Open Praxis: Three perspectives, one vision
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Keynote Panel for OER19, Taskeen Adam, Judith Pete and Caroline Kuhn Galway
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Open Praxis: Three perspectives, one vision
- 1. Open Praxis: Three Perspectives, One Vision Taskeen Adam, Judith Pete, Caroline Kuhn OER19
- 2. Taskeen Adam, South Africa PhD candidate, University of Cambridge Evaluates the geo-political nature of MOOC production and to what extent MOOCs could support marginalised groups in South Africa @taskeeeners
- 3. Judith Pete, Kenya PhD candidate, Open University, The Netherlands Assessing differentiation in access to and use of OER among students and lecturers at 12 African Universities #ROER4D @judyphalet
- 4. Caroline Kuhn, Venezuela/German PhD candidate, Bath Spa Univ. Exploring the complex reality of students’ open/closed digital practices and the interplay between students’ agency, institutional culture, and social structures. @carolak
- 5. Specific challenges in our work
- 6. Image by Couleur from Pixabay An assumption that openness is intrinsically good One-size-fits-all Diverse populations Different world views Material constraints Image by Couleur from Pixabay
- 7. 89% English-language OER repositories from Europe and NA, only 1% from Africa (Santos-Hermosa et al. 2017, p. 106) Historical injustices lead to present day inequalities Pawel Kuczynski (no commercial use)
- 9. Inter-country Inequalities Country distribution of the sampled open education publications according to author affiliations (Bozkurt, Koseoglu & Singh 2018)
- 10. South Africa Photo by Finding Dan | Dan Grinwis on Unsplash Also, South Africa Intra-country Inequalities www.kapstadt-entdecken.de (CC BY-SA
- 11. Africa is not a country Openness has not embraced differentiation among African universities There is no universal understanding of openness Such barriers limit users to ‘read and use’ Pawel Kuczynski (no commercial use)
- 12. Open education in my context is a fantasy There are many reasons why students don’t engage reflexively with open and digital tools at University
- 13. Formal digital learning is a space of struggle Conflicting emotions Pawel Kuczynski (no commercial use)
- 14. New norms, rules, ways of engaging, sharing, contributing New risks, threats, problems New language New literacies Technological infrastructure as a constraint Pawel Kuczynski (no commercial use)
- 15. Surface approach to learning Deep Surface Strategic Pawel Kuczynski (no commercial use) Explorative mindset
- 16. Institutional support (culture) for staff to model and embed Pawel Kuczynski (no commercial use)
- 18. Balancing the global and local in open education Decolonisation as replacing hegemonic knowledges Decolonisation as re-centering local knowledges Decolonisation as entangled knowledges (Jansen 2017, p 153 - 171) How do we ‘recenter’ the millions of local perspectives that exist? Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
- 19. Decolonisation as replacing Western Knowledges E.g. Africanisation of knowledge Image by mtj6596 from Pixabay absolute center of knowledge
- 20. Decolonisation as recentering local knowledges E.g. Afro-centric knowledges Image by mtj6596 from Pixabay relative center of knowledge
- 21. Decolonisation as entangled knowledges But...a plurality of voices needs to exist firstImage by mtj6596 from Pixabay
- 22. Epistemological Foundations of Pre-modern Islamic Pedagogy Embodiment of knowledge Book knowledge secondary the teacher Source of values and character building Seek to simply be in the presence of the teachers aura Learn from their way of being Knowledge passed through connection between the heart of teacher & student Learn his good mannerisms and etiquette (Masmoudi 2017)
- 23. Embracing difference Fairness -irrespective of where you started Acknowledging that individual levels of support are needed Pawel Kuczynski (no commercial use)
- 24. Integration of OER and cognitive justice in teaching and learning Cognitive justice: recognising diversity of knowledge as a way of life Co-existence Knowledge rests in people Pawel Kuczynski (no commercial use)
- 25. Equal collaboration: ownership Pawel Kuczynski (no commercial use)
- 26. Models for Social Transformation: Social inclusion Pawel Kuczynski (no commercial use)
- 27. Students aspire to have better educational digital practices Redesign curricula & rethink the construction of learning spaces from a critical social perspective Pawel Kuczynski (no commercial use)
- 28. The importance of meaningful and relational spaces to foster agency (reflexive engagement) Pawel Kuczynski (no commercial use)
- 32. A relational and complex understanding of space~place Euclidean concept of space as an empty container to be filled with actions/tools is problematic Pawel Kuczynski (no commercial use)
- 33. Crafting a learning space with tools and resources is complex and nuanced. Learning spaces as relational emergent co-becoming Learning as becoming Becoming as co-intentional
- 34. “Natural space becomes a social phenomenon, or social space, once people begin to use it, boundaries are put on it, and meanings (including ownership, price, etc.) are attached to it. Then the air-over- dirt becomes a lot or a plot, and if residential users obtain control over the bounded space, it becomes their place” (Gans, 2002) From space to place
