Group Admins
Description
Session Description
The proliferation of educational resources, practices, and policies across the globe is presenting a promising array of potentials for transformation in education. And yet, the ambitions and principles that permeate the movement are both uncertain and ambiguous. Propelled by the material possibilities of the Internet, the networks that flow through it, and the liberation of intellectual property through open licensing, open education has been focused on exploration of the possible to the neglect of a theoretical or ethical grounding. Indeed, scholars are increasingly calling for a deepening of engagements with ethics and theory in open education to ground open practice beyond mere rules or directions (Cronin, 2016; Wiley, 2015; ).
For instance, in North America the focus of the open education movement lies squarely upon the provision of open alternatives to traditional publisher textbooks. This affordability-centered approach is a warranted response to an educational context rife with exceedingly expensive educational materials. Unfortunately, the focus on open textbooks shies away from an explicit engagement with political and theoretical underpinnings of “open” and as such limits exploration of the emancipatory potentials of open education. This focus on assets limits broader understandings of “open” as a means for deeper transformation in education into more equitable and democratic forms. Broadening the scope of “open” to include practices such as open research and open pedagogies embeds open principles into the infrastructure of institutions be engaging with what people do in them.
In this paper, I lay out a framework that balances theoretical and ethical formulations with an eye towards practical implementations. In development for over 20 years, Wright’s (2010) framework of “real utopias” is an approach to constructing “a normative theory of the possible” (2012, p. 2). Following Wright, the paper is laid out in four parts. First, referencing Farrow’s (2016) nascent development of an ethics for open education, I review a set of moral principles by which we can judge existing educational institutions. Second, I mobilize those principles as an analytic for diagnosis of problems and critique of practices in education. Third, I explore why and how “open” can be applied as a viable alternative to the problems exposed. Finally, I conclude with some reflection on how “real utopias” can offer a theory of what is possible in open education.
References:
Cronin, C. (2016, April 18). If open is the answer, Then what is the question? Keynote address for the OER16 conference. Edinburgh, UK.
Farrow, R. (2016). A framework for the ethics of open education. Open Praxis, 8(2). Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/openpr axis.8.2.291
Wright, E. O. (2010). Envisioning real utopias. London, UK: Verso.
Wright, E. O. (2012). Transforming capitalism through real utopias. American Sociological Review, 78(1), 1-25. doi: 10.1177/0003122412468882
Wiley, D. (2015, January 15). The deeper ethics of education and open: Generosity, care, and relationships [Web log]. Retrieved from http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/3732
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References and resources for continuing the dialog will be shared here: https://tinyurl.com/ybfa47ln
References
References:
Cronin, C. (2016, April 18). If open is the answer, Then what is the question? Keynote address for the OER16 conference. Edinburgh, UK.
Farrow, R. (2016). A framework for the ethics of open education. Open Praxis, 8(2). Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/openpr axis.8.2.291
Wright, E. O. (2010). Envisioning real utopias. London, UK: Verso.
Wright, E. O. (2012). Transforming capitalism through real utopias. American Sociological Review, 78(1), 1-25. doi: 10.1177/0003122412468882
Wiley, D. (2015, January 15). The deeper ethics of education and open: Generosity, care, and relationships [Web log]. Retrieved from http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/3732
—
References and resources for continuing the dialog will be shared here: https://tinyurl.com/ybfa47ln
Participants
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Leo Havemann
joined 5 years, 8 months ago -
Martin Dougiamas
joined 5 years, 9 months ago -
Martin Hawksey
joined 5 years, 9 months ago -
ALT
joined 5 years, 9 months ago
