What is the point of open education? Uncontroversially, we might suggest that it is about widening participation; equalising access to education; and bringing about a fairer society. This is another way of stating that the main concern of open education is a kind of justice. For many social and political philosophers, justice has been understood as the defining goal [τέλος] of society and civilization. But this relationship between open education advocacy and the goal of social transformation remains remarkably underexplored and undertheorized. This presentation will explore this relationship and the idea of openness in contemporary discourses in education and politics. It will examine the use of the concept of openness in educational and political discourse and use the normative concept of an "open society" to explore the relationship between theory and practice in open education. Paper presented at the 2018 Open Education Global Conference, TU Delft, Netherlands.

1. Open education and open society:
Popper, piracy and praxis
OPEN EDUCATIONAL GLOBAL
24 APRIL 2018
DR. ROBERT FARROW
INSTITUTE OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY
@philosopher1978

2. 2
01 Introduction
About me, my background, and what I do
02 Openness as Educational Ideal
A description of some tensions within the open
education movement
03 What is the point of Open Education?
Here I will suggest that the point of education can be
understood as a kind of orientation towards justice
04 Popper’s Open Society
An outline of Popper’s vision of openness as a
normative political ideal; the first systematic attempt
05 Openness in politics
Here I examine some cases of the use of the concept
of open in education and politics
06 Conclusion
Concluding thoughts and recommendations
CONTENTS

3. Introduction
About me and what I do

4. 4
OPEN EDUCATION RESEARCH & THEORIZATION
INTRODUCTION
• BA Philosophy (University of Kent, 2000)
• MA Continental Philosophy (University of Essex, 2004)
• PhD Philosophy (University of Essex, 2009)
• MA Online & Distance Education (The Open University UK, 2016)
• Working in educational technology research since 2009 at OU UK
CURRENT PROJECTS @PHILOSOPHER1978

5. Openness as
educational ideal
Discouse around openness in educational
technology has changed over the last half-century to
focus on implementation rather than vision

6. 6
ALTERNATIVE VISIONS OF OPEN
SWIMMING UPSTREAM – BUT TO THE SAME DESTINATION?
Replace the
system!
Decolonize!
Improve the
system!
Extend
educational
opportunity!
Compromise! Keep the faith!

7. • Openness as indeterminacy: realised in multiple forms
• Contextualist, not essentialist
• Defines itself against a status quo that restricts some activity:
open removes a barrier to doing “X”
• Fundamentally oriented towards enhanced freedom
(Farrow, 2016; 2017)

8. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/V CC-BY-SA

9. History of open education
By the 1960s the open education movement
had begun to coalesce around the idea of
disestablishing cultural, economic and
institutional barriers to formal education. The
Open University in the UK was founded in 1969
to widen access to higher education by
disregarding the need for prior academic
qualification, and using the communication
technologies of the time to ‘open up’ campus
education though a “teaching system to suit an
individual working in a lighthouse off the coast
of Scotland” (Daniel et al., 2008).
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Louisbourg_Lighthouse.jpg

10. hCC-BYttps://www.slideshare.net/viv_rolfe/opened16-
conference-presentation
CC-BY Viv Rolfe

11. Weller, M. (2016). Different Aspects of
the Emerging OER Discipline. Revista
Educação e Cultura Contemporânea 13
(31).
http://periodicos.estacio.br/index.php/re
educ/article/view/2321/1171

12. https://www.slideshare.net/viv_rolfe/opened16-conference-resentation
CC-BY

13. technê
τέχνη
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Eos_Memnon_Louvre_G115.jpg
θεωρία
theoria

14. 15
ALTERNATIVE VISIONS OF OPEN
SWIMMING UPSTREAM – BUT TO THE SAME DESTINATION?
Replace the
system!
Decolonize!
Improve the
system!
Extend
educational
opportunity!
Compromise! Keep the faith!

15. What is the point of
open education?
Here I suggest that the point of open education can
be understood as a kind of orientation towards justice
and a particular (if undertheorized) vision of society

16. 17
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE (τέλος) OF EDUCATION?
EDUCATIONAL THEORY
1. CLASSICAL
• Cooney, Cross & Trunk (1993) provide evidence for the view that educational theory originates with
Plato (Republic; Laws). According to this approach, education is a means through which to pursue
the good (or prosperous) life (εὐδαιμονία) through achieving development of potential at the individual
level and also at the level of the social body as a whole.
• This flourishing of potential is also understood as a route to social justice, achieved through a kind of
harmony between different elements of society. Education is conceived as a way to develop the kinds
of virtues needed to achieve a flourishing life and prosperous society, and is thus supremely
important.
• Aristotle (Politics) is less focused on the idealistic conception of Plato, and instead emphasizes the
processes through which learning takes place. He offers the first disciplinary and pedagogical
distinctions.
2. SCHOLASTIC
Recovery of Classical tradition and continuance of dialectical method as a way to harmonize Christian
thought. The impact of this was to establish a semi-public (open?) form of reasoning and argument
through public readings and criticism and arbitration. (See Deimann & Peters (2013) for a history of
open education.)
3. ENLIGHTENMENT
• Explosion of print availability; public libraries and literacy across social groups; scientific revolution;
learned societies
• Challenges to traditional forms of authority; emphasis on autonomy and self-dependence rather than
the flourishing of society as a whole
• One radical implication was the increased emphasis on the autonomy and empowerment of the
learner

17. 18
WAS IST AUFKLARUNG?
“Enlightenment is man's
emergence from his self-
incurred immaturity.”
Kant (1784)
“Dare to know! ‘Have the
courage to use your own
understanding!’ is the
motto of the
Enlightenment.”