- 36. Our vision of the future of open
- 37. E.g. McDonalds in India Global serving local needs vs Local serving local needs Source: https://www.mcdonaldsindia.com/products-meals.html Glocalisation, Platform Capitalism, & Commodification of Culture
- 39. But to embody that attitude students/staff need to embrace new rules, different roles, new language, ways of communicating, sharing... It is not natural and it does not come without hard work
- 41. “But when we say access, we are not simply thinking in demographic terms, although these are crucial. When we say access, we are also saying the possibility to inhabit a space to the extent that one can say, this is my home. I am not a foreigner. I belong here. This is not hospitality. It is not charity.” (Mbembe 2016, 2)
Editor's Notes
- Option b, let the majority choose :-)
- Taskeen (50 secs): In a way, my research reflects deep parts of myself, particularly my passion for equitable access to education and challenging structural inequality, stemming from my life experiences both in South Africa and at the University of Cambridge. My research has two levels that relate strongly with the conference theme of recentering open. The first is at a philosophical level, which I delve into the concept of digital neo-colonialism which I define as the use of technology and the internet by hegemonic powers, such as corporates or countries, as a means of indirect control or influence over a marginalised group or country. This indirect control could be for economic, political, social, or cultural agenda’s. So I use this as a lens to evaluate MOOC and other similar global online education platforms. The second part of my research is more practical, with a specific focus on designing a framework for online education that embodies values of decolonisation, liberation and social justice, using South Africa specifically as my location.
- Judith (40 secs): My dissertation explores and gives a broader lense of how Sub-Saharan African universities are underrepresented in literature especially in differentiations in access to or use and sharing of OER; to be specific, it explored differentiation in terms of (i) level of use of OER (ii) awareness of licensing (iii) perceived value of OER;2249 students and 106 lecturers surveyed in 12 universities in three countries in Africa. Major findings shows that there is a significant digital differentiation among students and lecturers in terms of their proficiency, devices used & internet accessibility; awareness and appreciation of OER concept and open licensing is generally low; THOUGH there is preparedness for openness in for the future in all the three countries. Which calls for (i) Restructuring of educational policies (ii) incorporate ICT & OER in teaching and learning processes…
- Cover Slide Q2: Each of you are challenging one or more aspects of the open agenda, highlighting shortcomings and identifying how we can do better. Q2: What specific challenges are you taking up in your work? Why open? Open by/for whom? Caroline Whose interests are served? Has it even started? Caroline Has the open agenda been appropriated?
- Taskeen (3 min): In my research, I am challenging whether openness is innately and unquestionably beneficial. One of the main concerns for me in terms of openness is that in its well-intentioned philanthropic attempts to strive for universal free education to all parts of the globe, open educational movements can tend to assume a one-size-fits-all model for diverse populations, with different worldviews and material contexts. This can actually amplify injustices because the producers of online content lie predominantly in Western countries, where as those in the Global South are predominantly recipients of this content as they don’t have the financial means to produce such content..
- Taskeen: This leads to something that is foundational to my PhD, and that is placing open education historically. By this I am referring to how the historical imbalances embedded in education systems are now carried over into online open education. Often we try to fix problems such as lack of diversity online, without reflecting on how these imbalances came to be, and how they continue to impact us. Without this reflection our solutions address symptoms rather than causes.<5>
- Taskeen: When I speak of injustices, I am talking about not just the material injustices like lack of equitable access to resources, but epistemic injustices such has what counts as knowledge and whose knowledge is valued. I would echo the sentiments of Jan Derry here when she highlights that while we are continuously improving our online pedagogies, little attention is given to the question of knowledge, meaning our epistemologies. We need to bring such concerns to the forefront of openness.
- Taskeen: Looking at open education production, Heat maps such as this one produced by Aras, Suzan and Lenandlar highlight the inequalities in Open Education publications. While these maps are crucial in highlighting inter-country inequalities, we must be wary of the information that they hide. As the authors highlight, many of the publications come from one or two institutions within that country and don’t represent the views and practices of the country in general.
