6719 Week 5 discussion responses
This is a curation of topics and responses from D2L where my thinking was catalyzed by the writing of others. Topics include:
The fragility of academic freedom:
I felt compelled to respond, since there are several connections from what you have written to my own reading, writing, and life experiences.
DeWaard (2019, Oct 1), D2L discussion response.
1. This silencing of academic voices was part of the political agenda of the CPK regime in Cambodia from 1975-1979 as part of the Khmer Rouge which has left a legacy of powerlessness in current Cambodian culture. By killing the intellectuals and decimating the ruling class, the Khmer Rouge were able to silence dissenting voices. The legacy of those years can still be felt throughout the country, as I experience first hand in my travels there, and visiting the Tol Sleng Museum. I remember reading the Rent Collector, a novel set in the time of the Khmer Rouge, and being disturbed by the narrative of power and its impact on hope. (I’ll include a video link to a conversation with Camron Wright, the author of the Rent Collector.) Your stories of personal experiences shows that resistant is necessary and academic voices need to continue to call out on behalf of the silenced.
2. My daughter works for PEN Canada an organization that works similarly to academic freedoms in universities, to provide safe places for authors to write when their freedoms and lives are at risk. They support and monitor writers who are imprisoned, who are in exile, and honour those who’s lives are lost because of their writing. There is a direct connection to your comments here, with PEN support for Turkish writers resisting political agendas (see this article about Onder Deligoz, Turkish journalist now residing in exile in Canada). The voice of Noor Naga resonates for researchers and academics who are struggling for a research topic – “Writing is first noticing, and noticing requires, I think, the subtraction of what’s before you from the familiarity of what’s behind you.” (Noor Naga, interview on Pen Canada web site).
3. The open education movement provides models for resistive voices to be heard beyond the academic confines of one university or one academic area of study. The responsibility faced by those in tenured positions should and does support the voices of those who are untenured or in precarious positions in academia as they risk speaking openly about critical issues in education, specifically in higher education spaces, since these are uniquely different than K-12. Not that there isn’t a need for voices in K-12 to speak openly, and there are many that do, it is not seen as related to ‘academic freedom’ in K-12 spaces. In higher ed, I am aware of many voices echoing into global spaces, through the power of social media, to call out and promote change in policies and practices of others with power and privilege. For example Tressie McMillan Cottom‘s work on inequality, Jesse Stommel‘s work on fair grading practices, Sara Goldbrick-Rab‘s work on access and equity, and Maha Bali‘s work on digital equity are models for those who may be reluctant to speak from an untenured and unvoiced position.
Power and policies in higher education – it’s not always open
You’ve highlighted a few key insights from your reading that I’d like to think about, specifically the power dynamics inherent in faculty development and relating to policy development, from an open educational lens.
You mention the power struggle between institutional and individual control and direction for professional development. This is an issue not only in higher education, as A.M. and T. (if he were here) could speak to. From my current HE experiences, there are definite power dynamics when the dominant directions determined by administrators, in efforts to influence culture, don’t consider the needs of those subjected to less than effective PD opportunities. Somewhere and somehow there needs to be a balance between the institutional needs and the individual freedoms, with a responsibility to respect the position of both – i.e. faculty who fail to stay current vs departments who dictate what that ‘currency’ should look like. In terms of open educational practices, both sides of this HE binary (faculty & administration), need to become aware of the options, opportunities, and issues inherent in sharing, collaborating, and learning together. Hinging PD around closed systems of learning and scholarship will perpetuate power and privilege in academia.
My second point relates to this statement – “policy development does not exist in isolation and is “decisively shaped by its historical and cultural location, economics and ideologies (Bell & Stevenson, 2006, p. 9), thus is it never free from power.” While I concur that this is the case, awareness from those in power to issues, binaries and dichotomies in those policy developments need to ultimately and intimately focus on the student, which I’m sure from your experiences, is not always the case. When financial and business decisions take prominent positions in discussions about policy direction, with a focus on the commodification of student learning rather than individual access and equity, the policies can become negative influencers on institutional culture. It’s when policy becomes practice, if it is good policy, focusing ideologically on students as human beings, that positive outcomes can be achieved. Not sure if that makes sense or I’m just rambling?DeWaard (2019, Oct 1), D2L discussion response
So, as institutions here in Ontario attempt to write policy on open education and the use of OERs in the delivery systems of learning, there tends to be a focus on the monetary impact to the institution rather than on the financial impact on the individual students. There tends to be an expectation that integrating OERs into course content is an instructors duty and responsibility, rather than something that is supported through financial incentives and technology PD. Just a few early observations as I examine policy development to support OER and OEP in Ontario, as prompted and catalyzed by the work at eCampus Ontario.