18. 19
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE (τέλος) OF OPEN EDUCATION?
EDUCATIONAL THEORY
• WIDENING ACCESS
• BUILDING THE COMMONS
• SOCIAL JUSTICE
• ENHANCING SKILLS & EMPLOYABILITY
• EMPOWERING PEOPLE
• DEMOCRATISING KNOWLEDGE
• BUILDING NETWORKS
• SHARING RESEARCH
• A FAIRER INFORMATION SOCIETY
• IMPROVING LEARNING
• OPEN DATA
• SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
• RETHINKING BASIC ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT EDUCATION
• ALTERNATIVE PRODUCTION/DISTRIBUTION
• AMPLIFYING MARGINALISED VOICES
• INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY REFORM
• TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION
What kind of society
are we attempting to
bring into being?

19. Popper’s Open Society
Popper’s political thought is arguably the first and
most sustained attempt to base a social vision in the
concept of openness

20. 21
(1902-1994)
KARL POPPER
• Provides first comprehensive attempt to
derive a political philosophy from concept
of openness
• Primarily known as a philosopher of
science and defender of critical rationalism
• Understands scientific knowledge in terms
of falsifiability
• Flirted with Marxism in his youth, later
rejecting it
• The Open Society and Its Enemies [1945]
was written in exile during WWII
(Hacohen, 1996)

21. 22
UNDERSTANDING OPEN/CLOSED
POPPER’S OPEN SOCIETY
• Closed societies have close tribal and religious links; open societies are relatively fragmented, but
rational in a different way. Modern closed societies are authoritarian, totalitarian and ideological.
• Open societies emphasize falsifiability and falsification of knowledge; democracy; freedom of thought;
and the free exchange of ideas and rationality (Steyn & de Klerk, 2009)
• Five core values (freedom, tolerance, respect, rationalism, and equalitarianism) and three crucial
practices (democracy, state interventionism, and piecemeal social engineering) (Lam, 2012)
Popper, K. (1966). The Open Society and Its Enemies. Vol. 1 The Spell of Plato. pp.202-3

22. 23
(1902-1994)
KARL POPPER
• Critical of totalitarianism, Marxism, Fascism,
authoritarianism, historicism; influential for 20th
century liberal democracy and post-war
consensus
• "Unlimited tolerance must lead to the
disappearance of tolerance. If we extend
unlimited tolerance even to those who are
intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a
tolerant society against the onslaught of the
intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed,
and tolerance with them."
• Niels Bohr (1885-1962): “The best weapon of a
dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a
democracy should be the weapon of openness.”
• Since the latter half of the 20th century,
“openness” has developed within stable
frameworks of liberal/social democracy, and is
now often tacitly assumed in many areas of
society (such as open government, a free press,
freedom of speech, etc. and later open access,
open government, open education).

23. Openness in political
discourse
Divergence in the political domain and the relation of
open education to the public sphere

24. Congressional Record, V. 144, Pt. 14, September 9, 1998 to September 21, 1998

26. "What he's talking about is taking emasculated men in their forties, fifties and sixties who are not
living the life they hoped for in their teens and twenties and saying, 'you know what? there are
people to blame for this. And we're going to build a wall and we're going make America great
again.
"At the core of that is the struggle between being an open society and a closed society. And so if
you want to know where the trillions of dollars of wealth creation that are going to come with the
commercialisation of genomics, and the creation of big data companies, and the AI machine
learning companies and all of the industries of the future my overarching line here is it's going to
be the most open societies.
"Open societies means that upward economic and social mobility is not constrained to elites, it
means that religious and cultural norms are not set by central authorities and it means that it is
wildly rights respecting, in terms of the rights of women, religious minorities, racial minorities and
ethic minorities.
"The industries of the future will be overwhelmingly concentrated in the most open societies.”
Alec Ross, Clinton aide
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/30/donald-trump-is-a-vulgar-demented-pig-demon-says-hillary-clinton/
The Telegraph, 30 May 2016

27. 28
Slaughter (2016) proposes that the web is
the new geopolitical theatre, and that the
USA “should adopt a grand strategy of
building and maintaining an open
international order based on three pillars:
open societies, open governments, and an
open international system.”
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/world/2016-
10-04/how-succeed-networked-world?cid=soc-tw-rd

28. 30
PIRATE PARTIES
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Mynttorget%2C_Stockholm_during_the_June_3%2C_2006_pro-
piracy_protest.jpg