- Taskeen Adding to this, often, we fool ourselves into thinking that if we have representatives from many countries (such as in this panel), we have included diverse voices, but this is not true. In the age of globalisation, there are elite and university-educated classes in all countries, just as there are marginalised voices in the US. So we need to think beyond country divisions, to intra-country divisions in class as well. And we need to include marginalised voices, on their terms, which is something I will come to later
- Judith: I am questioning the intention of Openness to developing countries; while the barriers exists, how then shall we achieve the drive that knowledge should be legally, socially and technologically “Open”.
- Caroline: One of the maps of my participants, one of the biggest challenge for open praxis to happen is overcoming structural barriers. Students don’t feel at ease using open tools in the academic space
- Caroline: Instead of it being a relational space it is an alienating space for many, a space that doesn’t make sense and a space where things don’t mean a lot. Where meaning is not shared between lecturer and student,
- Caroline: To overcome this barriers digital literacies need to be embedded meaningfully in the curriculum. The emergent and dynamic nature of the Web. Co-intentional education (Freire)
- Caroline: Assessment is what is key for the majority of students which brings the majority of students to take a strategic approach to learning (Entwistle, N.) so that they won’t take challenges that are not conducive to higher grades. Instrumental rationality vs relationality, spaces for relations, academic relations in this case
- Caroline: Staff is trapped in an institution that is ruled by ideas of marketisation and neoliberalism. There is much resources and time devoted to finding ways to recruit more students but not enough time for professional development. Staff is overworked. This is also what is called the hidden curriculum, the ethos, the underlying principles that guide the university in its decisions is market driven. How Laura calls it, the marketisation social imaginary, the new social order in the HE system. The whole section is no longer than 6 min
- You can leave this plain as a section marker… or use a simple image for background
- Taskeen (4 min 30 seconds): In responding to the challenge I raised to include more local, nuances voices in openness, the question is how? how do you recentre the local in the global space of openness where there are millions of ‘locals’ to privilege and centre? In answering this, I have drawn on theories of social justice, decolonisation and liberation, particularly the work of Jonathan Jansen. I take his break down of different movements in decolonisation of education in South Africa, and map it to the online space.
- https://pixabay.com/illustrations/world-map-world-map-globe-3617823/ School of thought/ world view/ body of knowledge The first is the extreme movement to replace western and colonial schools of thought with loca onesl, for examples, African knowledge systems, in order to rebuild one’s own knowledge base. Whilst this is crucial to developing and establishing and strengthening marginalised worldviews, it can also lead to essentialism and nativism. It also forgets that colonial identities are now hybridised and it is impossible to return to pre-colonial states.
- The second movement is to recentre one's education around local knowledges, for example, African knowledge systems, while still acknowledging others relatively. This suggestion is much more useful to open online education where if a MOOC comes from Brazil, it embodies that worldview. We see MOOCs like this popping up much more of late. The caution with this is a romanticization of local and indigenous knowledges as beyond critique.
- Finally, the last way is to look more holistically at knowledge as entangled in a way that is not regional, but rather travelling across space, and evolving with time. This type of model places more emphasis on the concept or principle rather than the region. In this type of model, a diverse participant pool is not the challenge but the feature. Additionally, this provides more room for critical engagement and dialogical learning where ideas are shared interculturally and evolved. However, for this model to work, the first and second movements are crucial building steps as marginalised voices first need to be acknowledged and established before we can move to a stage of critical engagement. This is a concept that Gayatri Spivak calls strategic essentialism. A dialogical process is futile if voices are missing. Thus, for me, I see the three stages are a process towards an end goal.
- Another crucial point I want to make here is to what extent local knowledges and pedagogies can and want to be open? For this we need to take a step back from the current focus on open pedagogy to looking at differing epistemologies. While the need to include more local and indigenous knowledges is necessary in many cases, I also want to draw attention to adverse incorporation where certain ways of knowing, certain epistemologies, don’t fit into our rubric of openness. For example, I want to draw attention to Murabit Al-Hajj, a Mauritanian Islamic Scholar who, to me, represents pre-modern Islamic pedagogy. The epistemic foundations in this pedagogy are entirely different where just silently being in the presence of the teacher, or following them in their daily lives, is counted as valuable learning, as one would be blessed by their spiritual presence.The connection between the student and the teacher is one of the heart and the soul, not just the mind. The teacher is not merely the source of knowledge nor the facilitator of knowledge, but the embodiment of knowledge. Who the teacher is in character is more valuable than what or how they teach. Now, how does one even begin to bring this pedagogy and understanding of knowledge into online open education?
