This is a brief review of a special issue of Learning, Media and Technology on Critical approaches to Open Education from 2015. Presented at https://www.nera2019.com/

1. Making meaning of “open” in
educational research
– a review of critical approaches
Sara Mörtsell, PhD student
sara.mortsell@hig.se | @SaraMrtsell

2. Context for this study
PhD project
• Initial stages…
• Aims to understand the relationship
between technology and teaching
practices in Swedish primary/secondary
education.
Reserach interests
• Materialities in education and pedagogy.
• Critical approaches to education and
digital/online technology.
• How does the critique of open education
apply to the broader field of technology in
education?
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3. Definition of open: The 5R example
The open content definition is
based on the (5) permissions
granted by the license, including
commercial re-use.
Reuse et cie 5R By Fréderic Duriez (modified)
CC BY-3.0, via Formation et E-learning
https://www.opencontent.org/definition/
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4. Definition: The EU on Open Education
Opening up Education: A Support Framework for
Higher Education Institutions (2016)
"a way of carrying out education, often
using digital technologies. Its aim is to
widen access and participation to
everyone by removing barriers and
making learning accessible, abundant,
and customisable for all. It offers
multiple ways of teaching and learning,
building and sharing knowledge. It also
provides a variety of access routes to
formal and non-formal education, and
connects the two.“ (p.10)
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5. Literature selection and journal scope
Journal scope
“As such, Learning, Media and Technology is not a generic ‘Ed Tech’
journal. We are not looking to publish context-free studies of individual
technologies in individual institutional settings, ‘how-to’ guides for the
practical use of technologies in the classroom, or speculation on the
future potential of technology in education.”
https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=cjem20
Learning, Media and Technology, 2015, 40(3)
Special issue: Critical approaches to open education.
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6. Questions
• How is Open Education approached in this literature?
• Which particular instances of open education (OE) is
targeted?
• What are the main critiques emerging in these
approaches to Open Education?
• Which alternatives are proposed or highlighted as
significant?
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7. Overview of articles
Author Title Focus of OE Critical approach
Edwards
Knowledge infrastructures and the inscrutability of openness
in education
OER + MOOCs Derrida
Gourlay Open education as a ‘heterotopia of desire’ OER + MOOCs Latour and Foucault
Oliver
From openness to permeability: reframing open education in
terms of positive liberty in the enactment of academic
practices
Open Education
Sociomaterial
approach
Jones Openness, technologies, business models and austerity
OER + MOOCs +
Open Universities
Latour
Moe
OER as online edutainment resources: a critical look at open
content, branded content, and how both affect the OER
movement
OER + branded
content
Lyotard
Stewart
Open to influence: what counts as academic influence in
scholarly networked Twitter participation
Open scholarship
Situated knowledges
(Harraway)
Hall For a political economy of massive open online courses MOOCs
Political economy
(Marx)
Winn Open education and the emancipation of academic labour Open Access
Political economy
(Marx)

8. 1. Conceptual reframing of Open Education
Author Title Focus of OE Critical approach
Edwards
Knowledge infrastructures and the inscrutability of openness
in education
OER + MOOCs Derrida
Gourlay Open education as a ‘heterotopia of desire’ OER + MOOCs Latour and Foucault
Oliver
From openness to permeability: reframing open education in
terms of positive liberty in the enactment of academic
practices
Open Education
Sociomaterial
approach
Jones Openness, technologies, business models and austerity
OER + MOOCs +
Open Universities
Latour
Moe
OER as online edutainment resources: a critical look at open
content, branded content, and how both affect the OER
movement
OER + branded
content
Lyotard
Stewart
Open to influence: what counts as academic influence in
scholarly networked Twitter participation
Open scholarship
Situated knowledges
(Harraway)
Hall For a political economy of massive open online courses MOOCs
Political economy
(Marx)
Winn Open education and the emancipation of academic labour Open Access
Political economy
(Marx)

9. 2. Particular instances of Open education
Author Title Focus of OE Critical approach
Edwards
Knowledge infrastructures and the inscrutability of openness
in education
OER + MOOCs Derrida
Gourlay Open education as a ‘heterotopia of desire’ OER + MOOCs Latour and Foucault
Oliver
From openness to permeability: reframing open education in
terms of positive liberty in the enactment of academic
practices
Open Education
Sociomaterial
approach
Jones Openness, technologies, business models and austerity
OER + MOOCs +
Open Universities
Latour
Moe
OER as online edutainment resources: a critical look at open
content, branded content, and how both affect the OER
movement
OER + branded
content
Lyotard
Stewart
Open to influence: what counts as academic influence in
scholarly networked Twitter participation
Open scholarship
Situated knowledges
(Harraway)
Hall For a political economy of massive open online courses MOOCs
Political economy
(Marx)
Winn Open education and the emancipation of academic labour Open Access
Political economy
(Marx)

