Towards open praxis: Storytelling and narrative inquiry in open education research [1523] Members : #OER17

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Public Group Active 7 years, 7 months ago

Wed, Apr 5 2017, 1:30pm – 2:50pm

Authors: Caroline Kuhn, and Catherine Cronin

Room: Lewis Suite

Theme: Participation & Social Equality

Type: Workshop

Description

As open practitioners and researchers, we may underestimate the struggles many people experience in navigating openness, transiting complex and ever-changing digital landscapes, and the associated feelings of disengagement and exclusion. Using a reflexive lens: even within the open education community, individuals may feel more or less included by the prevalent discourse and material practices. This workshop will explore issues of inclusion/exclusion through the use of narrative and story.

The two presenters/facilitators of this workshop are engaged in narrative research in the area of open educational practices in higher education. Our research studies focus on meaning-making, decision-making, and the values and practices of students and academic staff with respect to openness. Through sharing our research journeys with one another, we have come to appreciate the power of juxtaposing these different narratives, thus developing a fuller picture of the interdependent actors within higher education: what they know and don’t know regarding ‘open’ and ‘the digital’, what they feel, what they fear, and who they aspire to be in a culture that is increasingly open and digitally mediated. Many experience a gap between their aspirations and abilities, feeling unable to participate fully as agents of their open practices. Narrative research is a powerful way to illuminate ‘actual’ open educational practices — the advantages, complexities, challenges and struggles. It is vital to include many voices, so that we may study the silences and gaps as well as the visible practices. Stories help people to understand and to reflect.

We invite participants to bring their storied selves to this workshop. Using a “small stories” approach (Georgakopoulou-Nunes, 2016) we will seed our discussion by sharing a few of the stories we have encountered during our research. We will invite participants to share their own stories of open practice. Together we will explore the role of narrative inquiry in open education research and practice, paying particular attention to issues of inclusion/exclusion, developing capabilities, and open praxis (Freire, 1970).

The outcomes of the workshop, curated and created by participants in a variety of media, will be shared using Creative Commons license(s) so that others can contribute, share, and build upon our work. We request also to create an ‘open space’ in the poster area or elsewhere so that these workshop artefacts can be shared, discussed, and continue to evolve with the contribution of other participants throughout the time of the conference.

NOTE: If the programme does not permit, we would be willing to do an abbreviated version of this session as a 20-minute presentation, following up with OER17 participants and others both online and in the public conference space described above.

References:

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum.

Georgakopoulou-Nunes, A. (2016). From narrating the self to posting self(ies): a small stories approach to selfies. Open Linguistics 2(1)

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