whom does openness serve?
Whom does education serve?
The case of F/LOSS for arts: Freedom of participation
Theo Hug & Nelson Gonçalves ECER 2016 Leading Education in Dublin August 23*26, 2016 7
The case of F/LOSS for arts: Freedom of participation
Ethical dimension
“The decision to work with free software
is also an ethical decision, the expression
of a desire to live in a world organised
in a different way, where the artificial
barriers that benefit only a few are
eliminated” (Soler 2008: 16)
https://www.gnu.org/education/education.en.html
https://www.gnu.org/graphics/heckert_gnu.small.png

8. Openness in Education as Strategy of Empowerment?
Paradoxes, ambivalences, and critical remarks
Relevance of well*known pedagogical antinomies and paradoxes
Opposite effects and unintended side*effects
How are empowerers empowered?
Theo Hug & Nelson Gonçalves ECER 2016 Leading Education in Dublin August 23*26, 2016 8
As to self*empowerment, self*guidance, self*management,
self*governance, self*determination, self*care, etc.
Towards an educational “self(ie)”*culture?
Literacy strategies of empowerment?
advertising literacy, art literacy, brand literacy, computer literacy, consumer literacy, cultural literacy, cyber*literacy, data literacy, digital literacy,
diversity literacy, ecological literacy, emotional literacy, environmental literacy, fashion literacy, film literacy, financial literacy, food literacy,
gender literacy, geographical literacy, hacking literacy, health literacy, information literacy, intercultural literacy, internet literacy, library literacy,
management literacy, mobile literacy, multicultural literacy, multi*literacy, multimodal literacy, numerical literacy, political literacy, sexual literacy,
situated literacy, television literacy, visual literacy, zoological literacy, etc.

9. Openness in Education as Strategy of Empowerment?
Conclusion
Openness is no “no*brainer” in terms of empowerment and no value in itself
“A most important prerequisite for the empowerment of citizens is a concerted
effort to improve media and information literacy” (Jacquinot*Delaunay et al. 2008: 28)
From metaphorical enhancements of literacy concepts towards opening up
Theo Hug & Nelson Gonçalves ECER 2016 Leading Education in Dublin August 23*26, 2016 9
From metaphorical enhancements of literacy concepts towards opening up
relations of literacy, numeracy or mathemacy, oracy and picturacy
(self*)reflective empowerment includes meta*critical, polylogical and context*
sensitive perspectives – in other words:
“openness to possibilities is not the same as saying ‘anything goes’ because
possibilities are always limited and situated. Furthermore, openness is the
opposite of saying ‘nothing matters’ because possibilities are considered open
only insofar as they are found to be worth pursuing.” (Hoy 2004: 232)

10. Openness in Education as Strategy of Empowerment?
References
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Carlsson, Ulla; Tayie, Samy; Jacquinot*Delaunay, Geneviève & Pérez Tornero José Manuel (eds.) (2008): Empowerment through
media education: an intercultural dialogue. Göteborg: Nordicom at Göteborgs universitet.
Downes, Stephen (2011): Free Learning $ Essays on open educational resources and copyright. Retrieved from
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Hoy, David Couzens (2004): Critical resistance: From poststructuralism to post$critique. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
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Hug, Theo (2016): Defining Openness in Education. In: Peters, Michael A. (ed.): Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory.
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Hug, Theo (2016): Defining Openness in Education. In: Peters, Michael A. (ed.): Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory.
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