10. 3. Political economy approach
Author Title Focus of OE Critical approach
Edwards
Knowledge infrastructures and the inscrutability of openness
in education
OER + MOOCs Derrida
Gourlay Open education as a ‘heterotopia of desire’ OER + MOOCs Latour and Foucault
Oliver
From openness to permeability: reframing open education in
terms of positive liberty in the enactment of academic
practices
Open Education
Sociomaterial
approach
Jones Openness, technologies, business models and austerity
OER + MOOCs +
Open Universities
Latour
Moe
OER as online edutainment resources: a critical look at open
content, branded content, and how both affect the OER
movement
OER + branded
content
Lyotard
Stewart
Open to influence: what counts as academic influence in
scholarly networked Twitter participation
Open scholarship
Situated knowledges
(Harraway)
Hall For a political economy of massive open online courses MOOCs
Political economy
(Marx)
Winn Open education and the emancipation of academic labour Open Access
Political economy
(Marx)

11. Theme: Theoretical issues in Open Education
Binaries
• Dualist arrangements in the concepts of
Open Education e.g. open/closed,
visible/hidden, digital/physical.
Reduced complexities
• E.g. Education is reduced to content
delivery and open education is reduced
to available content.
Idealised learners
• E.g. individual autonomy and (idealised)
capacities of learners are independent of
institutions and contexts (while OE relies
on institutional support).
Deterministic tendencies
• …”openness alone is not an educational
virtue.” (Edwards, 2015 p.253)
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12. Theme: Concern for teaching
“OER diminish the role of pedagogy
by emphasising a learner-centric
model of education that rests on
assumptions of an unproblematic self-
direction and autonomy.”
(Jones, 2015 p.340.)
“‘Education’ is instead reified into the
distribution and joint production of lay
online ‘content’– as opposed to being
the site of learning being seen as the
guided mediation, and critical
synthesis of texts – all of which
arguably lies at the heart of
‘traditional’ education.”
(Gourley, 2015 p.314)
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13. Theme: Methodological implications
A call for realistic research
• Several authors subsequently propose,
what I call, ‘realistic research’ to remedy
some of the observed theoretical issues of
Open Education.
• “State of the actual”/ “on the ground”
The ‘actual’ learner/scholar
• This is signaled by bringing the ‘actual’
learner or scholar to the fore in response to
the rhetoric of Open Education which, they
argue, regularly idealises those involved in
the day-to-day realities of formal and
informal education.
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14. Directions for reframing of openness
Author Reframing Example
Edwards
A continuum of interplay of
open/closed, where certain openness
comes with certain ‘closed-ness’.
“The question is not whether to make education more open, but
what forms of openness and closed-ness are justifiable.” (p.255)
Gourlay
Sociomaterial assemblages where
the digital is entangled with the
material.
[…]”participants never appear as freefloating, fully autonomous
subjects, but are instead always entangled in networks of
situated, unfolding practice in complex interplay with nonhuman
actors, space and temporality.” (p.319)
Oliver
A challenge to the homogeneous
assertions of open is the permeability
of education.
“An alternative focus is needed, one which draws attention to
the ways in which boundaries around education and learning
are both constructed and overcome – in other words, to their
permeability.” (p.373)
Jones
Hybrid assemblages composed of
technology, society, politics and
economics.
“Openness is an outcome of this assemblage of complex and
dynamic conditions which nevertheless have the appearance of
being a relatively stable context.” (p.333)
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15. List of references
Edwards, R. (2015). Knowledge infrastructures and the inscrutability of openness in
education. Learning, Media and Technology, 40(3), 251–264.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2015.1006131
Gourlay, L. (2015). Open education as a ‘heterotopia of desire’. Learning, Media and
Technology, 40(3), 310–327. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2015.1029941
Hall, R. (2015). For a political economy of massive open online courses. Learning, Media
and Technology, 40(3), 265–286. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2015.1015545
Inamorato dos Santos, A., Punie, Y., & Castaño Muñoz, J. (2016). Opening up
Education: A Support Framework for Higher Education Institutions (No. EUR 27938).
Jones, C. (2015). Openness, technologies, business models and austerity. Learning,
Media and Technology, 40(3), 328–349.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2015.1051307
Moe, R. (2015). OER as online edutainment resources: a critical look at open content,
branded content, and how both affect the OER movement. Learning, Media and
Technology, 40(3), 350–364. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2015.1029942
Oliver, M. (2015). From openness to permeability: reframing open education in terms of
positive liberty in the enactment of academic practices. Learning, Media and
Technology, 40(3), 365–384. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2015.1029940
Stewart, B. (2015). Open to influence: what counts as academic influence in scholarly
networked Twitter participation. Learning, Media and Technology, 40(3), 287–309.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2015.1015547
Winn, J. (2015). Open education and the emancipation of academic labour. Learning,
Media and Technology, 40(3), 385–404.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2015.1015546
Sara Mörtsell, PhD student
sara.mortsell@hig.se | @SaraMrtsell
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