- Judith: How can we build models that bring together the affected, the excluded, and listening to the views of those marginalised. Marginalised groups needs to be part of the solution to their problem and this is FAIRNESS- it does not matter where one starts and your origin. Not everyone needs support; and when needed, there are individual levels hence should not Generalize; Educational policies should respond to ed problems, policies with solutions, directly responding to that problem. An Institution that comes with policies that is solving problems. Who defines the quality of education for US? Structural / top down policies, they come from outside, the western. World Bank and IMF do it. Educational policies should include oer and openness as part of the solution, and the people that are aware of OER should be part of the solution Eneza Education - https://enezaeducation.com/. Slide 21: Judith: Equal Collaboration: Enhancing Ownership to all social transformation processes Embracing fairness
- Judith: I am struggling with the fact that for Africa, the challenge has always been how to build on local knowledge that exists with the people and is FREE- how do we integrate with the Global knowledge and immense information out there? How do we sustain such cohesiveness...
- Judith: Equal Collaboration: Enhancing Ownership to all social transformation processes Embracing fairness
- Judith: Judith: Social Inclusion: the unheard voices represented and involving the marginalized in decisions Cognitive Justice : recognising diversity of knowledge as way of life: Spirit of co-existence; the power of local people’s knowledge
- Caroline: I am at the moment with tied hands. I have little autonomy in my work as I am a pawn in the game. But I have thought about this for the future and a way forward in my/our practice could be→ Designing with students an open learning space that is meaningful and it integrates pedagogical instances like the co-construction of knowledge whereby agency is exercised and at the same time critical digital literacies. The closed tools and platforms that are mainly used are detrimental for creativity and agency hence the bring reproduction and not change of the social structures. This also hinders the possibility to develop an explorative mindset.
- Caroline: Instead of it being a relational space it is an alienating space for many, a space that doesn’t make sense and a space where things don’t mean a lot. Meaning is not shared between lecturer and student. Assessment is what is key for the majority of students. We also know that the majority of students take a strategic approach to learning (Entwistle, N.) so that they won’t take challenges that are not conducive to higher grades. Instrumental rationality vs relationality, spaces for relations, academic relations in this case
- Caroline
- Caroline
- Caroline
- Caroline From Bawaka → Country is relational terms includes humans, more-than-humans and all that is tangible and non-tangible and which become together in an active, sentient, mutually caring and multidirectional manner in, with and as place/space. Learning space/place as emergent co-becoming. It is about the relationships, the meaningful relationships that has the potential to transform inert spaces into meaningful places
- Caroline: Making the learning (formal) space meaningful and relational. Co-intentional education (Freire 1993). The Euclidean conception of space is problematic. Socio-spatial order of learning can’t be ignored. This is the importance of the social dimension of space and its arrangements to create a meaningful environment to thrive and flourish. Instrumental rationality vs relationality, spaces for relations, students-tutors relations in this case
- Caroline: Experimenting with the concept of topology of space:
- Caroline: A new topology of learning spaces. Topology as the study of properties and spatial relations unaffected by the continuous change of shape or size of figures. What are the invariants of open learning spaces? The 7 duplets are a proposal of those invariant properties that characterise a space of co-becoming
- Taskeen (50 seconds): For me, we need to approach the future of openness cautiously. While we all now acknowledge the lack of diverse voices online, we also need to be weary of how they are brought online. And it really boils down to who owns the means of production. Specifically with regard to MOOC platforms, we see a well-intentioned trends to expand to include diverse voices onto their platforms, the MOOC form of glocalisation, just as McDonalds has the McSpicey Paneer and Mc Aloo wrap. But what this does it it stifles the ability for diverse platforms to exist, and in the end it is an oligopoly of Western MOOC platforms that will profit of this increased, diversified market share.
- Judith: Inclusion- Adding the unheard voices and involving the marginalized, considering others views and opinions (who should be included/excluded and why?) Equity-Remove barriers to access, ensure equal opportunity and acknowledge that there are different needs and it is a process (equity) Collaboration -Embracing fairness as a virtue (irrespective of what point you started), embracing differences, cognitive justice and acknowledging individual levels of support. Cost implications- Openness is not FREE comes with a cost hence understanding various levels of support and WHAT support is locally needed
- Caroline: I envision a future that needs to be cultivated, a future that for many needs to be envisioned, a future that only will look open if we put the work together to craft that relational space where openness is at its core. Although open in an attitude, it needs to be learned and supported by institutional culture/policy
- Here in this section we can see again a golden thread that weaves all of us together.
- Some students don’t belong to the academic/formal learning space, they don’t relate to it, it does not mean much to them. This has the implication that they are not interested in putting in the effort and the struggle