29. 31
http://wiki.pp-international.net/Building_the_principles_of_PPI
PIRATICAL PRINCIPLES
• Defend the freedom of expression, communication, education; respect the privacy of
citizens and civil rights in general
• Defend the free flow of ideas, knowledge and culture
• Support politically the reform of copyright and patent laws
• Have a commitment to work collaboratively, and participate with maximum transparency
• Do not accept or espouse discrimination of race, origin, beliefs and gender
• Do not support actions that involve violence
• Use free-source software, free hardware, DIY and open protocols whenever possible
• Politically defend a open, participative and collaborative construction of any public policy
• Direct democracy
• Open access
• Open data
• Economy for the Common Good and promote solidarity with other pirates
• Share whenever possible

30. Concluding Remarks
Acting against the closed

31. 33
IN SUMMARY
• Openness is an indeterminate concept – this leaves it amenable to multiple forms of
realisation.
• The relation between these forms is under-recognized and under-theorized. I have
tried to show how understanding the purpose of education (and open education) might
help us to reflect on activity and resolve disagreements).
• I referred to Popper’s model of Open Society to explore the end point of openness as a
critical, humane and scientific society.
• I distinguished two contemporary political forms of open which can be understood as
entirely consistent with Popper, yet are distinct from each other: the globalist,
neoliberal form and the radical pirate form.
• It is mistaken to see openness as a linear historical progression: Peters & Deimann
(2013:12) observe that “historical forms of openness caution us against assuming that
particular configurations will prevail, or that social aspects should be assumed as
desired by default”. Similarly, Popper’s critique of historical ‘progression’ (and current
events) indicates that progress is fragile and contingent.
• What we do will ultimately determine what open education / open society looks like in
the future.
• Even if we can’t agree on open, we can act together against the closed

32. 34
FOUCAULT (1972) – preface to DELEUZE & GUATTARI (1972) ANTI-OEDIPUS
THE ART OF LIVING CONTRARY TO FASCISM
• Free political action from all unitary and totalizing paranoia.
• Develop action, thought, and desires by proliferation, juxtaposition, and disjunction, and
not by subdivision and pyramidal hierarchization.
• Withdraw allegiance from the old categories of the Negative (law, limit, castration, lack,
lacuna), which Western thought has so long held sacred as a form of power and an
access to reality. Prefer what is positive and multiple, difference over uniformity, flows
over unities, mobile arrangements over systems. Believe that what is productive is not
sedentary but nomadic.
• Do not think that one has to be sad in order to be militant, even though the thing one is
fighting is abominable. It is the connection of desire to reality (and not its retreat into the
forms of representation) that possesses revolutionary force.
• Do not use thought to ground a political practice in Truth; nor political action to discredit,
as mere speculation, a line of thought. Use political practice as an intensifier of thought,
and analysis as a multiplier of the forms and domains for the intervention of political
action.
• Do not demand of politics that it restore the “rights” of the individual, as philosophy has
defined them. The individual is the product of power. What is needed is to “de-
individualize” by means of multiplication and displacement, diverse combinations. The
group must not be the organic bond uniting hierarchized individuals, but a constant
generator of de-individualization.
• Do not become enamored of power.

33. 35
FOUCAULT (1972) – preface to DELEUZE & GUATTARI (1972) ANTI-OEDIPUS
THE ART OF LIVING CONTRARY TO FASCISM
• Free political action from all unitary and totalizing paranoia.
• Develop action, thought, and desires by proliferation, juxtaposition, and
disjunction, and not by subdivision and pyramidal hierarchization.
• Withdraw allegiance from the old categories of the Negative (law, limit, castration, lack,
lacuna), which Western thought has so long held sacred as a form of power and an
access to reality. Prefer what is positive and multiple, difference over uniformity,
flows over unities, mobile arrangements over systems. Believe that what is
productive is not sedentary but nomadic.
• Do not think that one has to be sad in order to be militant, even though the thing one is
fighting is abominable. It is the connection of desire to reality (and not its retreat into the
forms of representation) that possesses revolutionary force.
• Do not use thought to ground a political practice in Truth; nor political action to discredit,
as mere speculation, a line of thought. Use political practice as an intensifier of
thought, and analysis as a multiplier of the forms and domains for the intervention of
political action.
• Do not demand of politics that it restore the “rights” of the individual, as philosophy has
defined them. The individual is the product of power. What is needed is to “de-
individualize” by means of multiplication and displacement, diverse combinations. The
group must not be the organic bond uniting hierarchized individuals, but a
constant generator of de-individualization.
• Do not become enamored of power.

34. 36
“We all need to be open to the need to make changes in
respect of our institutions, our personal style, and indeed
our personalities themselves. We need, in effect, to
become people with characters that fit an open society.”
Shearmur (1996:174)

35. THANK YOU!
@philosopher1978
oerhub.net
philosopher1978.wordpress.com
https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=j3-x3WwAAAAJ&hl=en