Just published as part of the Unitwin Network on Open Education 23 good reasons… to adopt Open Education
Incentivize cooperation by Solenn Gillouard
Today’s article is written by Darrion Letendre & Robert Lawson
Darrion Letendre is the Land Based Learning Specialist at NorQuest College. He is an advocate for Indigenous education and revitalizing cultural knowledge through Western education systems. He has been a member of the Open Education Steering Committee, providing strategic guidance and wisdom as it relates to Indigenous Peoples’ ways of knowing.
Robert Lawson is an Educational Developer at NorQuest College in Edmonton, Canada. He has been actively promoting open education at the college since 2016 and is a member of the college’s Open Education Steering Committee. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for OE Global.
One of the principal reasons we value open education is that it presents tremendous opportunities for collaboration. This collaboration comes in many different ways; research, the development of learning resources, and cooperation between students and between students and instructors. In our learning context, open education has even supported reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
We are fortunate to work at a college whose values encourage collaboration. Our Skills of Distinction, the competencies we want every NorQuest graduate to have, echo the generosity of spirit encapsulated in Bronwyn Hegarty’s Attributes of Open Pedagogy – community, trust, sharing and openness.
Robert Lawson:
“As an educational developer involved in open education, it has been very rewarding to see instructors collaborate on textbook development and to witness their thrill in seeing it adopted across the country. It has been wonderful to hear stories of engaged students working with their peers and their instructors to create ancillary resources for their open textbooks.
This generosity of spirit I have been fortunate enough to experience at my own institution is what attracts me and what sustains me in the open community as a whole. I have been attending open education conferences and events since 2016. Each time, I come away with a tremendous feeling of fulfillment as I connect with people willing to collaborate on or share their applied research or teaching projects, people dedicated to removing barriers in education.”
Darrion Letendre:
“One of the highlights of my career so far, was in the successful planning and execution of the 2023 OE Global Conference as one of the conference’s Indigenous co-chairs. The wisdom and energy that was shared still echoes across the world, and I am grateful to know that people have carried this experience with them in meaningful ways. I believe the journey our planning team took together, in the spirit of wahkotowin (kinship), is the spirit people felt while attending the conference. I will admit it was not always straightforward, or easy at times, but what meaningful journey is? Sometimes the path forward presents many obstacles, but by working together and sharing multiple perspectives, we were able to navigate to our ultimate destination. Co-governance, between non-Indigenous and Indigenous People, was the dream of my ancestors; I was, and still am proud of our attempt to walk together in meaningful partnership. In many ways, open education was the door to this relationship, and I am grateful to Robert for his invitation.
However, at the same time Open Education presents wonderful opportunities for open knowledge sharing, there also exists an important intersection between knowledge transfer and ownership regarding Indigenous People’s traditional knowledge. During the planning for the 2023 OE Global Conference, we came to realize some inherent challenges with the advancement of open education and Indigenous Peoples cultural knowledge. As one of our conference themes suggested, not all knowledge is a free-for-all and can be opened, rather, some knowledge must remain closed off to ensure its protection and survival. Although I am excited by the rich opportunities open education can provide, I must remain hesitant with how traditional Indigenous knowledge and culture fits into that world. As we have witnessed throughout history, knowledge is power, but for me, it is a gift. What history has showed me is that when we share our gifts, they can be taken from us and used in ways that they were not intended. This is why, at least in the case of many traditional knowledge systems, it must be open as possible and closed when necessary.
“Much like the foundational practice in local Cree culture, braiding came to represent strength and unity as diverse groups collaborated at OE Global 2023.” Braided Name Tag | OEGlobal 2023 Day 3 | Open Education Global | Flickr
Nonetheless, I still hold high hope for the future of education for all people. Much like our conference planning, the path of open education will not be straightforward; we will stumble, and sometimes we will fall, but if we continue to pick each other back up and keep moving forward, together, our future ancestors will marvel at the world we can build for them; one that embraces openness, like my ancestors, but respects the sovereignty and self-determination of both worlds.”
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Incentivize cooperation
” by Darrion Letendre & Robert Lawson is licensed under CC BY 4.0
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